As the traffic dividend fades, how do app stores distribute content?

Hello everyone, the topic I will share today is "Content cooperation to help application distribution ." We will discuss with you some of the most concerned issues:

• First , we have been working on content transformation for so long. Can content really and effectively improve application distribution? What is the content plate, and how much room for improvement is there?
• Second , what kind of resource feedback can the many developers who provide content cooperation get ? What are the most tangible feedbacks?
• Third , are there any techniques for content operation ? After obtaining the traffic , is there a way to use it more effectively and continuously improve the conversion rate ? (This is an important part of my sharing today.)

1. APP Distribution: Users Change from “Looking for” Apps to “Browsing” Apps

Everyone can recall, in what scenarios did we open App Store to download apps in the past?

• Scenario 1 : A friend recommends to you that Meitu XiuXiu takes beautiful photos. Even a fat and short person like me can become a star with just a few photos.
• Scenario 2 : I saw a celebrity recommending Xiaohongshu on various social platforms, saying that it is great...
• Scene 3 : …

At these times, we will open the App Store and download apps through precise searches.

However, from this picture we can see that whether it is the increase in the penetration rate of browsing scenarios or the increase in the proportion of fuzzy searches, it shows that users' behavior in App Store has changed - they not only use App Store APP as a download channel, but users also browse and consume content in our application market .

At this time, if we can provide users with some diverse content, we can help them quickly discover information that meets their needs and help them find applications.

What is the approximate ratio? Let me share a piece of data with you. Now, among about 10 users who come to App Store, 3 to 4 people will consume content in App Store, and the number of articles consumed by each person at a time is as high as seven to eight.

Don't underestimate this number. Think about it, as a product with hundreds of millions of monthly active users, if the frequency and proportion of content consumption are so high, the content distribution plate is very large overall.

Through the orange curve below, you can see the changes in content conversion rate from exposure to download.

Since 2016, with the continuous upgrading of our product capabilities and the improvement of refined operational capabilities, our traffic utilization efficiency has become increasingly higher, and the conversion rate has increased significantly.

At the same time, the number of app downloads brought about by the content is also increasing rapidly, and there is still huge room for improvement, which is very worth looking forward to.

It is based on the App Store users’ thirst for content that we proposed a plan to support high-quality content – ​​the Vientiane Plan.

2. How to break through the traffic dilemma?

Today, when the traffic dividend has reached a bottleneck, many APP developers have a common pain point - the cost of acquiring customers is getting higher and higher, it is becoming increasingly difficult to attract new customers , and the retention rate of new users is very low . How to solve it?

Our Wanxiang Plan is designed to help everyone break through traffic difficulties.

We can provide high-quality content with 50 billion exposure resources each year and recommended positions on Tencent’s top ten content platforms. And these recommendations and exposures are free.

It is very convenient to participate in the Wanxiang Project. We have connected the App Store account with the Penguin account . You can submit content on the App Store through http://open.qq.com/ (hereinafter referred to as "Opne"), and one-click authorization can synchronize it to the top ten platforms for distribution.

This is the core plan of the Wanxiang Project: a content ecosystem distribution model that provides one-point access to all platform distribution.

The distribution model of content ecology is not just a concept, it is an upgrade of the traditional distribution model.

First of all , the five major distribution platforms have been upgraded to ten major distribution platforms, and they are the top platforms of the Tencent system. The monthly active users of a single product on these platforms are in the hundreds of millions (you can imagine how much resources this plan requires).

Second , its display method has changed from the original simple application icon shelf-style display to a new "content + download" model.

The traditional model is to post advertisements, which people feel lacks credibility, and it can only show users the name, icon, and size of the application, with very limited information.

For users, unless it is a top application and the brand has been deeply rooted in people's minds, only then will limited information take effect and generate downloads; if it is not a top application, users may not know what this exposure is? This results in a waste of traffic.

The current content ecosystem distribution model can truly display different faces to different people.

For example, when each user reads the news in Tiantian Kuaibao , content related to the application that the user is interested in will appear in the information flow . The user can directly consume the content in the current scene and complete the APP download on the content details page.

As far as I know, no other app store in China has made similar attempts to adopt this new distribution model.

