How can Internet finance carry out precision marketing?

The cost of acquiring traffic in Internet finance is getting higher and higher. How can we do a good job in traffic management? The author will explain the methodology of precision marketing one by one from the current situation of P2P traffic, the stages and planning of traffic, and the operation methods of mainstream promotion channels .

Current status of P2P traffic

From the early days of Youli.com and JiMuBoxi's scramble for territory, to PPMoney's heavy investment in traffic in the past two years, to this year's Jiedaibao's investment of 2 billion yuan and its massive entry into CCTV advertising, the methods of P2P traffic generation are constantly changing. Due to the hot market, in order to quickly obtain traffic and win a certain degree of brand awareness, traditional TV advertising, targeted advertising, subway and other brand advertising are still the best choice. For example, after E-Zhubao spent a lot of money on brand advertising, its Baidu search index reached 30,000, and Jiedaibao reached 80,000. Compared with pure digital marketing, brand advertising can form a certain herd effect and brand impression, and the user activity and contribution in the later stage are higher, but the cost is high and uncontrollable.

I have summarized five strategies for P2P companies to generate traffic:

1. Traffic faction. A typical example is the Fujian School, ppmoney is one of them . We know that the most famous Chamber of Commerce in Fujian is the Putian Chamber of Commerce, which unifies private medical care across the country, and its secret weapon is digital marketing. Relying on search engines , SEM + SEO + navigation + alliance are brought to the extreme.

Advantages: The users are very accurate, the traffic level is also very large, and the controllability is good. It is one of the most cost-effective traffic operation methods currently.

Scale: If done well, it can acquire 100,000 seed users a year, which can meet the needs of large platforms

Difficulty: ★★★★

Disadvantages: Lack of brand effect and inability to cope with large-scale promotional activities and public relations events. For example, if a company needs to launch a Double 11 Financial Festival, digital advertising alone will not be enough. Most digital advertising requires bidding. To suddenly obtain a large amount of traffic in a short period of time, the CPC must be increased, which will be very costly. The best way is to purchase advertising space for various brands at a fixed price, which is cost-effective.

2. Full contact bombing. Typical examples include vivo and Jiedaibao. Traditional offline brand advertising + online digital marketing + social marketing . Here is a brief introduction to the difference between offline and online traffic:

Offline methods to attract traffic : Focus Media + TV + online video + bus + station + subway + airport

Core goal: market expansion and rapid increase in visibility

Features: Channels are king, usually there are agents, and the last mile exists offline

Industry: Automobile , difficult consumer decision-making; fast-moving consumer goods, what you see is what you buy

Online traffic generation methods: search + portal + online video + social media + event marketing

Core goals: attract seed users, accumulate fans, cultivate user stickiness, and quickly iterate products

Features: User-centric, standardized, and generally no offline last mile

Industry: Internet , easy consumption decision-making, no obvious regional or time constraints

Social marketing is also a key focus of full-touchpoint bombardment. For example, e-zubao’s media public relations and event hype are done in a relatively detailed manner.

Advantages: Rapidly increase visibility, a must-do before obtaining financing . Recently, Niu Online, a P2P trendsetter in South China, is making every effort to build its brand and we look forward to its successful listing.

Scale: Full coverage by major media. Have you forgotten the phrase “major media comes first”? Over 100 million users is not uncommon

Difficulty: ★★★★

Disadvantage: I don’t have that much money.

3. Traditionalists. The main operating methods are TV advertising and media public relations. Some p2p companies' marketing managers come from traditional industries such as fast-moving consumer goods or shopping malls, and their thinking still remains in traditional marketing methods . This operating approach has certain drawbacks. On the one hand, when building brands offline, traffic is intercepted online (refer to what I wrote before: You work hard to build brands, and I secretly grab traffic); on the other hand, the role of media public relations is declining. It can neither bring traffic nor win the trust of users. After all, most of these things cost money, and users are not stupid.

Advantages: can enhance visibility and have a certain brand building effect

Scale: Large, traditional brand advertising still covers a large number of people

Difficulty: ★★

Disadvantages: Not suitable for Internet companies, poor cost performance

4. Creative school. There are relatively few p2p companies that come up with creative ideas. For example, Ping An One Wallet previously offered a one-click call to Uber and received a 100 million yuan trial bonus, which became popular for a while. Now it is gradually becoming a gimmick for various platforms to attract new users. Wukong Finance also does a good job in fan marketing. The main approach of the creative group is to hype various events, develop theme activities with various gimmicks, and engage in social media marketing .

Creative marketing generally goes through the following steps:

1. Data analysis , product research, competitive situation, and identifying the core user group of the product

2. User research, exploring various attributes of core user groups and finding scenarios

3. Develop brand tone and communication strategy based on the attributes of the core user group

4. Develop various theme activities and spread them through creativity and interactive sharing.

Overall, this approach is quite difficult. Without recruiting a few 4A talents, it may not be able to hold on. The resource requirements are also considerable. On the surface, it seems to be a no-cost approach, but in fact, it requires a lot of manpower and resources. Therefore, it is usually large companies that play with creativity. It’s not that they are unwilling to spend money, but this is related to the company’s brand strategy and the operational thinking of the marketing manager. Well, I gave the person in charge of traffic operations of the small company another loud slap in the face! I finally thought of a way to save money by being creative and attracting users, but who knew that being creative would be so costly. Looking back, this is definitely a blessing for small companies. Call me Lei Feng.

