Advanced Operations | A new way to control traffic, with 4 cases, 10,000-word collector's edition

Advanced Operations | A new way to control traffic, with 4 cases, 10,000-word collector's edition
As we all know, traffic is a matter of life and death for today's enterprises. After all, it means the possibility of acquiring customers (users). After the rise of Internet commerce, the optional traffic categories have increased exponentially. As a result, traffic has become more difficult to control and it is difficult to know where to start. As long as your work involves "traffic", you will definitely encounter the following problems: ● Too much traffic, tens of thousands, difficult to choose (see note below), even more troublesome to implementNegotiating with traffic owners is tricky, hard to tell good from badExpensive, tiring to bargainLow quality of users acquired through traffic, low activity rate, low stickiness This is a real headache. Not to mention the difficulty in carrying out work and lack of sense of accomplishment, if the performance is not good and the boss's face changes, you may lose your job in a matter of minutes. Where is the solution? ——Rethinking: What is the essence of traffic? Is there a more effective traffic operation strategy? Below, we will give you an effective yet simpler solution. Common domestic traffic (accumulated thousands of types) Online paid traffic: search engines (Baidu, 360, Sogou); large e-commerce platforms (Taobao, JD.com, Amazon); major APP markets (dozens of them); precision recommendation products ( Guangdiantong , Fanstong , Fuyi...); online alliances ; the four major portals; navigation (such as Hao123, 360 URL, Sogou, 360)...Online free traffic: various social platforms ( official accounts , Weibo, Zhihu, Douban, Momo, Maimai, Himalaya FM, Miaopai, Youku , iQiyi, various live broadcasts ...), reviews (the most beautiful applications, Next, Zhijianer, Aipipi...), media from various industries, social marketing communications, WeChat groups , QQ groups, various forums...Offline traffic: subways, newspapers, bus stops, building advertisements, airports, high-speed trains, TV programs, sports event sponsorship, community properties, universities, books and magazines...Other traffic: celebrity endorsements (tens of thousands); mutual promotion APP products; other mature APP cooperation and exchange of traffic with similar users; mutual promotion of self-media ... 1. Our understanding of traffic is far from enough to cope with the work We closed our eyes and I said, "Go buy some traffic." Do the following immediately come to your mind: Baidu search, App Store , subways and buses, influencers... etc.? 

 This is because we interpret traffic as a channel to gain popularity and attention. Although this way of understanding traffic is simple and intuitive, you will find in operational practice that it has little practical value. ——It is impossible to effectively guide the operation work, and it is even more difficult to improve the input-output ratio of operation resources. Those of us who work in operations know that there are many options for operations work, so we must give priority to and invest in cost-effective operations strategies. But does this level of explanation of traffic give us any insights into what we are thinking about? Can you let us know which traffic is the best and most cost-effective? Obviously not. A while ago, a friend who is an operations person asked me about operations and promotion . He asked: Which promotion effect do you think is the best among Baidu search bidding, Fans Link, and subway advertising? I said: This question is rather complicated and it depends on your product features, user characteristics, company resources, and operational strategy. He just said: It doesn't matter, the company has plenty of money, you just need to tell me which channel has large traffic and users come quickly... You should have noticed that from the questions asked by my friend, we can see that his understanding of traffic has basically been simplified to two very small variables: popularity, big or small; and cost, high or low. It's like looking for a partner. The matchmaker asks you what kind of person you're looking for, and you say, a female, a living one. How can anyone help you? I believe this friend’s interpretation of traffic is very representative. I can say responsibly that "traffic" is one of the most core concepts in operations. If you only understand it to this extent, it is not enough to be competent for an operations position. It is like a historian who only knows how to interpret history from the perspective of the ruling class. Such a perspective is very narrow and may even reinforce people's worship of power and violence. On the contrary, when history can deconstruct, blend and simplify history through the perspectives of economy, society, culture and even species evolution, such a grand historical perspective can provide far-reaching guidance for the subsequent development of mankind. In fact, when we say whether a person is professional or good in a certain field, what we are actually looking at is how thoroughly he understands the core concepts of that field. So, what is the essence of traffic? How to apply it in operational practice? If we want to deeply understand something, we should avoid starting from the surface, but grasp the internal logic. For example, if we look at traffic from a superficial and narrow perspective, it is a variety of promotion channels, which are very scattered and difficult to evaluate. But if we think from the perspective of the traffic receptor: the user, everything is completely different. 