In addition to the information flow on the homepage, the resources in App Store also include premium columns on the homepage, search scenarios, and thematic topics targeting niche needs.

Generally speaking, App Store is still a platform of "application market + demand solution". We will push precise content to specific user groups based on the segmented needs of users. Therefore, we will use some theme areas to distribute the apps that these users are most interested in, and we will also use our search scenarios for precise distribution.

Third , in addition to the App Store, we have also connected to nine other platforms to provide content APP recognition and download recall capabilities for content uploaded by everyone.

This allows the content to appear in the information flow area of ​​some flagship products, and after the user clicks in, there will be no jump to the details page and the download can be completed directly. This is a very good experience. It can maximize the user's stay in the current scene, complete the download, and avoid loss.

So, as developers, how will we participate in the Wanxiang Project and obtain 50 billion free traffic and resource positions on 10 major resource platforms?

It's very simple, there are two ways: the first is manual operation on the Opne side, and the second is the mechanism-based access to content.

• The first way is that after logging into your Open account, you can choose to activate the Wanxiang Plan with one click. The content uploaded to App Store will be synchronized to the top ten platforms. Once the content is reviewed and launched, it can immediately obtain traffic.
• The second method is different from manual self-service uploading. It is accessed in the form of an interface and has two methods. The first is the API interface, which can be completed in three steps; the other mode is authorized crawling, which requires developers to provide the address of the content H5.

In general, whether it is mechanism-based access or manual operation, the labor cost is very low, and it will be pushed to the top ten platforms in a unified manner.

I would like to make a complaint here: many APP developers upload a lot of content on Open, eager to let everyone know how good their products are, but they end up writing completely soft advertisements - do you know how desperate we are when we review the content? Users don’t like this kind of content that feels too advertising-like at all.

Therefore, we specifically focus on the part of "what kind of content users like", even though it is a cliché.

As you all know, the Vientiane Project has been launched for some time. The first batch of companies to take the plunge may include one thousand or ten thousand, and there may be more joining in the future.

Everyone will find that it is very easy to reap the traffic dividend in the early stage, but as more people join in the future, the Matthew effect will also occur: developers with high-quality content will take away more traffic, which is very unfavorable for ordinary developers.

So, next we will share solutions based on the trends in content consumption. The content may be a bit boring, but they are definitely some of our very sincere and useful tips.

3. Analysis of content consumption trends

1. The biggest trend in content consumption

According to market research reports, the biggest trend in users' content consumption is that their concentration is collectively declining.

One of the characteristics of content consumption is that multi-threaded operations have become the norm.

For example, when I was giving a PPT presentation, some students were taking photos and recording them seriously. I will occasionally take out my phone to check it, or communicate with colleagues around me; the same is true when I am writing a PPT. I may listen to music while writing the PPT .

Multitasking has become a norm in our content consumption.

Another characteristic of content consumption is that users are becoming less and less patient, and the patience of users in all walks of life is declining.

In everyone’s WeChat favorites list, there are too many articles that are just M AR K’d and nothing happens afterwards.

At the same time, we are like the least popular student in the class in elementary school. For a long article, we may only read the title and will not click in to read in depth. How can we talk about conversion?

Under this trend, what kind of content do users want to see?

It must be content that can truly help him reduce decision-making costs. The presentation form of this content must also be very efficient and must be highly adaptable to a certain current consumption scenario.

Only such content can attract users' attention and traffic, thereby reducing customer acquisition costs, in the field of content platforms where the Matthew effect is prominent and in the consumption trend of attention scarcity.

So what kind of content do users of App Store need?

As I just said, our content needs to be perfectly adapted to the current usage scenarios. App Store is first and foremost an Android application market. Users' biggest demand for content is that it can help them make download decisions faster. We call this content that helps them make decisions faster decision information.