Advantages: fast dissemination and high user quality

Scale: Generally, most of the time, only people in the industry participate

Operation difficulty: ★★★★★, if you write less, you will be abused by your boss

Disadvantages: Too single, platform development cannot keep up

5. Technical school. Use the least amount of money to get the most exposure. By writing a soft article and spreading it through WeChat accounts, you can also attract many high-quality users. Like the previous 51 Credit Card , it became popular overnight by creating an app on Weibo that is a must-have mobile phone for boyfriends when going out, and its traffic increased rapidly. Another example is buying the brand words of competitors and intercepting their users, or improving the ranking of APP in APPSTORE through optimization, which can gain a lot of exposure. The scale of this area is also very large, and the users are also accurate. The detailed operations of mainstream promotion channels will be elaborated in depth later.

Advantages: less money, more work

Scale: Quite big, you won’t know until you do it

Difficulty: ★★★★

Disadvantages: You don’t know how to play

P2P traffic is now mainly shifting to mobile devices, mainly because users’ usage habits are on mobile devices, especially APPs. From the perspective of user behavior choices, most users make information decisions through PC and wireless search, the last part of users will stay on PC for investment and financial management, most users stay on APP for investment and financial management, and a small number of users will invest and financial management on WeChat. Therefore, for a period of time, PC, WAP and APP will coexist, among which PC and WAP will undertake brand and information display, APP will undertake application search display, PC and APP will jointly undertake user investment and financial management, and WAP will hardly undertake user investment and financial management. In summary, mobile traffic will become more and more important, and it is urgent to quickly deploy mobile traffic.

The previous article talked about the current status of P2P traffic. Today, let’s talk specifically about the stages and planning of Internet finance traffic.

Internet finance is generally responsible for three areas of traffic, namely online promotion (SEM, SEO, various paid advertising platforms, ASO ), business cooperation ( traffic exchange , cross-industry cooperation), and offline promotion ( ground promotion ). Brand advertising is not mentioned here, mainly because brand advertising is often directly implemented by the brand department, such as TV, subway, and cinema advertising. The main source of traffic is online promotion. The greater significance of business cooperation lies in exposure. By cooperating with various well-known companies, one can leverage the opportunity to enhance one's market voice and brand image. However, offline promotion has not received enough attention from various platforms due to its difficulty in operation and replicability.

For these three areas, we will plan from three aspects: team configuration, stage goals, and core strategies.

How to plan the team for Internet financial traffic operation?

For companies that focus on marketing, marketing is responsible for traffic; for companies that focus on operations, operations are responsible for traffic, and products are also placed in operations. The former is led directly by the marketing VP, while the latter is led by the operation VP. The main difference between the two is that when the market is responsible for traffic, brand public relations and social marketing can play a better synergistic role, and when operations are responsible for traffic, event planning and product operations can play a better coordination role.

Regardless of the architecture adopted, the Internet financial traffic operation team can adopt the following job settings.

SEM Manager + SEO Manager + DSP Manager + APP Manager + Business Manager + New Media Manager + Planning Manager + Field Marketing Manager

Promotion

Core skills and KPI requirements for each position:

SEM Manager: Very familiar with SEM backend operations, have an independent understanding of search traffic distribution mechanisms, have operated accounts with daily budgets of more than 100,000, and have excellent data analysis capabilities.

KPI requirements: Responsible for omni-channel SEM, navigation, and alliances; continuously increase the number of search users within a controllable cost range

SEO Manager: Familiar with search engine optimization , able to independently build a website group, has experience as a webmaster, and is preferred if he/she knows ASO skills

KPI requirements: responsible for the natural ranking of PC and wireless on search engines; negative monitoring and deletion; core user community marketing

DSP Manager: Familiar with mainstream super advertising platform delivery techniques, strong business negotiation skills, and excellent data analysis capabilities

KPI requirements: Responsible for the placement on platforms such as Guangdiantong , Sina , Jinri, and Zhihuitui ; Continuously optimize user quality and cost with agents

APP Manager: Familiar with the rules of major app stores , have a certain network of app stores, familiar with CPD/CPT/CPS, have some practical experience in ASO, and have experience in mobile phone pre-installation and corporate cooperation is preferred

KPI requirements: APP downloads/activations/registrations; input-output ratio

Business Manager: Excellent business negotiation skills, experience in large-scale corporate business cooperation is preferred, and good cost awareness

KPI requirements: number of cooperative enterprises per month; input-output ratio

New Media Manager: Priority will be given to those who have experience as an editor for financial media and have a certain understanding of user operations and event planning

KPI requirements: number of active fans; forwarding rate; new registered users

Planning Manager: Excellent copywriting planning ability, good design aesthetic ability, experience in independent website and special topic planning is preferred, activity planning ability is preferred, and independent understanding of content marketing is preferred

KPI requirements: Number of special topics/special topic conversion rate ; event planning/event conversion rate; event marketing

Field sales manager: Priority will be given to candidates with O2O field sales experience, love of outdoor activities, and excellent communication skills

KPI requirements: APP downloads/activations/registrations; input-output ratio

Among them, SEM+SEO+DSP+planning manager constitute the digital marketing team. SEM, SEO, and DSP are responsible for introducing traffic. The planning manager provides and optimizes PC and wireless promotion pages, and plans various event marketing; the APP promotion manager is mainly responsible for ASO, app store advertising and cooperation, mobile phone pre-installation, super APP exchange , etc.; the business manager is mainly responsible for cross-industry cooperation, and carries out various activities with well-known companies, and needs to connect with the event operation manager ; the new media manager is mainly responsible for content output and keeps the product making its own voice on social media; the field manager independently pulls down new users to download and register online.

