From 0 to 1: Basic knowledge of mobile Internet advertising

I have been in charge of advertising since the end of last year. Although I have not been involved in it for a long time, because the company's advertising was basically starting from scratch, I have almost done everything by myself, from uploading materials, cost optimization to data monitoring, etc. I have not had any systematic learning, and when I encountered problems that I did not understand, I would ask the agency or the media for help. So, today I would like to share with you some of my own experiences, and you are also welcome to communicate with each other, comment and correct me.

1. Basic terms and concepts that need to be understood before launching

Common basic terms for advertising include CPC, CPM, CPA, CPS, and CTR . If you are just starting out in the industry, you will definitely be confused. Let me describe these concepts in my own words.

1. CPC

CPC stands for cost per click, which is the basic click bid for an ad. That is, the amount of money you need to spend when a user clicks on your ad once.
2. CPM

CPM means cost per thousand impressions, which is the price for showing the ad 1,000 times. If you need to calculate, the simple formula is CPM = (consumption/exposure) 1000, consumption/exposure is the price per display, and 1000 is the price per thousand displays.
But if you want to apply it to actual optimization, I suggest that the company you need to understand is CPM=CPC CTR 1000. CTR is the click-through rate , and CPC CTR is the cost per impression. For example, if the bid is 1 yuan and the CTR is 1%, then after 1000, the CPM will be 10 yuan; if the bid is still 1 yuan, but the CTR is 2%, then after *1000, the CPM will be 20 yuan.

As can be seen from the above, when the CPC bid remains unchanged, the higher the CTR, the higher the CPM. The higher the CPM, the more the advertising platform system will consider the ad to be more competitive, so it will give it more exposure. If there are more exposures and the CTR is still very high, a virtuous circle will be formed.

3. CPA

CPA is a bidding method different from CPC and CPM, and can be understood as charging based on results. For example, if the advertiser needs the number of activations and the CPA bid is 10, then the advertising platform will help you achieve your goal at a cost of 10 yuan. The settlement method can also be based on the monitored number of activations * CPA bid.

But there is a saying that the quality of CPA is not high and contains a lot of fake ingredients. What do you think about this?

4.CPS

CPS can be understood as charging based on transaction. In order to avoid the costs of uncertain advertising effects, advertisers pay commissions to the platform based on actual transaction volume. I haven't played this format yet, if anyone knows about it, please introduce it to me.

5. CTR

As mentioned above, CTR means click-through rate.
There are some other less commonly used names, which I will not introduce one by one.

2. Advertising Forms

1. Information flow advertising

The form of mobile advertising is consistent with the user usage scenarios of mobile devices. On mobile phones or pads, users browse from top to bottom. Compared with PC, mobile users have a more focused perspective, and corresponding native information flow ads have emerged.

What needs to be emphasized here is the "native" nature of advertising. The originality here is reflected in the originality of the copy and pictures. Imagine that when you are browsing the news, an advertisement that looks very much like news appears. Will you subconsciously click on it? Although some people may say that this is a bit like cheating for clicks, if even the ctr is very low, how can we talk about the competitiveness of the advertisement?
At this point, what you need to do is to make a good loading page after clicking in. Only a loading page that is similar to the advertisement title can dispel people's concerns about being deceived. At the same time, exquisite pages can also attract users to stay or take the next step. After all, everyone loves beauty.

I have seen a game product whose copywriting and pictures all use the gimmick of "beauties", but when you click in, you will jump directly to the app store. I don't know how much it costs them, but as far as I am concerned, the experience is very bad.

2. Splash screen ads

The price of splash screen ads is relatively expensive and is mainly used for brand exposure. When advertisers have a big sale or launch a new product, they will consider splash screen ads. There are several billing methods for splash screen ads, such as CPT (charged by duration) and CPD (charged by day), which are generally considered by large sponsors with sufficient funds. For example, Tmall and JD.com . Today, I would like to introduce the opening screen broadcast of Toutiao .

Toutiao’s opening screen broadcast is also broadcast on Toutiao’s backend AD background, but it is another product independent of the information flow. In addition to the fact that all expenses are spent on Toutiao's AD background, the materials and data for the opening screen broadcast are all produced separately. The opening screen broadcast will have a media pool consisting of dozens of media, and advertisers' ads will be allocated to the opening screens of these media.

The advantage is that advertisers only need to use flexible bidding methods such as CPC or CPM to obtain the opening screen traffic , and the bid is not high. For a period of time, the activation cost of the opening screen broadcast I invested in was much lower than that of the information flow, and the volume was also large and stable. But its disadvantage is that if your ad is assigned to a media with poor traffic quality, then your ad will never run, or even if it runs, the cost will be very high. But overall, the Toutiao opening screen broadcast is very cost-effective.

3. Patch ads

In-stream ads mostly appear on video advertising media, such as Youku, iQiyi , etc. Like splash screen ads, patch ads are prone to accidental clicks. If you use CPC bidding, then you will lose money.
But the advantage of patch ads is that they provide a sense of continuity and integrity during browsing. When patch ads appear in front of users, they are often accompanied by content. When the user's browsing purpose is not so strong, and the design of the patch ads can interest the user, then the CTR of the ad can be guaranteed first.