Decision-making information can generally be divided into four categories:

• The first category is basic information, such as some new and popular gameplay, main features, and some reviews. This is the type of content that people usually upload more often.
• The second category is content with category characteristics or industry differentiation, such as content-based apps such as video, music, reading, etc. What the users of these apps care about most are always exclusive resources, big IPs, etc. You need to pass on these resources that you have to users, such as iQiyi has "Idol Producer", Tencent Video has "Produce 101", Youku has the World Cup , etc.
• The third category is interest incentives that all users will be interested in. For example, discounts, benefits, etc.
• The fourth category: If the above three categories serve users more before downloading, there is another category of information that serves more after downloading, which can help us use the APP better. For example, strategies for some complex operating methods or some auxiliary software and hardware tools , etc.

For example, when people play Honor of Kings , they will also need a Honor of Kings assistant . They will also download Douyu or Huya to see how the masters play. In short, they are all for their own use and playing.

4. The key to creating great content

Are there any secrets to creating great content?

In the past year, we have selected APPs from different industries/categories and adapted dozens or even hundreds of sets of content materials for each APP. We have come up with some tips (routines) that can really help us improve conversions quickly. I would like to share them with you here.

First of all, what are the characteristics of content that is more popular with users?

The first characteristic: useful. Whether it is pushing a review article "Which APP is better" or an article introducing some basic functions, the content that users like almost all meets the characteristics of "useful, efficient, objective, and practical".

The second feature: interesting. When users are bored, quickly let them form a memory point, and once they find it interesting, they will download it.

The third characteristic: new and hot.

This is the same as new media operation , which is basically to use hot spots to attract traffic. In the past, we have tried to analyze a hot spot in multiple dimensions and promote different apps.

For example, with the hot topic of Travel Frog , it is hard for everyone to imagine how to leverage the momentum to recommend travel, shopping, or even financial and psychological apps. In fact, we did it, and the effect is quite good.

So everyone must pay attention and not miss any hot spots, and must strongly integrate them with their own product functions.

The fourth characteristic: stimulation of interest points.

For example, discounts, red envelopes, rebates, flash sales, etc.

The core is: cheap, save money, and be a hot product, which can meet the interests of users.

In addition to displaying these contents in search and on the homepage, we have also created a centralized discount scenario where interested users can download directly; at the same time, users can redeem coupons with points.

This is not only a good way to attract new users, but also increases the user activity of the APP.

Second, we need some more efficient forms of content presentation.

First, we found that in some areas, short videos have a higher conversion rate than traditional text and image content, such as some complex operating methods. Such long text and graphic step-by-step breakdown of content will make users feel overloaded with information, but if they are asked to watch a 15-second short video, they can quickly grasp the key steps and form a memory point.

In addition, content such as the comparison between buyers' and sellers' shows in the shopping category and the comparison of effects in the photography category, if presented in the form of short videos using several consecutive frames, will be very eye-catching, creating a strong visual impact and memorable point.

In addition, there are some product features that must be temporarily offline to better demonstrate their effects. For example, the window projection function of Baidu Maps cannot be intuitively presented with pictures and texts. A better way is to demonstrate it in the car and shoot a short video so that everyone can fully understand the effect.

At this point, is anyone worried that it is necessary for us to prepare so many sets of content for the same APP? Can every piece of content get effective exposure?

I just mentioned that our big data capabilities and Tencent's massive user behavior data can truly allow users to see the content that they are most interested in, with different faces for different people.

5. Practical cases and effect improvement

Shopping apps:

We have just said that the prominent needs of shopping users are the interest points. As you can see, when we push coupons, the download conversion rate and click conversion rate of users generated are greatly improved compared to when we push ordinary content.

Photography apps:

How can photography apps use our methodology to improve data?

Photography users are more interested in some hot gameplays, especially some film and television hotspots. We found that users are very enthusiastic about trying them out, and after trying them out, a large proportion of them will return to App Store to download them.

In addition, interesting content or useful tutorials can also help us improve conversion rates.

summary

In our actual applications, after some leading applications launch a single piece of content, the single piece of content may bring it 10,000 or 20,000 natural downloads a day. Compared with its huge download volume, the growth rate is not high.

However, for mid- and long-tail applications, the overall daily download volume may be around one thousand or two thousand per day. At this time, the additional increase that a good content will bring to you will be considerable. The increase may be more than 50%, but 200%, 300%, or even more.

This article was compiled and published by @笔记侠(Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

Product promotion services: APP promotion services, advertising platform, Longyou Games