The Internet finance market has been very hot this year. As mentioned earlier, many companies have directly invested heavily in various types of brand advertising, bombarding users with traditional advertising such as television, subways, targeted advertising, and theaters. This has greatly increased product awareness in the short term, but the user acquisition cost, later user retention rate , and activity are not optimistic. Personally, I prefer the above-mentioned team configuration, which can not only quickly acquire a large number of seed users, but also make its own voice in the market through business cooperation, new media marketing, event marketing, etc. If it can maintain good synergy with the brand department, it can achieve the ultimate performance goals and brand building requirements at the same time.

What is the goal of Internet finance in generating traffic?

I think there are two core goals: to acquire a large number of seed users and to establish a user decision-making channel.

There are many supporting reasons, such as the decrease in the number of active users on the platform after the life cycle of old users declines, and the need to introduce new high-quality users. The layout of user decision-making channels can gradually form a comprehensive market communication matrix. The number of seed users has reached a certain level, forming sufficient self-growth. There are many more here.

Any product hopes that users will come in and stay. The purpose of generating traffic is to bring in target users , and then retain them through activities and product operations. So, how do users come in?

Let's briefly analyze the user sources:

We found that in the stage of triggering user interest, the accuracy of traffic is crucial. At this time, the digital marketing team needs to give full play to its professionalism in traffic operation, rather than simply purchasing traffic.

How do users make decisions after being exposed to product information through the above paths?

In the process of influencing user decision-making, it is crucial to lay out the core user information decision-making channel. For example, ensuring that brand traffic is not lost (refer to what I wrote before, you work hard to build the brand, and I secretly grab traffic), and the layout of third-party platforms, mainly because of the decision-making habits of senior users. In addition, it also deeply affects the user's decision-making results in aspects such as brand building and web design.

Typical user behaviors can be summarized as follows:

From the above, it can be seen that establishing a user decision-making channel is one of the core goals of traffic generation.

However, our ultimate goal must be to achieve the final performance task. For example, if the goal for this year is 20 billion, and it breaks down to attracting 120,000 new investment users, how do we plan the goals for each stage?

I have discussed how to calculate CAC in the "Ten Million-Level Channel Operation Methodology" , so I will not repeat it here. Once we calculate the cost of acquiring a single user, we can deduce the total budget, the corresponding total number of registered users, and the registration investment rate, which can be broken down into the approximate magnitude of each channel. Next, start determining the goals for each stage.

We all know the funnel principle. Users are constantly lost through gradual behaviors such as clicking, downloading, registering, investing, reinvesting, and spreading. In the early stages of the product, after new users register, there is a serious loss of user investment and reinvestment behavior due to the lack of appeal of the brand and activities. Therefore, in the early stage, we should try our best to lock in accurate traffic, attract seed users, and lay out key decision-making channels for users. In the medium term, expand the scale of each channel, and in the later stage, focus on revenue and ROI.

Therefore, we can carry out goal planning in three stages:

Start-up period: three months

Target: 15,000 investment users

Core strategy: Targeting investment clients with strong demand

Evaluation indicators: registration cost, investment cost

Marketing strategy: key decision channel for user investment

Marketing focus: omni-channel search, SEO, ASO, WeChat accounts, word-of-mouth marketing, third-party platforms

Development period: six months

Target: 50,000 investment users

Core strategy: Targeting medium-demand investment clients

Evaluation indicators: number of new investors , investment cost, brand index

Marketing strategy: Strengthen product exposure and enhance market voice

Marketing focus: BD cooperation, search product specialization, hot keyword coverage , navigation, online alliance, information flow , DSP, CPA/CPS, paid activities in the application market , CPD/CPT, WeChat big account

Maturity period: three months

Target: 55,000 investment users, ROI between 20% and 50% (specific figures depend on platform revenue)

Core strategy: ROI requires maximization of internal volume

Evaluation indicators: ROI, brand index, natural growth rate

Marketing strategy: further enhance brand and market image

Marketing focus: BD cooperation, brand advertising, WeChat KOL in-depth cooperation, WeChat Moments , WeChat personal account Moments , theme activities, content marketing

According to the above phased plan, continuous adjustments are needed during the actual implementation process. The role of data analysis has been mentioned before in the operation methodology of tens of millions of channels. According to the core indicators of each stage and the actual delivery data as the basis for analysis, the proportion of each channel and the delivery strategy are continuously adjusted to achieve or even exceed the stage goals.