 2. The inherent characteristics of traffic are the premise for us to control traffic well Let's first look at what traffic actually means from the micro perspective of individual users: Scenario 1: You need a photo-enhancing app. This product is simple and risk-free, so you search directly on the app store and download an app with high ratings. (At this time, the app store is the main traffic source) Scenario 2: You want to download a financial management app. This product also has high security requirements. So your first reaction is to consult a few friends who have used financial management products and ask them to recommend a few. Then you download it from the app store. (In this case, your friends, that is, the old users of a financial management product, are the traffic sources, not the app store.) Scenario three: You want to buy a book related to operations, but don’t know which book is good. You happen to see a recommended book list by an operations expert in an article forwarded in the circle of friends, so you decisively find the book purchase address on Baidu and then place an order. (In this case, for "book selection", the operation expert (KOL, key opinion leader) is the traffic master, while for "book purchasing channel", Baidu search is the traffic master) Scenario 4: You have been unhappy at work recently and suddenly saw an advertisement for a recruitment company in a subway ad: "Work takes up 70% of your life. Do you want to spend it unhappy?", so you immediately download the app and prepare to look for new job opportunities. (At this time, subway ads are the main traffic source, and your needs are passively awakened) In fact, there are tens of thousands of users who select products (goods) in a similar way. Okay, now let’s think about it, if we put these thousands of individuals together, do we suddenly have a different view of “traffic”? Yes, once we look at it from the macro perspective of users, we can gain insight into four key characteristics of traffic: Feature 1: The scope of traffic is larger than the popularity channel. For example, the "user word-of-mouth" mentioned in the example of scenario 1 is a very high-value traffic when viewed as a whole, but most companies have never viewed it from the perspective of "traffic". Be careful not to narrowly equate traffic with channels. This is like thinking that a monitor is a computer. Feature 2: Traffic is a "relative" concept. It is meaningful only when it is linked to a specific product. For example, for "books", KOL users are the key traffic sources, but for simple and free APP products, traffic from the app store is more valuable. When we talk about traffic, please remember to think of “product” Feature 3: Traffic is closely related to users’ decision-making behavior. For example, for financial products with high decision-making costs, users trust their friends (old users of financial products) more, which means that old users are the key traffic. But for products with very low decision-making costs, such as buying a bottle of Coca-Cola, you may be suddenly stimulated to buy it when you see an advertisement at a bus stop. At this time, the traffic weight of bus advertisements is greater. Feature 4: Traffic has “path integrity”, and only the end point of the traffic path is the winner This situation is more common in e-commerce: for example, a user wants to buy a SLR camera, so he goes to a Suning store to do various tests. The shopping guide is very attentive and patient and gives all kinds of professional suggestions. The user is very satisfied, and finally places an order decisively on JD.com... Well, this kind of tragedy is actually being played out every day with different scripts. For example, when you go to Ping An Bank to do business, the bank recommends Ping An Securities to you. For the first time, you realize that it is time to enter the stock market, so you go online to learn about various securities companies, and finally open an account with China Merchants Securities... The last point often kills without bloodshed. Many companies that fail here may not have figured out how much promotion expenses they have spent to benefit others. At this point, we can conclude that in order to effectively carry out operations: it is nonsense to talk about traffic without considering products and user decisions. Please note that for a specific product, it is the user who chooses (believes in) a certain carrier (information) to make it become traffic, rather than you as an operator choosing to purchase a certain "traffic" and pinning your hopes on " conversion rate ". You should know that many times, there is a conversion rate called "failure". These are two completely different starting points for thinking. 3. Simplify the complex: summarize into four categories of traffic Then, following the "traffic view" proposed by Li Shaojia, we can easily identify: for a specific product, how to choose the most appropriate one from a wide variety of traffic. 