There is also DSP , which can be simply understood as an advertising traffic distribution platform that will place your ads on different types of media. However, I have not invested in DSP yet, so I can’t say much about it. Friends with experience can express their opinions.

3. Material Design

The design of the materials mainly includes two aspects: text and pictures. The quality of the material will be directly reflected in the CTR, but it does not mean that the cost of materials with high CTR will be ideal. But as I mentioned above, if the CTR is very low, then even if the cost of this advertisement is ok now, it will be unsustainable in the long run.

1. Copywriting

For advertisements with different purposes, the delivery strategies will also be different, so before delivery, you must be clear about your purpose. For example, if you want to build a brand this time, then your copy must highlight your brand element information, and at least include your brand name. Because building a brand is about creating an intangible value that has a subtle influence on users, and what you need to do is to make users remember you.
Effect-oriented copywriting, on the other hand, focuses more on results. For example, if you are doing activation, then your goal is to make users interested in your product and willing to download and activate it. I was chatting with a friend a few days ago and when we talked about games, he blurted out: You start with a dog and a gun, and all the equipment is picked up. If you often read Toutiao, you should be familiar with this copy, which is the advertising copy of a game product. A simple analysis shows that in today's environment where mobile games are flourishing, many newcomers have emerged, but they are also facing the problem of homogeneity of game content, and many games rely on recharges and are not played by skills at all. What this copy means is, come and play, I don’t need you to recharge, the quality of your equipment depends on luck. For users who have played web games and mobile games before, this is an attraction, and the operation cost is not high. Why not download it and give it a try?

At the same time, if the advertisements are placed in different cities, I suggest that the copy can add the local name and choose the local dialect, and AB testing can be carried out. I previously increased the ctr by 1% by making some changes to the copy. For example, if you want to invest in Shanghai, you can add the word "Shanghai" in the copy, and try to write a copy in Shanghai dialect; if you want to invest in Guangzhou, you can try to write a copy in Guangzhou dialect. This down-to-earth copy can further attract local users. However, there are some advertising platforms that do not allow writing in dialect.
In addition to the ad title, other locations where copy can be displayed must also be used well. For example, on Toutiao today, there is a place at the bottom to write a subtitle. The subtitle of an e-commerce APP is: 7 of your friends have already downloaded it. When I first saw it, I stayed there for a few seconds longer, which is also a reflection of the originality of the copy.

2. Images

In addition to the copy, the next thing users can see directly is the picture. The main image formats now include large images, single small images, and three small images. The choice of location also needs to be determined based on the material.

Here, one point I want to mention is that advertising images are not meant to be made according to aesthetic standards. Some people may wonder, should we make it uglier? The purpose of performance-based advertising is to achieve conversions , not to participate in picture competitions. As long as the results are good, it means that users accept it, and we should stick to it. So, the point I mention here again is "originality".

Many advertising images are particularly gorgeous and cool, but users are not stupid. They can tell that they are ads at a glance. In today's apps where every second of usage time is precious, your ad may be swiped away after just a glance. However, if your ad can be more native in the information flow, users may treat your ad as a piece of information and browse it for a few more seconds, and the probability of clicking on it will increase.

However, there is a contradiction here. Internet advertising pursues the combination of brand and effect. If your pictures are too down-to-earth, it is not a good thing for brand communication. First of all, your boss may not agree, but at the same time, as a member of the company, you also need to consider all of this with a responsible attitude, rather than making completing KPI the only goal.

4. Data Monitoring

For most advertisers, they will choose a third-party data monitoring platform, which only requires one connection to run smoothly on almost all advertising platforms.

The principle of third-party monitoring is to use a third-party data monitoring link and add it to the advertising platform. The user's data will be recorded from the moment the click occurs until the user downloads or activates the app, and then the data callback will be used for comparison.

Although third-party monitoring is objective, some platforms also have large deviations, with the highest difference reaching around 40%. A situation we have encountered so far is that an advertisement generates a large number of clicks every day on a third-party monitoring platform, but neither the media nor the monitoring party can find where the problem lies. The consumption of traffic is also a cost.

5. Combining brand and effect

Compared with traditional offline advertising, the biggest temptation of Internet advertising lies in the combination of brand and effect. Offline advertising is basically for brand exposure and has almost no conversion, while online advertising can not only deepen users' impression of your brand, but also shorten the path of user conversion.

For brands that are not yet well-known, advertising is a long-term process. Advertisers should not be too hasty and think that advertising will bring about a qualitative leap after a period of time. While it helps you acquire new customers, it also subtly influences the minds of users. At the same time, I particularly do not recommend that advertisers pause all advertisements when they see that the results are not good.

On the one hand, this will affect the quality of your account. Although there is no clear indicator for account quality, it does exist. Once you stop advertising and start it again, you will find that the account will be difficult to run for a while.

On the other hand, if your ad is seen for a long time and then suddenly disappears one day, people will speculate whether your business is failing. If you are in the financing stage, this is not a good signal for interested capital parties.

The above are some of my thoughts. When I first started doing advertising, I was also confused, so whenever I encountered problems that I didn’t understand, I would keep asking my agent friends. The more I asked, the more I did, and the more I thought about it, I formed my own thinking system about advertising. Over time, I feel that advertising is a very interesting thing, and I hope that everyone can gain their own experience and happiness from it.