Douyin Qianchuan push flow mechanism new rules and brand promotion

"In just a few seconds of video, everything that needs to be shown is shown, and no action is redundant."

This is a comment below a recent TikTok video that received a million likes. Unlike previous advertisements, the actors in the video had no lines and even no expression on their faces. They used a few actions such as splashing water to demonstrate the selling point of a white-label umbrella, but received tens of thousands of comments, and the product was once sold out.

The sales of this hit video exceeded 1.3 million on the same day

In fact, this year many small and medium-sized emerging brands have been trying to iterate their content output - not just out of online sense or to stimulate user interest like the above advertisements, but more importantly because the policy direction of Douyin e-commerce is constantly changing, traditional hard advertising is becoming less and less popular.

Starting from May 25, Juliang Qianchuan officially updated the "Recommendation Ranking Collaborative Strategy". Based on ECPM (estimated revenue per thousand impressions) , it added two new indicators: content interaction and delivery GPM (sales generated by thousand impressions) . This move directly affects the marketing decisions of merchants on Douyin e-commerce:

• First, merchants cannot only focus on the ECPM indicator in the future. Under the new sorting logic, if you only optimize eCTR (click-through rate) , eCVR (conversion rate) or bids, you will not be able to maximize the traffic effect.
• Second, the importance of high-quality content and transaction indicators has increased. The interactions brought by high-quality content, such as staying and paying attention in the live broadcast room, completing short videos and likes, will have an important impact on marketing effectiveness.

In order to help brands better interpret Qianchuan’s new regulations and understand the logic of creating high-quality content on the platform, Daofa Research Institute invited Hei Niu, the founder of Aipai Content Technology, to provide some suggestions on how to create good content and create hits for emerging brands from the perspective of a full-case service provider for Douyin, for discussion among the majority of operators.

01 Qianchuan’s new rules: Advertisements are more content-oriented and are also friendly to high-volume customers

Q: How do you interpret Qianchuan’s new regulations and what should brands pay attention to?

Answer: Before Qianchuan, people used AD, UD and other delivery tools to promote information flow materials on Douyin. With Qianchuan, merchants need to make placements based on brand content: if the content is very basic, they can focus on the lower-tier population; if it is promotional information, then it should be targeted at the promotional population. Brands can understand Qianchuan as a placement tool that is more inclined to "integration of brand and effect."

Qianchuan matches brands with content traffic pool + advertising traffic pool. Previously, there were more advertising traffic pools and fewer content traffic pools, which meant that no matter whether it was hard advertising or soft advertising, as long as it could impress consumers in a certain traffic pool, it was considered "good content." For example, before you could just say “buy one get five, cheaper than offline supermarkets”.

After the adjustment of Qianchuan’s traffic promotion mechanism, it is equivalent to expanding the entire content traffic pool. The platform may hope that brands will do soft implantation, and the content attributes of the advertisements will be stronger. Based on this wave of Qianchuan's adjustments, it is highly beneficial to content-based organizations. At the same time, the support of high GPM indicators can also prevent brands from passively flowing into the ECPM ranking competition dominated solely by bidding.

Q: What specific advertising content may be phased out?

Answer: There is a process of elimination, and the judgment logic behind it is: if this advertisement is pushed to users in the content traffic pool, will the users be disgusted?

For example, “Don’t buy it when it was 199 the day before yesterday, don’t buy it when it was 149 yesterday, will you buy it today when it is 99?”, or the kind of listing of “one, two, three, four, five” selling points, and then someone next to you asking how much such a good product would cost, and then directly quoting the price - this kind of “hard advertising” material is not encouraged by the platform. Of course, we can't simply dismiss it, because these materials are very useful for Douyin's large number of sinking markets. The platform simply does not encourage brands to do this kind of thing, but it is hard to say whether there are any restrictions or not.

But if I say "No boy can refuse this gift" and then introduce the product, or use some content elements such as card points and cross-dressing when displaying the product, the users of the content pool may see half of it without realizing it, and even if they see this advertisement, they will not be too disgusted.

All we can say is that the materials are iterated step by step, just like the first wave of eliminated materials was a picture with a big-character poster on it, which is basically not seen now. The content is evolving slowly.

Q: You mentioned that Douyin has a high share in the lower-tier markets. So for most brands, after Qianchuan’s new regulations, are brands with high or low average order values ​​more competitive in terms of acquiring traffic?

Answer: Now after Qianchuan’s new adjustments, it has left more room for high-priced customers. This space does not just mean that brands can win simply by bidding high, but the GPM indicator has been added after adjustment to influence the bidding ranking. Soft advertising content is the brand's strength, and the combination of the two creates more opportunities.

Let’s take a look at the case of the "Leifen hair dryer" which was quite popular some time ago. In terms of functionality, it is comparable to the "Dyson", but the price of "Leifen" is only 1/5 of the latter, which is equivalent to "low average order value" to some extent. However, in fact, the main product is priced at 599 yuan, which is a high average order value. It is a category consumption upgrade based on precise user insights. After seeing the upgrades in product functions of "Leifen", many users will want to try it and think about whether this product can bring a better experience. This is essentially the point.

