How to increase the click-through rate of game information flow ads?

How come game advertising is in such a mess?

01

On computers, the most popular advertisement is the legendary web game advertisement "I am Zha Zha Hui", which was once a point of criticism among netizens.

Recently, game advertisements on mobile phones have also taken a strange path. Giant Kun seems to be becoming a new trend.

Netizens joked

When you open a headline app and browse through it, you will find that most of the ads are game ads of this kind. The curious pictures and texts are vivid jokes that have successfully attracted many netizens.

02

But will many people really click on these exaggerated and weird advertisements?

Xiao K, who is familiar with advertising, said: "You may not believe it, but they clicked on this type of ad 100 billion times! In 2017, more than 50% of domestic games were advertising for this type of game, and most manufacturers like to use this type of material because the conversion rate is high ! Some people are willing to pay for it. Of course, the reason for the high click rate is that some people like this kind of novelty, and they feel happy when they see it. They hope to play games with this kind of gameplay, whether they are novice or veteran gamers."

Is there really such a way to play as “Kun”? Clicking on the ad will lead to a landing page or a direct download:

These artificially set comments are also the essence of drama. They use this form of "awkward chat" between users to "get close" and "recommend downloads". After clicking on the download, you will be caught off guard within 5 seconds:

Isn't this a web game? To be precise, it is a web game that has been moved to a mobile phone, with a familiar game perspective, parabolic light jumps, automatic path finding, tasks, monster killing and leveling, and a complete set of server recharge activities...

03

However, there is no giant Kun in the game as shown in the advertisement.

If you don’t believe it, you can click on a few more ads. The downloaded game still does not have Kun. You will also find that several ads with different game names will eventually download the same game.

The game content does not match the advertisement description, and even the same game is disguised to lure users. Is this considered deceiving and misleading consumers?

"Article 4 of the Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China: Advertisements shall not contain false or misleading content, and shall not deceive or mislead consumers."

Xiaoxin is a gamer who once downloaded such games through advertisements. When asked about discovering that the game content did not match, he said: "I saw that the ad was not there, so I would ask the customer service why it was not there, and can they sell me the advertised stuff?"

He is the epitome of a part of the players. Who doesn’t want to truly experience that kind of masterpiece? Maybe the manufacturer will say, don’t worry, we will add advertising content in the later stage of the game.

It’s unknown what the result will be, but what many people don’t know is that the giant Kun in the advertisement is not so easy to appear in these games. Why?

Because these materials come from the science fiction short film "Leviathan" directed by Luairi Robinson, which has been played more than a million times on Youtube. You can see the picture of the giant Kun that appears in the advertisement by searching on Baidu.

Sorry, even this salted fish was stolen from the neighbor.

04

Perhaps because the material is from abroad, it is difficult for the copyright owner to be held responsible, so the material is used directly, regardless of whether it infringes on copyright or not, as long as it is useful.

Xiao K: "Yes, everything is based on conversion effect. In addition to adapting foreign materials, we also have templates for game advertising creativity. From the data, we can see that we use the first few materials with the highest click-through rate and download rate for different types of games."

"Like when a beautiful anchor plays a game, they usually won't be held accountable if they find some pictures of anchors or foreign anchors, and then change the game screen."

"For players who like cards, we can find some deck pictures, keep the frames the same, and change the characters."

“Sometimes the distribution channels don’t review very carefully, so we just put other people’s game pictures there, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

"The nature of advertising is such that there is bound to be information asymmetry. As for the plagiarism you mentioned, I understand it as a means of gaining widespread users. Advertising means spreading the word."

When it comes to advertising creativity, the domestic market is really good at using tricks. They copy and reprocess materials, grasp the user's pleasure points, and use different methods to come up with amazing advertisements for you, and they seem to be having a lot of fun.

05

The game advertising marketing was in place, generating 227.9 billion clicks in 2017. This shows that the number of times the second-level page or even the download page was entered was astonishing, proving that such game advertising is acceptable to people in China.

So, if players who download and enter the game experience find that the content does not match the advertisement, will they stay in the game? This question seems a bit silly. Since game advertisements are everywhere, the profit chain between advertisers, game manufacturers and players must be feasible. Would they do a business that has no profit?

Xiao K: "The purchase of game advertising has become a red ocean, and traffic is getting more and more expensive. For top channels like Toutiao , the iOS advertising of certain types of games has exceeded 100 yuan to buy one user. A game will buy tens of thousands of people every month during the testing or stabilization period. If the game is not profitable, it will not be able to bear the monthly consumption of millions or even tens of millions of yuan for purchases."

"From the perspective of players, there is no doubt that many of them pay for these games and recognize such games and models. Manufacturers make money by making such games and also recognize domestic advertising purchases. Only when users buy in, manufacturers are willing to invest money, and the advertising industry can operate in this way."

As early as March 2017, a sensational incident occurred. The famous game video producer "Ao Changzhang" once released a work to complain about the quality of domestic web game advertisements and the web games themselves. The graphics made with the Unreal Engine 4 were criticized. Today, mobile games are still continuing the web game model.

06

The public wants to play good games, manufacturers want to make money by using tricks, and platforms want to make money by laundering traffic.

1. Players. As the price of buying traffic soars, this chaos in the industry has begun to be curbed, because we players have become picky and have higher requirements for game quality. This is a good thing, as it forces manufacturers to produce high-quality products. After all, Chinese manufacturers are the most profitable businessmen and are always catering to user needs.

It is not easy to make high-quality games, and it requires the support of players. If they are all web games that support quick money laundering, what you are playing is just a capital sandbox. Of course, there are quite a few user groups who like this, but I believe that in the future, the new generation of players will have higher requirements.

2. Game manufacturers. Many game producers with ideas have a philosophical question in their minds, just like "which came first, the chicken or the egg": do you have to make money first before you can make quality products, or do you have to make quality products before you can make money? In any case, it is better to make products based on facts than to waste time on "fake" advertising.

For players who are truly attracted by the game’s true quality, the new additions, activity, retention and payment data will be more stable. The "gold panning" method like that of web games makes money quickly, but it is not suitable for the healthy development of the game ecosystem. (When player retention is low, web games can only make large payments to support the cost of buying traffic)

"Video games, recognized as the ninth art, can bring people emotions that cannot be measured in money."

3. Traffic platform. The high cost of traffic may be due to lower conversion rates for ads, users starting to recognize “fake” ads, or shifting their product choices. Long-term stable data still depends on real advertising and real creativity, rather than "killing the chicken to get the eggs". At the same time, identifying and screening high-quality products is also very important.

Moreover, several major platforms wanted to make a fortune by skirting the rules. Recently, they were summoned by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and asked to remove their products from the shelves and stop operating. Isn’t that very anxious?

The country is still in chaos. From your perspective, what do you think?