Tips on how to place ads in game information streams!

1. Go Online

1. Pay close attention during the launch of new plans

In the early stage of a new plan, use a low budget (5 to 10 times the bid) and observe frequently. Especially when the plan starts to gain traction, release the budget in time to avoid affecting the running volume.

2. New plans with good running volume can be appropriately stimulated

After the plan is launched normally, for plans with fast growth and costs within the bid range, you can stimulate the system model to demand volume by increasing the budget or bid by 20%~30%.

3. Don’t adjust the new plan immediately if it exceeds the cost

It is normal for the new plan to exceed the cost by 20%~50%. It is not easy to adjust immediately and should be observed continuously. The system will level out the cost later.

If the new plan exceeds the cost by more than 50%, it is recommended to extend the observation time to see whether the system can reduce the cost. If the cost is still too high, the plan can be adjusted or abandoned.

4. The new plan consumes too much but has basically no conversion. Stop the loss in time

If there is still no conversion after running 5 to 20 times the bid budget, it is recommended to suspend this type of plan.

(You need to confirm in advance whether the advertiser's activation data is transmitted in real time. If it is not transmitted in real time, it is recommended to observe for a longer period of time.)

After the plan is launched normally, for plans with fast growth and costs within the bid range, you can stimulate the system model to demand volume by increasing the budget or bid by 20%~30%.

2. Launching

1. For a plan with a small but relatively stable volume, you can appropriately release the directional volume

After the planned running volume is relatively stable, you can relax the directional training appropriately, but not all at once. You can relax 1 to 2 directional training every 2 days. For example, after running Plan A for a period of time and the cost and daily consumption are relatively stable, the gender, interest and other orientations are gradually relaxed every 1 to 2 days.

2. For plans with stable running volume, you can appropriately increase the price and budget to obtain volume.

After investing for a period of time, the daily consumption is relatively stable and the cost is within the bid range. If you need to get more volume, you can appropriately increase the bid by 30%~50% and set a more sufficient budget.

3. A stable running plan with excellent running volume and excellent results, do not adjust it at will

It is not recommended to make adjustments to the plan that has tested excellent running volume and stable results in the account. Except for raising the budget, it is not recommended to change any settings. Once changed, it may affect the planning model.

4. A stable running plan that is slightly above the cost, it is not recommended to make too many adjustments

After the running volume plan stabilizes, if the overall plan still exceeds expectations by 20%~30%, it is not recommended to make too many adjustments, and costs can be balanced through other plans. If you really cannot accept the cost, you can adjust the price appropriately. It is recommended not to adjust too much, about 10%, and the price of the same plan should not be adjusted more than twice in one day.

5. If the running volume is too high or unacceptable, the stable running plan can be adjusted appropriately.

The running volume is very stable, but the actual cost is 60%~100% higher than the expected plan. You can adjust the price appropriately, with a reduction of about 10% being the best. You can also consider changing the targeting or replacing the advertising materials.

6. A running plan that is gradually declining can be stimulated appropriately

When a stable plan shows a declining trend, you can appropriately increase the bid by 30%~50% to increase the budget, and secondly, you can relax the targeting. When the plan declines to the same level as the account's normal plan, you can also consider stimulating the plan model through updates to advertising creatives.

For example, for an offline plan that normally consumes hundreds of thousands of yuan and has a bid of 200 yuan per day, when a recession occurs, you can prioritize increasing the bid by 30% to 50%, that is, to 260 to 300 yuan, and at the same time open up other targeting, such as network, gender, interests, etc., to stabilize the volume first and then control the cost.

3. After the launch

1. Data analysis is standard

Functional testing and material testing should be proactive, and you should look for people suitable for your game in multiple dimensions, such as release time, gender, equipment, material presentation, etc.

The target audiences of different games may be different. Actively exploring the audience and making timely analysis and summarization are the criteria for success. Secondly, we can combine the background audience analysis to check the difference between the actual population running the plan and the target population, and make a preliminary estimate of the plan effect.

2. Crowd remarketing is a magic weapon

We should be good at applying the delivery data, especially the various audience packages accumulated, which can be used for remarketing.

For the converted population of the same game, use DMP to exclude them in a timely manner to improve the planned CTR and CVR.

The accumulated conversion population can be expanded and acquired using DMP to obtain populations with similar population portraits. Both the converted population and the paying population can serve as backup for high-quality populations for the next game.

IV. Troubleshooting

Reasons for lack of quantity:

1) Budget & Balance: The budget of the advertising plan/ad group has reached the upper limit, and the account balance is insufficient.

2) Targeting: Too narrow targeting results in covering too few people.

3) Materials & landing pages: The ECPM is too low due to poor materials and landing pages.

4) Bidding: Bidding too low results in low ECPM.

5) Traffic: The traffic location is inappropriate, brand advertising is squeezed, or the current bidding environment is too fierce.

◆ Troubleshooting method:

1. The new launch plan is not displayed at all. First determine whether the settings are reasonable.

1) First determine whether the new plan is in normal delivery status (paused/under review).

2) Check whether the account budget, ad group budget, and advertising budget are sufficient. For example, the planned budget is 300 and the bid is 200, which will have a certain impact on the volume.

3) Check whether the targeting is reasonable, whether there is cross-use of multiple targeting, or whether the audience is too narrow due to unreasonable targeting.

