A few key points about digital advertising!

In my early years, I worked for the largest Internet marketing company in the country. I was in charge of several projects that invested hundreds of millions of dollars in digital media, which brought extremely rich returns to the company. There are a few key points about digital advertising that I would like to discuss today.

1. Digital advertising is worth trying for any business

In traditional business, products are generally implanted into user memories through media such as television, newspapers, and magazines, and then on-site promotional activities are used to convert user memories and secure transactions. After entering the Internet age, the use of digital media can directly complete the process from memory implantation to memory conversion for users. Click to purchase, eliminating the intermediate links and avoiding advertising loss due to forgetfulness in the user's memory cycle.

Although TOB companies face difficulties in digital advertising due to factors such as too narrow target groups and complex consumer decisions. But precisely because TOB users are of high value and digital advertising has better positioning capabilities, it naturally has an advantage in capturing sales leads and is worth a try. Not only precise channels like search engines, but also streaming media, DSP, online videos, and even vertical social channels such as WeChat accounts, Weibo, KOLs, etc. are worth further exploration.

For companies with lower user value, there is little demand for digital advertising based on sales goals, but they can still try digital brand advertising based on cognitive goals. For example, by placing pre-roll ads for popular TV series and movies on iQiyi, or by using WeChat accounts to embed native soft articles, a cordial communication with consumers can be maintained rather than naked sales. And the cost of this investment is not high. For example, with the help of DSP, you can deliver pre-video patches, and the cost of a relatively good WeChat account is only 10,000 to 20,000. This is a good choice for small and medium-sized enterprises with branding needs.

In short, whether based on sales or brand needs, digital advertising is worth trying for companies immediately.

2. The delivery strategy must be carried out around the overall marketing strategy

Although digital advertising is very effective and can find potential users relatively accurately, it does not mean that they will buy your products.

Consumers' purchasing decisions are very complex, whether it is brand or price. In order to avoid excessive waste of advertising, the delivery strategy must be carried out around the overall marketing strategy. For example, for large-scale holiday promotions, you need to increase your investment, because both the traffic and conversion rate will be better than usual. Another example is a marketing campaign against a competitor. Even if it means losing traffic, you still have to focus on the established goals.

The marketing goals of enterprises are different at different stages. For example, if a newly launched APP hopes to quickly acquire a group of seed users , it should try to use accurate channels to ensure the retention and activity rate of the majority of users. Digital advertising is only part of the market, so it must be carried out around the marketing plan of the market.

3. Don’t blindly trust numbers

Those who work in digital advertising can easily fall into a misunderstanding and blindly believe in numbers.

Registration, purchase, ROI, which one is the most important? Some people only look at ROI and believe that output ratio is the most important. Some look at the registration purchase rate, believing that this can better reflect the brand influence of the product.

Due to fierce competition and high traffic value, search engines often have high user acquisition costs, but better ROI; while some streaming media have low click prices and low user acquisition costs, but also lower ROI. How to choose? The key is still the above, choose according to the marketing goals at each stage.

In addition, some channels cannot be accurately evaluated, such as the application market . At this time, we can only look at the trends, but we cannot give up the application market just because we cannot see the precise figures. For example, the effectiveness of search engines is likely to be affected by the combined influence of other brand advertisements and various CPC advertisements.

Some channels may not perform well in the short term and will most likely be abandoned, but the user quality of the actual channel itself is good. Poor results may be due to insufficient trial and error in the early stages . You cannot blindly believe in the numbers.

We need to dig deeper into how users come from channels such as web, wab, app, and WeChat, and how to differentiate the effects of external advertising and internal activities. Numbers are the key to advertising, but blindly believing in numbers will make us lose the direction of correct judgment.

4. Make decisions quickly

Traditional advertising requires planning and then step-by-step execution, and the entire process is relatively long. But when it comes to digital advertising, decisions need to be made quickly.

I once planned a large-scale marketing campaign in the summer, and completed all the advertising images and landing pages within a week. There were multiple sets of materials, and the landing pages underwent A/B testing. In the following month, we launched an all-out attack, investing fully in search engines, ad networks , navigation, and vertical websites, continuously optimizing the delivery process and achieving very good results. About a week after we launched our campaign, many of our competitors had copied our advertising materials and themes, and even our landing pages. This shows our poor execution ability.

For example, when targeting some hot spots, decisions must be made quickly, otherwise once the hot spot has passed, the effect of further placement will be much worse.

Like traditional industries, the Internet industry also has off-seasons and peak seasons, such as the golden September and silver October. When the industry is booming, you should invest heavily and invest all at once; when the industry is in recession, you should make adjustments immediately and make decisions quickly.

5. Understand the medium

Different media have different user groups. QQ users are relatively young, so it is good at promoting games and social products, but not so good at e-commerce .

Different media have different traffic distribution. For example, the largest traffic of search engines is still the search box, including APPSTORE. For example, Tencent News is a traditional information recommendation service, and what everyone sees is the same, while Toutiao is a personalized information recommendation service, and what everyone sees is different. Different traffic distribution mechanisms result in different traffic sizes and locations, including different delivery forms.

Generally speaking, when placing digital media, it is better to choose large media and brand media. For example, Moments of Friends not only covers a huge number of users, but also because the material requirements and display styles of Moments are very exquisite, which is more in line with the requirements of brand communication. Another example is Youku video pre-rolls, which have a massive user base and immersive experience similar to that of TV commercials, and are undoubtedly a very good digital media.

Different media should be well matched, such as using videos and WeChat Moments ads for exposure, and using search engines for closing.

The price of digital media has been rising, both due to advertisers and competition. In order to obtain high-quality traffic at a low price, you need to find new media. From Weibo to WeChat to various social video media, new digital media are emerging in an endless stream, so we must be brave to try them.

6. Hand it over to a professional third party

Digital advertising is only a small part of marketing work. It involves corresponding media selection, delivery techniques, including creative planning corresponding to social network dissemination, video production, etc., which can all be handed over to professional third parties.

The market should still focus on sales lines and brand lines, and have an in-depth understanding of users and competitors. There is no need to spend too much time on advertising. After all, digital advertising costs money, and it’s not a sure win.

WeChat, self-media , Internet celebrities , and video social networking have risen. Starting with the brand advertising attempts in WeChat Moments , there will be more digital brand advertising forms, especially Internet celebrity video placements, including the video e-commerce that "Yi Tiao" is trying. Digital media will no longer be just a sales channel, it will go further on the road of brand communication, and perhaps in the near future, it will surpass TV advertising.

And sales-based digital advertising will inevitably continue to advance at a rapid pace.