The more an ad looks like information, the more likely it is to be clicked? Please stop hurting your users.

There is a saying in current information flow ads : " The title and accompanying picture should look like information, so as to trigger users to click." Therefore, the copywriting of information flow ads does not seem to be so sophisticated, and it seems that there is no need for 4A advertising companies. A title that looks like information, three native pictures, plus precise user portrait analysis , this seems to be the standard paradigm of information flow advertising. Please, stop hurting the user experience ! ! !

Would you click on the following information flow ad?

Without thinking, ask yourself what you felt when you first saw the picture above?

Isn’t it very “ Today’s Headlines ” style? This title plus the picture are typical of Today’s Headlines information flow style. The above picture is from an article by Li Jiaoshou . It is said that the delivery result is nearly 1 percentage point higher than the CTR (effective click-through rate , see the bottom of the article for detailed explanation) before the transformation (see the picture below). This is a successful case in Li Jiaoshou's article. Ask yourself again, when you see the above copy, will you click it? Maybe many people would. But when you click in, the landing page is a naked advertisement page without any story about a loser counterattacking and becoming a CEO . Would you be disappointed? Is the purpose of marketers to trick consumers into landing pages? I have said before in the article " E-commerce Operations - There is no off-season market, only off-season thinking" that marketing is not about deceiving consumers, but about re-describing the boring product manual in scenario-based language .

The text and pictures before the transformation

There is a saying in current information flow ads: "The title and picture should look like information, so as to attract clicks." Therefore, we see more and more copy like the one above in Toutiao and Weibo.

We have to admit that from the perspective of attention economics , aligning the title and accompanying image information is the right choice, but what about the content? It seems that we have all forgotten about the landing page and the content of the landing page. Today’s landing pages are either native advertising posters or directly jump to the other party’s app. You can open Toutiao’s information flow ads to give it a try. You lure users in with titles and pictures that are similar to information , but you don’t satisfy them with the content of the information . In the long run, will users still be fooled? Will I still have a good impression of you? Even if you use big data and personalized recommendations, users will still feel uncomfortable. You can't take advantage of me just because you know me .

Let’s consider the user scenario. When they see the information flow ads, they are likely to be watching.

Current affairs, read jokes, watch sports events or other interesting information . But we use titles and pictures that sound like jokes or current affairs to lure users in. Are we sure that users will not be disappointed?

The point of view of this article is that in addition to the title and accompanying pictures needing to be similar to the information, the content of information flow ads must also be similar. We need to move the soft-text routines of Mimi Meng and Hu Xinshu into information flow ads. This article will briefly explain information flow advertising from the perspective of its concept, function, and the role of machine learning in information flow advertising, as well as what you need to pay attention to when writing information flow advertising.

1. What is information flow advertising?

When you read news on Toutiao, do you see JD.com ads every few messages? When you are browsing celebrity gossip on Sina Weibo , do Tmall ads pop up every few posts? When you were "reviewing" your beloved minister's memorials on WeChat Moments , did you notice the exquisite graphic advertisements...

The above are all typical information flow ads. As we all know, information flow ads have been very popular in recent years. Toutiao has been dominating the market with it, and the vice president "Li Jiaoshou" who was acquired by Baidu at a sky-high price last year has recently created a creative intelligent optimization tool for feeds . JD.com, where I work, has recently launched the "Jingtiao Plan" and "Jingdu Plan", both of which are using information flow advertising to empower e-commerce. Tmall is also making full use of Weibo’s information flow ads.

2. Why are information flow ads so popular among businesses?

Information flow advertising is a type of digital advertising , or more precisely, it was born with the mobile Internet . Most users spend their time on the mobile Internet obtaining information, whether it is information about friends in Moments, various jokes on Toutiao, or entertainment gossip on Sina Weibo... Data has proven that the best way to display information flow is to read by swiping down vertically like Toutiao.

This kind of information flow is an excellent place to insert advertisements. If both parties can communicate data, it will be of great value. The cooperation between JD.com and Toutiao is the best proof.

3. Will machines replace humans in information flow advertising?

Information is generated all the time and is refreshed every time a user opens it, like a kind of fast food. Therefore, the copywriting of information flow advertisements does not seem to be so sophisticated anymore, and it seems that there is no need for 4A advertising companies. A title that looks like information, three native pictures, plus precise user portrait analysis, this seems to be the standard paradigm of information flow advertising.

And for the standard paradigm, machines must be better and cheaper than humans. Many technology companies are making such products and believe that this will become the next trend. As long as you upload the basic attributes of a sku (the smallest inventory unit of a product in e-commerce, such as a Nike white L-size T-shirt), the machine can quickly generate an information flow copy for you, which "looks very much like information" and has a good click-through rate. The BiXin Creative Engine , a product developed by Baidu's Li Jiaoshou team, is also a representative product of this type.

In information flow advertising, it seems that machines perform better than humans, and it seems that advertisers are no longer needed.

Is it really so? I believe that machines must be useful in information flow advertising, and the use is not small. But they will never replace humans. Machines can write very good product introductions and copywriting titles. Perhaps with the help of accurate user portraits, they can hit the user's "G-spot" and the conversion rate will also be good. But I firmly believe that over time, this will definitely affect the user experience. You cannot take advantage of me just because you know me . Why do people not object to the advertisements of big self-media accounts such as "Mimeng", "Hu Xinshu", and "Genius Red Panda "? Because they give users certain value through text before pushing ads.

Finally, to summarize the views of this article, information flow copywriting is ultimately still a type of advertising. Since it is advertising, it cannot lose its sophistication. On the contrary, information flow ads need to be more sophisticated and adapt to the users of information flow. While recommending products, they must also bring content value to users. We cannot ignore the consumer experience just for the sake of the statistical indicator of CTR. CTR does not tell us what consumers really think.

Attachment:

• CTR: Click-through rate is a commonly used term in Internet advertising . It refers to the click-through rate of online advertising (image ads/text ads/ keyword ads/ranking ads/ video ads , etc.), that is, the actual number of clicks on the ad. CTR=actual number of clicks/impressions.