For example: using multiple targeted cross-purposes such as game interest categories and game interest keywords, the audience only covers 50,000 people, or launching on Android but choosing IOS devices, etc., may affect the start-up volume.

4) Check whether the bid is reasonable and in line with industry standards. The competitive environment is changing, and a fixed bid cannot guarantee that the advertisement will adapt to the current market situation.

2. The above settings are reasonable, and it is recommended to extend the observation time

1) When a new plan is launched without the accumulation of conversion samples, the model needs a process of exploration and learning. It is generally recommended to observe for more than one day and try to observe the delivery situation during peak traffic hours. It is recommended not to adjust the plan during this period, as frequent adjustments will have an impact on the system model.

2) For example, when student A launched a new plan, he found that the plan was not running well. He first raised the bid, then worried that the cost was too much, so he immediately lowered the bid and then adjusted the direction. This frequent operation is not conducive to model exploration. It is recommended to observe the data for a day longer.

3. If you find that the plan still cannot be implemented after one day, you can appropriately increase the volume by relaxing the targeting, increasing the bid, increasing the budget, etc.

Relax the basic targeting, increase the bid by 20%-50%, and appropriately increase the budget by 2-10 times. At this time, be sure to observe whether the volume increases in a timely manner.

If the volume does not increase, then we can conclude that the reason why the plan cannot be implemented is due to poor advertising quality, and we need to return to the optimization of the material or landing page.

4. If you have built many plans but still can’t get volume, it is recommended that you carefully reflect on the advertising materials.

1) ECPM = estimated CTR estimated CVR bid * 1000

2) Many plans have been created but none of them have achieved significant results. It is recommended to compare the CTR, CVR and CPM of peers and your own. If it is only at the one-third level in the industry, then the bid of this plan must be more than three times that of its competitors in order to win the bidding.

5. There is some volume at the beginning, but it disappears later. It is recommended to focus on optimizing the advertising materials

In the early stage, the system gave the plan a good estimate, so the plan was able to gain volume. However, in the later actual implementation, it was found that the data of the plan was relatively poor, such as high cost. It may be that the model corrected the plan's estimate. At this time, we still need to return to the optimization of advertising materials and landing pages.

6. Improving the quality of the plan, optimizing the materials and landing pages is the key to optimizing quality, and you can also improve the estimate through precise targeting

1) There is no shortcut to optimizing materials. It requires more new tests and summaries. It is recommended that each account maintain more than 10 tests per day;

2) Adjust the direction of the material in time. Especially in the direction of titles, keep the creativity fresh and reduce the number of similar materials;

3) Suggest precise targeting, such as interests, demographic groups, etc., to improve estimates. For crowd portraits, you can refer to the audience analysis of account history or the crowd insight function of DMP;

4) Pay attention to the optimization of the landing page. For excellent templates, you can refer to the templates recommended daily by the advertising background.

5. Game Advertising Trends

1. Automation

As mentioned earlier, optimizers need to set the targeting and traffic location in the early stages of the campaign. These all rely on the optimizer's industry experience and insights into users, and are inevitably affected by subjective factors. Therefore, Toutiao launched automated products to help advertisers choose targeting and traffic.

Programmatic Creativity

Help advertisers to explore the best combination of different copywriting and materials, save optimizers' energy, and quickly implement testing of different copywriting and materials.

Preferred advertising space

Estimate the effectiveness of advertising plans at various traffic positions. After exploring models and systems, advertising plans are placed at the most appropriate traffic locations.

System recommended targeting

Help advertisers to conduct reasonable interest classification targeting and avoid the targeting set by optimizers being too narrow or too broad.

2. Diversification

From simple screenshots, to simple PPT videos, to unique screen recordings, exquisite CG, and even unique plot videos;

From celebrity endorsements, to Kun chasing hot spots, to legendary brothers exchanging feelings;

The more diverse the creative styles used by advertisers, the easier it is to increase consumption;

As users become more familiar with advertising tactics, diverse materials have become an indispensable factor for successful advertising.

The traffic that game advertisers can choose from is gradually diversified, from the initial information APP Toutiao, to the later video APP Xigua Video, and the later TikTok short video, etc., which are constantly expanding the traffic matrix of Toutiao and its company. At the same time, it also requires optimizers to have a clear understanding of the characteristics of various traffic so that they can adapt to local conditions and choose the best traffic combination for different games.

The trend of advertising style shifting from pictures and texts to videos is becoming increasingly obvious, and horizontal video ads are gradually becoming the first choice of advertisers. With the popularity of apps such as Tik Tok and Huoshan Video, vertical video ads are gradually becoming popular again. In the future, there may be more diverse material styles, such as interactive ads, playable ads, etc.

3. Personalization

Game advertising materials and optimization methods have many commonalities:

On the creative level, the creative materials of the same type of games have the same selling points, such as the main weapon attributes; on the traffic position level, due to the limited traffic positions, it is very likely to be placed in the same traffic position; on the advertising product level, such as the widespread use of DMP, advertisers will also easily use the same type of audience package targeting.

With the improvement of user requirements and the standardization of copyright system, single optimization methods and similar creative materials gradually become ineffective and ultimately fall out of favor in the market.

Whether it is the material or traffic position, or the use of advertising products, when the trend is formed, it may often be the time when users begin to get tired. Therefore, advertisers can achieve better results by using more creative and personalized materials.

Author: Information Flow Workplace Circle

Source: Information Flow Workplace Circle