Attached is a table showing the relationship between traffic levels and ROI of mainstream online channels for reference only.

What is the core strategy for Internet finance to generate traffic?

In fact, team configuration and phased goal planning are just the first step and are still far from implementation. Due to the fierce competition, in the actual operation process, we often find that the results are far from the goals, unless we have a deep understanding of the current traffic competition situation before implementation and have a certain prediction of the future traffic trend.

I talked about the current status of p2p traffic in How to Manage Traffic in Internet Finance (Part 1). As the saying goes, knowing yourself and knowing your enemy will ensure victory in a hundred battles. By absorbing the advantages of competitors, avoiding their past mistakes and executing efficiently, you can achieve your ultimate goal.

Judging from the current situation, the traffic faction is doing well, and the full-touchpoint bombing mode is also surprisingly effective in the short term. By analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of various modes, we have found some of the problems:

1. The channels are not sound. Some companies pay too much attention to PCs and start mobile too late.

2. The efficiency is too low. Many channels only dabble in the surface and do not go deep enough, so their scale cannot be expanded.

3. The user is not accurate. The registration cost is low, but the investment cost is high; or the investment cost is low, but the ROI is low, partly because the channel is not healthy enough.

4. Lack of brand thinking. They only focus on attracting new users while ignoring content output, visual design, and even lack a clear marketing positioning, resulting in insufficient user activity and contribution.

5. The team is not competitive. They can only purchase traffic and simply invest, but lack the core capabilities to control and optimize traffic; their execution speed is slow and they cannot take tough measures; they lack the ability to respond and solve problems.

After finding the problem, we still need to make some predictions about future traffic. For example, the importance of ASO in traffic, the increasing importance of mobile traffic, the possible rise of independent third-party financial information platforms, the accelerated maturity of WeChat advertising platforms, the possibility of keyword bidding ads in the application market, the launch of APPSTORE paid advertising, etc. Judging from the trend, Beijing's Internet finance has moved relatively quickly and has been deployed on the mobile side relatively early. Some companies directly guide users to download APPs instead of registering through PC and WAP as is currently the case.

In response to the above problems and predictions, we can solve them through the following core strategies.

First, let's look at the following formula:

The transaction volume is determined by the above core factors, and the quality of traffic operation directly determines the click UV and registration conversion rate, and to a certain extent determines the investment conversion rate and per capita AR PU value. As mentioned before, the relationship between ROI and channel scale, channels like Guangdiantong and Sina Fuyi have low click costs and relatively low investment costs, but their investment conversion rates and per capita ARPU values ​​are also relatively low. Therefore, in addition to ensuring high click UV and registration conversion rates, traffic operations also need to strictly control the proportion of each channel to ensure the health of users on the entire platform.

Strategy 1: Accurately maximize traffic

Maximizing traffic precision is reflected in three aspects: accurate target users; maximizing channel volume; minimizing CPC

Analyze the attributes of target users, lay out user information decision-making channels, conduct regular data analysis, optimize by region, population, advertising materials, and core consumption plans, and increase the traffic share of high-conversion materials and plans.

Understand the traffic volume of each channel, the display probability of each type of ad space, user browsing behavior, etc., to maximize the channel volume. There are various ways to reduce CPC, including obtaining high discounts through business negotiations, optimizing ad quality to obtain more clicks at a lower price, etc.

To a certain extent, accurate maximization of traffic is the core strategy of traffic operation , and it is also something that small platforms must do well to move towards large platforms. When two large platforms compete with each other, since resources are transparent and everyone has no shortage of funds, what they compete on is control over traffic. Compared with the subsequent content marketing, accurate maximization of traffic is more important.

This is one of the most core abilities of a promotion manager . This is what I consider most during project management. For example, how to grab other people's brand traffic with less money, how to reach the best users, how to maximize the traffic from high-quality channels, and how to maximize the traffic from major channels to reduce the overall average cost and achieve a healthy and stable state.

If the quality of a certain channel is very good, we analyze the investment strength of first-, second- and third-tier competitors, the approximate daily average traffic volume of the channel, such as the search channel, analyze the traffic of popular words such as finance and investment, and evaluate the number of users that the search channel can reach every day. Assuming we want to occupy 1% of the total traffic, how much will it cost? Which traffic should be planned? How many impressions and clicks did you get?

This workload is quite huge and is also the core competitiveness of the traffic operation team. It will be elaborated in detail in the third article on the operation skills of mainstream promotion channels.

Strategy 2: Marketing differentiation

When it comes to marketing differentiation, it actually means that I have what others have, and I also have what others don’t. For example, if a competitor has a new label, then I will follow suit. For example, if a competitor’s marketing page is great, we can copy it and learn from its content and design. If his brand appeal is weak, then I will strengthen the brand appeal; if his content is very simple, then I will enrich the content of the page.

Marketing differentiation is mainly reflected in content marketing, which is implemented on promotion pages, registration pages, investment pages, etc. On the one hand, different content marketing should be formulated according to different delivery channels. For example, there are great differences between the promotion pages of wireless and PC. PC is naturally suitable for information and brand display, while wireless is naturally suitable for interaction but not for reading. Then wireless should be simple and elegant, and registration is very convenient. PC is more suitable for highlighting product features, brand positioning, user reputation, etc., strengthening user guidance and persuasion, and enhancing user trust. On the other hand, different content marketing should be developed for the same channel. For example, for search channels, the pages we use for brand areas are often different from those used for keywords. When targeting highly competitive keywords, we often need to use activities and red envelope pages to stimulate users.