Therefore, the high average order value of "Leifen Hair Dryer" allows it to adapt to the promotion logic of the Douyin system. On the one hand, the marketing expenses account for a high proportion and the average order value is relatively high, so the bid will also be high. ECPM will have certain advantages in the competition in the same category because the average order value of its peers is low; on the other hand, Leifen's content is of very high quality. Although the price has increased, the conversion rate after multiple touches is not low. With the support of high-quality content, Qianchuan's consumption is very high and the running volume data is also very good.

02 Hot products are the basis of content creation, and visual expression requires exploring the details of selling points

Q: How do you think emerging brands can gain popularity on Douyin?

A: When brands engage in Douyin e-commerce, the priority should be “product > image > copywriting”. Douyin is currently more suitable for the logic of super large single products, so the product positioning must conform to the context of the Douyin platform:

• The product should be suitable for display in short videos and live broadcasts. For example, Li Jiaqi has previously promoted a foot bath bag. The brand designed the bath bag to change color or explode when it comes into contact with water, which creates a strong visual impact, allowing users to be aware of the product and be attracted by these novelties.
• Gain insight into consumers’ potential needs and make micro-innovations and upgrades to products. Before the product comes out, users may feel that they don’t need it, but after seeing it, they will be influenced by the content and, with the help of interest-based e-commerce, they will have the desire to make impulse purchases, such as the "Leifen Hair Dryer" mentioned earlier.

Including the cases we are responsible for, "Pinqi Building Blocks" and the meal replacement brand "Future Ke 7", both of them are taking the route of blockbuster products.

First of all, the main products promoted by these brands on Douyin have been verified by other platforms. The products themselves are strong enough. Coming to Douyin is a process of amplifying the volume, not directly from 0 to 1. Secondly, the brand has a deeper insight into consumer needs. For example, the selling point of "Future Ke 7" is "healthy and delicious", which differentiates it from other light meal products.

Of course, if the brand has the budget, it still needs to collaborate with celebrities and influencers, and use celebrity endorsements to promote high-end products. "未来可7" is a process in which it is able to output content on its own, with the support of Li Xueqin, plus the dividends of the category and track, taking advantage of the platform's promotion of the concept of light meals, and finally detonating.

Q: Many start-up brands may not have the opportunity to collaborate with many celebrities and influencers. How can they promote brand content under limited conditions?

Answer: It is recommended that brands use single production content to maximize its effect.

For example, the brand will use a relatively large budget to cooperate with some influencers, and the brand will first use the influencers' own traffic to promote the brand. On this basis, brands can ask influencers for authorization to use this material for bidding advertising, content promotion, or content services. In addition, brands can also directly use this material to direct traffic to the store’s live broadcast room for Qianchuan delivery. To sum it up: bidding advertising + content services + Qianchuan delivery.

Last year, it was more popular for brands to create matrix accounts themselves. This year, it has become the "group leader logic", that is, when a brand promotes a product, it may look for 500 KOLs or KOCs to promote it. Whoever produces effective content will be directly authorized by the brand to use the material for the shared account. This is also a way of maximizing the effect of a single content under the horse racing logic.

Q: After Qianchuan’s new regulations, how do you determine what content will become a hit? What do these popular contents have in common, and what insights do they provide for brand creation? Especially for start-up brands, how to find popular content and exercises?

Answer: As for the reference standard of hit videos, in fact, the performance-based advertising videos with over 10,000 likes must at least consume 100,000+ materials. If they consume 100,000, they have a certain reference value.

Similar to the logic of popular products, the common feature of these popular contents is that they combine the product selling points for visual expression, but the form differs when facing different customer groups. For example, if your users tend to be in the lower-end market, then the video style and music should be more down-to-earth, and you can refer to some popular background music; if your product has a higher average order value, then you will have higher requirements for editing rhythm, picture, etc.

As for whether to imitate popular content, we actually need to consider a major premise: does the brand want to plant grass or to achieve pure effect conversion? If the content is product promotion, it must not copy the template, because it is a very subjective expression; on the contrary, performance advertising can make some reference to the template.

For start-up brands, some tools will be used in content creation, including the official massive creative content of Douyin and third-party data platforms (Kuaixuanpin, Chanmama, Douchacha, Feigua, etc.) , which can capture some trailer content corresponding to your category. The important thing is to quickly iterate and update according to your own brand characteristics after referring to the template.

Q: In fact, the visualization of content is a long-standing consensus. From what specific perspectives do you think brands can disassemble and "express visually"?

Answer: When we talk about visual expression, we usually refer to the functional design of the product itself, rather than just the packaging. Good-looking packaging can only influence a part of users who have demand for design, such as trendy toys and clothing. Design is the fundamental factor that influences the audience's decision. But when it comes to other categories, such as food or small appliances, "good looks" is just a bonus, not a decision-making factor. Here are a few examples of visualization from a functional perspective:

For example, the "Leifen Hair Dryer" has a wind speed of 110,000 rpm, while the wind speed of ordinary hair dryers is 50,000-60,000 rpm. How do you describe the speed? The brand places this hair dryer on the table. When turned on, the hair dryer can automatically float, which is a good way to visualize the "speed".

