New Channel for App Store Promotion: Mobile Video Advertising

As App promotion channels mature, CPs and publishers increasingly feel that the previous method of purchasing product traffic can no longer meet the current market promotion needs in an increasingly competitive market. Moreover, nowadays, the industry tends to be rational and calm, and product quality and brand are increasingly valued. Everyone also hopes to have new and more sustainable high-quality promotion methods besides crude and simple user acquisition methods.

After the release of Apple's iOS 8 system, the App Store was the first to implement the product video introduction function, which prompted many CPs to begin to examine their work in video promotion. Many advertising platforms have also launched mobile video ads this year. For many people, this is still a relatively unfamiliar form of mobile advertising. So let’s talk about how much potential value it has.

1. What is mobile video advertising?

Generally speaking, it is a dynamic audio-visual embedded advertisement that uses HTML5 technology and streaming media technology to present to the audience in In-Apps mode on mobile phones. Simply put, it is a form of advertising that embeds advertisers’ promotional videos in various apps, allowing users to directly download and use the videos, interact with H5, visit web pages, and so on after watching them.

It should be noted that the App patch video ads on video websites do not strictly belong to this category. They are the translation of PC-side patch ads, which are played one after another in a concentrated period of time. The user experience is relatively poor, and it is impossible to achieve active stay on the landing page of the embedded video ads and direct marketing conversion.

2. Current status of the industry

This new form of advertising has actually gradually matured in overseas markets. Tapjoy and InMobi are the leaders, and many overseas mobile games have embedded their video advertising SDKs, such as Temple Run 2 and Angry Birds 2. In China, it is still in the development stage. Youmi and Changsi are the main forces. Their video advertisements can be seen in Happy Match and Where Are We Going, Dad 2.

In terms of advertisers, mobile games, e-commerce, social networking, maternal and infant products, and some high-end brands are the most actively investing customers. It is predicted that more advertisers who value user loyalty will flock to the market in the future. In terms of media, parkour, elimination, and puzzle mobile games, reading, wallpaper, video applications, and apps transferred from interstitial ads are currently the main media for video ads.

3. Principles of Advertising

This is the core technology of each platform, and the effectiveness of the delivery is highly dependent on technical capabilities and operational experience. It is understood that general platforms will adopt the Cost Per Person strategy, where an effective audience is only charged for the first time the advertisement reaches it. If the user quits the video before completing it, the system will not include it in the billing.

Although it is In-Apps implantation, advertising videos are often not scheduled to be played at fixed nodes as generally believed. Usually, the appropriate advertising entry point is selected based on the usage scenario of the App and several pre-analysis strategies. Users also have the right to choose advertisements and can actively select their favorite video content to take subsequent actions, thereby improving the effect on target users.

Operators will use cross-media frequency control methods to limit advertising exposure. When a user watches a video on one device to achieve optimal conversion conditions, the user will not see the ad on any app. Using this strategy can ensure the rational use of advertisers’ budgets without affecting the advertising experience of App users.

The network environment was the biggest obstacle to the implementation of video advertising in the past. Now, with the use of intelligent physical caching technology, it is basically not affected by the environment. When the App is on a WiFi network, the background can cache the video material locally without affecting the user experience, and deliver it when requested, solving the problem of smooth video loading.

4. Comparison of advantages and disadvantages of other forms

If we classify various promotion methods, we can roughly divide them into two categories: one is exposure display advertising, such as interstitial, Guangdiantong, CPT package, etc.; the other is buying volume effect advertising, such as CPA network alliance, ranking, ASO optimization, etc. Video advertising is the final upgraded version of the first type, evolving from simple text and pictures to rich, layered content that integrates video, audio, and animation.

Therefore, it naturally inherits the characteristics of this type of advertising, such as high target user proportion, long retention, and good quality, and can play a good role in brand communication, and can be coordinated with various holiday marketing and game operation activities. Moreover, the implantation technique can be combined with the App usage scenario, which is not easy to make users feel resistance. Advertisements are placed when users are focused, and the content disseminated by marketing is not easily ignored by users subjectively. Therefore, video advertising will definitely be a major trend in the future when mobile promotion channels enter a new stage.

However, at present, this newer form is not yet familiar to the vast majority of CPs, and everyone lacks experience in the key points of its placement, which may affect the judgment of channel data. Moreover, advertisers need to produce videos, and the quality of the videos will directly affect the final effectiveness of their advertising. Moreover, this type of advertising that relies on exposure and display to attract audiences is unlikely to produce rapid and large-scale effects in a short period of time. It goes through a qualitative change process from a silent period to an explosive period. So it’s okay to build word-of-mouth and promote the brand, but it’s a bit difficult to directly and crudely drive sales.

V. Cooperation Process and Results

First of all, the CP must have an advertising video, preferably 15 seconds or 30 seconds long.

Try to use full HD format files to ensure the playback quality after compression. If it is a small company and does not have the manpower and resources to make a beautiful video, you can choose to use a composite video with dynamic images and text effects. In order to improve their services, advertising platforms now generally provide professional video production services, and even provide free production for projects with large cooperation amounts.

Considering the video style, users tend to like those with actual App screens and performances by real beauties. The click-through rate and conversion rate of this type are quite good.

On the contrary, the 3D animation effect should not be too cool, just appropriate. Because users are now very savvy about being deceived by advertisements, they often have a distrustful reaction to advertisements with exaggerated effects, thinking, “Duang, this has special effects, it’s fake, it’s a lie.” Therefore, the video content should still highlight the product features and use the demands of the core user group to carry out publicity, which can help screen out high-quality users and promote product retention, payment and functional activity.

After the video is handed over to the advertising platform, the platform will make an initial delivery strategy based on the product, video and traffic, as well as the budget and requirements.

What CP needs to do is to pay attention to the data performance of the package and exchange data with the platform regularly. The platform may provide feedback every 3 to 5 days, including total number of broadcasts, number of complete broadcasts, number of clicks, etc. The CP will observe its own activation, registration, retention, payment, etc. over time, and then feed the data back to the platform so that the platform can adjust its strategy purposefully. This can minimize the cost during the optimization period and reach the optimal investment-production ratio level as quickly as possible.

For application apps that put video ads, the activation conversion cost for social and e-commerce products will be relatively low, and it is understood to be about 16-25 yuan. The user retention rate and activity will generally be much higher than the amount directed by CPT ads.

It is said that Yangmatou’s ROI reached 36% on the first day of the video launch, which may be related to the fact that the video user pool has not been laundered. For game apps, the activation conversion cost for a smaller casual game package can be as low as around 15 yuan, while a larger package may cost more than 20 yuan. Because users directed by the video are greatly influenced by the brand image, the monthly recovery rate will be around 60% after the launch is stable, and the AURP value of Brawl in the West exceeds 40 yuan.

By observing the development history of the industry, it can be seen that the forms of App promotion are constantly innovating, optimizing and upgrading. When each new form of advertising is first discovered by the market, it contains the greatest value, just like an unmined gold mine, with clean users waiting to be cleaned up. Online alliances, point walls, Guangdiantong, and hot searches, the first people who dared to try these "crabs" eventually made a fortune and retired with honor. The same is true for video advertising. It depends on who is bold and careful enough to seize the mountaintop, enclose a piece of land, and get a share of the pie.