Marketing differentiation is very important. It not only increases the registration rate , but also builds brand trust to a certain extent, allowing users to trust you and generate investment. The content should be differentiated and the design should be branded.

Strategy 3: Three-dimensional communication + sharing communication

As mentioned earlier, different users have different behaviors in obtaining information and making purchasing decisions. For novice users, their interest is triggered through WeChat big accounts + news reading; for users interested in financial management, arrangements are made in keyword search , ASO, SEO, forum word-of-mouth, etc.; for registered or invested users, arrangements are made in brand word search, price comparison platforms, third-party information platforms, ASO and other channels. We carry out layered communication from before users learn about our platform, after they register, and after they invest. No matter where users become interested or make information decisions, they can enter our platform. The next step is to consider how to retain them.

Sharing and communication is mainly reflected in the establishment of a good sharing and communication mechanism during large-scale promotions or public relations events. We once ran a real-person WeChat Moments ad , which was quite effective. Now everyone is a medium, and making good use of sharing can make market communication more efficient.

Strategy 4: Content + Mobile Strategy

Internet finance is in full swing, and users in the future will face a difficult problem: it will become very difficult to choose a financial product that suits them. Then third-party independent financial information platforms will have the opportunity to be valued, including financial planner platforms. In the past PC era, third-party independent information websites were very popular. Users learned about professional product information through third-party information platforms, communicated and learned from each other, and finally made rational purchasing decisions.

By setting up a third-party independent financial information platform, you can promote your own corporate products in the early stage, and grow independently after it matures in the later stage.

The mobile strategy is mainly reflected in the emphasis on APP download and activation, such as directly promoting APP downloads, paying attention to mobile traffic, and deploying various types of small and medium-sized APP traffic, including paid promotion in the application market, in-depth marketing on WeChat (in-depth cooperation with KOLs, cooperation with large accounts, self-built new media centers, etc.). In the future, the proportion of mobile traffic will be higher, and its quality and effect will be much higher than PC. ASO has been crucial for a while.

The above four core strategies are the key to the entire traffic operation and the core of the implementation of the ultimate goal.

In addition, continuously improving team efficiency is also very important. Teamwork is the magic weapon for victory. Putting the right people in the right places can unleash tremendous energy. Only when a team truly achieves integration and unity can it unleash the greatest energy.

Let’s review the previous two articles. In the first article, by analyzing the current status of P2P traffic, we have gained an understanding of the development of the entire Internet financial traffic and the current competitive situation. In the second article, the team, stages, and strategies for traffic generation were planned and analyzed, which gave us an understanding of the strategies and tactics for traffic generation.

In the strategy section, we mentioned four core strategies: traffic refinement, marketing differentiation, three-dimensional communication, content and mobile strategy.

Today, we will explain how to achieve traffic refinement through practical techniques of mainstream channels. There is some useful information here!

Due to time constraints, I will only write about a few of the channels today and will make up for it later. I hope you can forgive me.

The methodology of channel operation is given in the channel operation methodology of tens of millions of channels: the essence of channel operation lies in strictly controlling CAC and maximizing the scale through refined operation.

The order of channel operation is: exposure - click - download - registration - payment. (Sometimes there is no download step)

Generally speaking, the core data of channel operation is the number of valid registrations, followed by the number of paying users , and finally the ARPU value. For channel operations, it is unscientific to evaluate ROI based on final revenue, because it is difficult for channels to control payment frequency and payment amount, which depends on brand, content, users, activities, and revenue. As for the number of paying users, it depends on the payment rate, which is determined by channel quality and user operations. However, if the channel quality is good enough, the payment rate will still be acceptable even if the back-end user operations and product experience are average.

Therefore, I suggest that the core indicator of channel operation should be effective registered users, while taking into account the payment rate (the ratio from registration to payment).

Note: There are many factors that affect the payment rate, such as brand endorsement, content output, event pull, etc.

In actual implementation, some friends often complain about the weak brand, insufficient content output, poor design experience, etc. because of the low payment rate. This makes it difficult to do a good job in traffic work. Just like operating a product, even if the product is not good, you still have to operate it well. Similarly, when shortcomings are prominent, can we first improve traffic flow and control it from the user end? So below, we will put aside all kinds of factors and simply focus on the operating skills of each channel to achieve refinement of traffic.

First, let's look at two important formulas:

CAC = Registration Cost / Payment Rate

Registration cost = CPC / registration conversion rate

Paying rate: Determined by channel quality, high for search channels, low for general channels, and high for brand traffic

Axiom 1: Strict control of CAC is key. The lower the CAC, the better.

To control CAC, it is crucial to balance registration cost and payment rate. In most cases, the lower the registration cost, the lower the payment rate. However, there is one exception. Users come through the brand, such as users who search for brand words in the search or application market. The registration cost is low, but the payment rate is very high.