A hair dryer can "levitate" at high speed

For example, the Huawei speaker. In order to demonstrate its high vibration frequency, the host took a cooked egg and placed it on the speaker. The vibration frequency of the speaker can break the egg shell.

For example, to show that a water flosser can flush cleanly, the brand uses a corn as an analogy, and uses the water flosser to flush the gaps in the corn very cleanly. To express that the water flosser does not hurt the gums, the host uses a boiled and peeled egg, and uses the water flosser to flush away the stains on the surface, but the egg is not broken. These visual expressions are very clear.

03 For brands to operate Douyin e-commerce, should they build their own team or cooperate with a third party?

Q: In terms of choosing a marketing platform, what do you think about emerging brands going all in on Douyin e-commerce?

Answer : At present, Douyin e-commerce may be the platform that is closest to "product and effect integration".

Let me give you an example. The emerging brand "Mao Dali" is a relatively small cat food brand. Without a very high budget, the founder of the brand opened an account on Douyin and has already pushed the brand to the top 10 of the entire Douyin e-commerce cat canned food list, and sometimes even to the top 1.

Why does this happen? Because TikTok puts the brand's content-side users and actual purchasing-side users in the same pool, when the brand produces high-quality content, it enhances the leverage of conversion. The reason why Douyin e-commerce is different from some traditional e-commerce platforms is that the latter's content sections are mainly based on new products and shopping activities, provided that users have corresponding consumption needs - and Douyin e-commerce's own content leverage will directly stimulate user interest and demand.

Q: Douyin e-commerce encourages brands to build their own operation teams. What do you think are the differences and points to pay attention to for brands to operate Douyin themselves or become cooperative service providers?

Answer: It is a major trend for platforms to encourage brands to build their own content teams. Because operating on the Douyin channel is roughly equivalent to brand content management, content construction is the basic foundation of the brand. The team within the brand understands the product better and is more familiar with brand positioning, market pain points, etc.

The logic of cooperation with a third party is that through a professional team, brands can understand the development trend of the entire industry more quickly and get the brand account back on track more quickly. The two parties cooperated to push GMV higher. In terms of exposure-oriented businesses, service providers are more familiar with traffic investment and can match the entire advertising budget based on the brand's KPI and some plans.

For example, in the operation of brand Blue V, just like it is not necessary to form an internal team to shoot TVC, we also recommend outsourcing the Blue V account. What the brand needs to do is to master the direction of the account content planning, the approximate theme of each issue, and then use a more professional team to implement it. In terms of content quality, production cycle and dissemination, third-party agencies still have "specialties in their own fields".

Q: How can emerging brands avoid pitfalls when working with Douyin service providers?

Answer: First, we recommend that you choose Douyin brand service providers that are officially certified by Douyin, so that you won’t be “ripped off” by some unknown organizations on the market.

Second, generally speaking, the ability to produce short video content is important for more than 80% of categories, and this ability is also a must-have for assessing service providers.

Third, the brand service provider you choose should be familiar with the full-link growth of Douyin, including but not limited to Star Map, Qianchuan, Cloud Map, etc., so that the brand can have greater room for growth when doing some Douyin-related marketing, influencer BD, etc. in the future, rather than just cooperating with a broadcasting company.

It should also be noted that the success of some service providers may be due to the fact that the cooperating products or brands themselves are more influential and have traffic overflow. They do very well when cooperating with big brands, but it does not mean that they can be strong when working with emerging brands. Therefore, if there are service providers who can do a good job with emerging brands, the overall capabilities of these institutions are often stronger. For emerging brands, it is necessary to clarify the differentiated appeals between themselves and big brands before choosing a service provider.

04 Analysts’ Comments

Douyin e-commerce is becoming more and more competitive. It not only competes with other e-commerce platforms through its own rapid iteration, but also requires all brands that invest in this platform to subjectively refuse to take a flat position. From the beginning of their entry, they have developed the habit of continuously deepening their roots and making money here.

In addition to grabbing the attention of brands, Douyin e-commerce is different in another way: traditional e-commerce generally facilitates transactions from the perspective of trust. It started as a social platform, which is destined to be content-first and interest-driven transactions. The so-called "passionate ordering" is well-documented.

Therefore, if brands still view joining Douyin this year as a "pure harvesting" behavior, it would be a "big leak" to use the popular term in the Douyin system. The platform hopes to see more and more brands become long-term content outputters after joining, and like celebrities and influencers, form a stable creator matrix, which will continue to attract users, and finally achieve a win-win situation for the platform and brands.

At the same time, as brands’ self-built operation teams become more mature, the brands themselves will have a better understanding of the platform and industry dynamics, and their reliance on third-party organizations will decrease, which will inevitably promote the upgrading of the business level of Douyin service providers.

In the future, the relationship between platforms, brands and service providers will become more complicated. For emerging brands, accurately identifying their own brand positioning and product micro-innovation features, transforming them into unique content assets, and trying to consider the expression of brand power in every marketing behavior are always the cornerstones of cooperation with the other two parties.

Author: Knife Research Institute

Source: Knife Skills Research Institute