In the process of refined operations, we need to balance the relationship between registration cost and payment rate, because different channels have different characteristics of these two. General channels have low CPC and low registration cost, but the payment rate is also low. Precise channels have high CPC, so the registration cost is higher, but the final payment rate is also higher.

Axiom 2: Channel operation is about traffic, the bigger the medium, the better

Formula: Media transmission power = media coverage power position media viscosity

To build a channel is to do communication. The more target audiences the better, and we should try to cover the mainstream population. Therefore, when choosing a media, it must be large enough, well-positioned, and have strong stickiness in order to reach more target users.

The size of a media is often reflected in its daily and monthly active users. There is no doubt that CCTV covers one of the largest populations.

We compare the medium to a pond and the users to fish. If the pond is too small, there will be too few fish. Therefore, many friends usually stop advertising in the community after a week or a month, as the users they want to reach have already been reached.

Now there are many people who forward messages on big WeChat accounts. I believe the effect will only get worse and worse, because a WeChat public account cannot cover many people. However, WeChat public accounts have a good position, strong media stickiness, good reading habits and big V appeal, so the current effect is good, but it will definitely not be too good in the future as it is a niche channel. (When writing this article, the effectiveness of WeChat big accounts has been verified, and the speed of decline in effectiveness is shocking. In early 2014, many companies used WeChat big accounts to acquire customers at a cost of less than 100, and the quality was very high.)

When we choose media, it used to be television and newspapers, and we had to choose prime locations. It is still the same today, big media! Prime location! You also need to consider the stickiness and brand awareness of the media. Although some media cover a large population, they are not high-end enough and not mainstream enough, so you must be cautious when choosing. Generally speaking, news reading and video media are most suitable for delivery.

Theorem 1: Understanding the traffic distribution mechanism is the foundation for a single channel

For example, the application market has recommendations, rankings , hot searches, searches, etc. The traffic sizes in different places are different, and the trigger mechanisms are also different. For a single channel, understanding its traffic distribution mechanism can help us do a good job in that channel. There are two important indicators in the traffic distribution mechanism. The first is quality and the second is brand. When analyzing each channel later, we will combine the impact of these two indicators on traffic.

Theorem 2: Traffic will only become more expensive, and new channels must be continuously developed

The traffic of each channel is limited. Once it reaches a certain level, it is necessary to raise prices to grab traffic. For example, some precise traffic has relatively small amount due to its traffic distribution mechanism. To obtain more traffic, the cost needs to be increased. On the other hand, the prices of various channels will continue to increase over time. Many portals’ high-quality advertising space is generally sold out this quarter and the resources for the next quarter are generally sold out. The price of traffic has been rising. New channels often have lower costs due to less competition and lower unit price of traffic. This is the blue ocean effect. Therefore, constantly exploring new channels is also the focus of channel operations.

After understanding the above points, it will be easier to implement channels in practice. Below is a brief discussion of practical skills for the main channels.

Search: Baidu, 360, Sogou , Shenma, Google

The traffic distribution mechanism of a channel determines the quality of the channel . The traffic distribution mechanism of search is keyword triggering, which uses keywords to lock in the intended audience. In the past, people got information through television. After the emergence of search engines, people found that the experience was very good, whether it was physical search or virtual search, such as searching for physical objects on Tmall . However, the demand for physical search was relatively small, while the demand for virtual search was greater. For example, if you have a headache, search on Baidu.

The characteristics of search determine that the quality of users brought in is very high. Baidu has invested a lot of manpower and material resources to make the Baidu Search Division a core department. Its advertising system is indeed excellent, although many people complain that it is not as good as Google. The search business has also become a super cash cow. The author has come into contact with many advertising companies, and even their leaders have to admit that Baidu is the most effective in precision marketing, with the exception of some products. The reason why Baidu has good results not only depends on the keyword matching method, but the more important reason is that the Fengchao system is perfect, commercialized early, and has a large investment. Today, when we look at super advertising platforms such as Guangdiantong, Fanstong , and Sina Fuyi, there is still a big gap between them and Baidu in terms of advertising systems. The short development time is one aspect, and insufficient investment is also an important reason.

In terms of search, the product line is relatively rich, such as Pinzhuan, Huabiao, Zhixin, and Caifu, etc. Let’s talk about keyword bidding first.

According to Theorem 2, the CPC of search is very high. After reaching a certain level, the only way to obtain more traffic is to increase the CPC and grab the ranking, resulting in a high CAC. Putting aside factors such as brand, content, design, and activities, the effectiveness of search channels basically depends on the control of traffic, and the control of traffic basically depends on the selection of keywords and the bid price.

Here we will focus on the quality score: the quality score mainly reflects the degree of recognition of netizens for the keywords promoted by Baidu and the keyword creativity. (From Baidu Encyclopedia )

The quality is reflected in the traffic indicator, namely CTR ( click-through rate ). The better the quality, the higher the CTR.

For advertising systems, commercialization comes first. In order to maximize the benefits of each display, advertising platform developers hope to obtain more clicks within a limited display period, thereby obtaining more revenue. The higher the quality of the advertisement, the higher the CTR and the higher the profit. Therefore, almost all bidding ads have a quality indicator to ensure maximum advertising revenue. It can be said that quality is one of the most important indicators in the traffic distribution mechanism.

However, in the area of ​​search, quality does not play a big role, which is related to the characteristics of search traffic distribution. When users enter keywords, text link ads are displayed (the first one can trigger picture and text display). Users tend to click directly on the first one. Data shows that the first two can account for more than 80% of the traffic. Such user habits result in the CTR of the first two items not being low, so the impact of quality on traffic will be very small. However, one advantage of high quality is that you can get a better ranking at a lower price, which helps to reduce costs.

Going back to the beginning, the key to the search channel lies in the selection of keywords and the bid price. Based on the product's target population and market maturity, including the Baidu index of industry terms, the number of competitors and brand strength, we comprehensively judge the magnitude of the search channel and make corresponding target plans, including the range of unit price per click, registration cost, payment cost, and daily budget range.

After the macro goals are planned, the overall plan of the account should be started. The account should be as large as possible, the plan should be comprehensive, the units should be meticulous, and the brand words and competitor words should be planned better. The difficulty lies in the layout of common words, core words, and long-tail words . The entire plan should ensure the balance of traffic to ensure that more target groups are covered and the CPC of the entire account should be reduced. (Refer to the axioms and theorems above)

We believe that the traffic of the search channel also needs to go through the initial stage to the development stage and then to the maturity stage.

In the initial period, due to budget constraints, priority is given to the use of easily converted words. For example, brand words, there are some competitors with weak brand strength, or some competitors with no brand words. How to steal other people’s traffic can refer to what I wrote (you are tired of building a brand, I secretly grab traffic). In addition, long-tail words must be expanded. Don’t touch the Red Sea Words.

During the development period , it is bound to increase volume. After making so many keywords, what's the use if they don't come in handy? The method of adjustment at this stage is mainly to monitor those planned and start expanding traffic through data analysis. In addition, the core words must be covered in large quantities, and competitors can cover them in large quantities. Focusing on traffic and conversion is the main goal of this stage.

When it reaches the maturity stage, it can expand greatly. Keywords were locked in the early stage and rankings were to be competed in the later stage. Daily bids on each platform have changed, and if you don’t grab ranking traffic, it will be lost.

This article does not involve data analysis, so we will not talk about specific optimization strategies here. When talking about data analysis later, the SEM situation will be mentioned.

Let’s talk about other Baidu products. Judging from the current data, wireless traffic is larger, but PC conversion is slightly better, mainly because the PC display effect is good, while wireless traffic is relatively chaotic, and the probability of user error is higher. At the same time, the network impact is even worse before, but now 4G and WIFI make wireless effects much better. If you reach a certain level of quality, you must buy it. Don’t ask why, it’s cost-effective. For example, in-depth search and Baidu Fortune, rich players must play with it, which has a good brand effect, especially Baidu Fortune, which has the flavor of BD, and Baidu cooperates with each other, and the brand endorsement is definitely true. Huabiao is also worth a try, and the display effect is handsome. I won't go into details here one by one.

Here we discuss the macro situation of several SEM industry. In stock ~~

For Internet finance, the magnitude of keywords should be between tens of thousands and millions (haha, I cannot disclose the specific situation). According to rumors, Ping An Technology's overall Internet business invests hundreds of millions of dollars in SEM, which is still slightly lower than education, medical care, and tourism. This is mainly because the per capita ARPU value in industries such as education, medical care, and tourism is high. The cost of acquiring a user can be as high as 10,000, such as the highest bid for a single click of 999 before medical care. Some specialized hospitals have annual SEM investment of more than 1100 million yuan, with an average daily average of about 300,000 yuan (this is not considered a rebate).

For some large-scale platforms, SEM, we can play with the department according to the traditional media ideas, we know

The effect of traditional media depends on creativity and exposure. If it is a creative idea of ​​1 million, then the media will be at least 10 million or even more. Exposure has a greater determinant of the effect, and SEM can also start with exposure.

Through millions of keywords, we will target more target users in this industry. Suppose that Baidu's daily financial management needs customer searches are 1 billion times. If we want to achieve 100 million of them, how can we achieve it?

If this goal is achieved, then in searching, we will rank first in the industry. Through strengthening exposure, after a period of time, we can not only obtain a large amount of traffic, but also generate a certain brand influence. And strengthen user impressions through continuous exposure to achieve brand effects similar to traditional media.

How to evaluate the magnitude? A simple method can be weighted using the leading brand index, core word index, various consulting reports, industry user growth , etc. The complex ones need to establish a model calculation through technical collection of data.

Another simple way is to follow the strategy. Keep up with the top competitors with the largest magnitude, and all or departments will rank first, ensuring that traffic becomes the first in the industry and forming a leading competitive trend.

The last point is that you must use SEO, SNS, DSP, Internet Alliance, etc. to cooperate with SEM traffic. At the same time, promoting pages is crucial. Later, when I wrote content operation , I will mention how to layout the content output of SEM.

Overall, SEM is one of the most important channels in the implementation of the entire channel operation system. It is not only related to the quality of traffic, but also because SEM is the most core user information decision-making and purchasing channel, which must be taken seriously and resolutely taken. I won’t mention any other searches outside of Baidu, just refer to Baidu.

Navigation: 360, hao123, Sogou, 2345

Navigation is a general traffic, with fixed positions and bidding levels . After calculation, the navigation CPC is relatively low, which can be as low as one cent, so its registration cost is lower than search, but the payment cost is higher. In other words, the quality of the navigation channel is not as good as search.

As mentioned earlier, when a fixed advertising space is placed, the higher the brand, the more wide the target population, the greater the traffic, and the higher the cost-effectiveness. Therefore, companies with better brands are willing to place fixed advertising spaces, such as famous stations and cool stations, which have been long-standing domestic well-known e-commerce companies, such as Taobao , Vipshop , JD.com , etc. Now the navigation product line is becoming more and more abundant, including bubbles, floating windows, hot words, etc. If the brand is very popular, you can try the navigation bidding level, such as 360, you may like it.

There are not many navigation channel skills, which are more suitable for well-known companies or when conducting large-scale promotion activities. For example, a company conducts promotion activities. Due to the high conversion rate, the promotion activities are more suitable for introducing general traffic, and it is inappropriate to introduce expensive and precise traffic.

For enterprises, when they reach a certain stage of development and have accumulated a certain brand awareness, it is more appropriate to purchase navigation. On the one hand, the traffic comes quickly, and compared with search, the traffic of navigation comes faster; on the other hand, due to the good brand awareness, the click rate will be greatly improved, and it is finally calculated as CPC, which is very cost-effective.

If you do large-scale promotions and PR theme events, the purchase navigation is still good. But you have to book in advance, otherwise you won't be able to buy it at all.

General article: Baidu Network Alliance, Baidu DSP, information flow, DSP, vertical website

The CPC of the general-purpose channel is also lower, which is slightly more accurate than navigation. DSP is in full swing abroad and is not satisfactory at home.

The effects of Guangdiantong, Toutiao , Sina Fuyi and other information flow are better than those of ordinary Internet Alliances and DSP, because the social platform has certain positioning capabilities, and the platform stickiness is good, and the reading experience is good.

The core lies in quality. The attractiveness of the material determines the CTR, which determines the traffic and CPC

Key points: Use multiple sets of materials to select the best materials

This part has a large quantity and different operating skills. But it won’t be too difficult. Interested friends can communicate with me in the group.

Other niche channels include wallpapers, WIFI, e-books, various alliances, vertical websites, etc.

The cooperation method is generally CPA/CPS.

Application Market: IOS and Android

The application market is the top priority. At present, major application platforms are not fully commercialized and there are not many ways to promote them.

Brushing the rankings : mainly with the help of WeChat points wall , one brushes about 2 to 3 yuan

CPT/CPD: CPT is suitable for well-known products and a wide audience. For CPD, it is not recommended to vote.

ASO: The current highlight is similar to Baidu SEO. Since the current CPD is different from bidding, it is impossible to obtain rankings through payment, so it is very important to do a good job in ASO.

Name > Keywords

Comprehensive weight—downloads, ranking

Keyword weight

Search keywords - download, search to download conversion rate

Manufacturer pre-installed: starts at 100,000 yuan, and the final cost needs to be calculated

The application market is the focus of future promotion , but it is difficult to do it well at present. A few companies have become popular by relying on event marketing, topped the app store, and obtained a lot of traffic, but more applications have no chance to be displayed.

We have reason to believe that the commercialization of the application market is imperative in the future. A standardized and mature advertising platform will be born. Who is most likely to become the leader in the commercialization of mobile application distribution ?

Class T resources: Fixed brand advertising resources

Class T resources are scarce resources, expensive, and the best choice for local tycoons.

It is suitable for brand communication, especially theme activities, and also for promotional activities.

Most T-class resources are booked for a long time and have requirements for advertisers’ brands, content, and interactive creativity.

Due to the general trend of mobile terminals, APP open-screen advertising is very popular, but the current price is far lower than the traditional brand resource prices.

The evaluation criteria for T-class resources can be calculated using CPC, and the number of clicks can be evaluated through the impression, and then the single CPC is cost-effective.

Like navigation, it is very suitable for large promotions and PR themed events.

WeChat resources: WeChat account, circle of friends, self-media

WeChat occupies the largest traffic on the mobile terminal, has a high opening rate, integrating communication, social, reading and payment.

The largest original content creation platform in China - WeChat Public Platform , has gathered a large number of writers, and these people are often opinion leaders.

There are three ways to operate WeChat resources in channel operations. The first is to find professionals to build WeChat public accounts. For example, if you are engaged in finance, you will find a writer who understands finance to do it. The effect will be better. Focus on content and there is no shortage.

The second is to directly forward the large number of payments, which should be subdivided into the media table to evaluate the unit price of each reading volume and the final output ratio. If you have the ability in this area, you must find several KOLs for in-depth cooperation. The specific cooperation methods can refer to traditional brand communication.

The third part is Moments. Moments is a treasure land that can be explored in depth. You can invest in Moments advertisements on the WeChat platform, or you can find someone to post advertisements on Moments.

Where is the future? We have reason to believe that a mature and standardized social advertising platform will be born, but the key is still the insight behind it and the awesome ideas.