 Below, we classify the numerous traffic of mainstream products into four categories, which will make it very easy to control the traffic later (for the convenience of explanation, we will name these four types of traffic): The first category: high-weight active traffic means traffic from users who actively obtain certain information and trust the information source very much (which has a great influence on user decision-making). For example, recommendations from old users. The second category: low-weight active traffic is also traffic that users actively obtain, but has less impact on user decisions and can also be understood as auxiliary decision-making traffic. For example, Baidu search. The third category: optional passive traffic. This is traffic unique to the Internet, which means some other "options" that users passively obtain during the decision-making process (the operation behavior is obtained by the server). The most typical examples are: Taobao recommendations and precise content push. The fourth category: awakening passive traffic means that users have no explicit (active) needs, but after being exposed to specific information, some implicit needs are suddenly awakened, which in turn generates some decision-making behavior traffic. For example, subway advertising. To help you better understand the above four types of traffic, we use the user's "initiative" as the horizontal axis and the "decision-making influence weight" on the user as the vertical axis to draw a distribution diagram of the above four types of traffic: 

 The size of the circle in the above picture can also be roughly understood as the population that the traffic usually covers. It can be seen that although the number of people in the first category of traffic is small, they are all very valuable, while the second, third, and fourth categories of traffic are full of uncertainty (they may have no effect or even a negative impact on user decisions). The following elaborates on the applicability of these four types of traffic and their respective operating strategies, so that we can cope with them with ease in the future when operating and promoting various products. The first type of traffic: high-weight active traffic The most typical first type of traffic mainly includes: word-of-mouth communication from old users, authoritative vertical forums (Douban, Autohome ), KOL (part) 

 Research conclusions from cognitive psychology confirm that most of the time, people’s decision-making behavior is not purely rational, especially in cases of information asymmetry. The most important factors affecting people’s decision-making are “the availability of information” and “whether the information is representative”. This means that for most non-standard products (goods) with high decision-making costs, if a trusted friend has "used it" or an authoritative expert (key opinion leader) has "recommended it", then it is very likely to become the user's first choice when making decisions. Even if the user subsequently obtains more options from other channels and has no idea where to start, there is a high probability that they will still follow the original decision in the end. Therefore, if the products (goods/services) you operate are non-standard or high-decision products, please focus on operating the first type of traffic. Typical products include: products with high decision-making costs, including finance-related (financial management apps), health-related (medical products, infant products), privacy-related, expensive products (high-end digital products, houses, cars), and other non-standard services (commodities), including education and training, medical services, family services, and other knowledge-based, personal taste preference-based, and other difficult-to-quantify commodities (books, tea, wine), etc. *Note: If you are operating a channel product, such as a Taobao store, an e-commerce platform, or a chain store, then it does not fall into the category of the first type of traffic. (It is impossible to determine where the user will ultimately place the order) We will also see in the following examples that the first type of traffic is the top priority of operations in many cases. Unfortunately, this type of traffic is the most neglected in reality: For example, they focus on incremental users but not existing users, and they do more promotion but not enough service. This is precisely a reflection of completely disregarding the traffic value of old users. It is just like traditional companies keep saying “customers are God” but never really pay attention to after-sales service positions within the company. The core principle of managing "user traffic" is not to let users help you increase the presence of your product, but rather, to increase your product's favorability in the minds of users. Only goodwill can make users actively recommend your products, thus creating "traffic". So, back to reality, if we are operating a product with "high decision-making costs", when the product has a certain number of existing users, we should operate the "old user traffic" and provide corresponding resources. For example, the operational management strategies that can be adopted are: Take user satisfaction as one of the KPI indicators of operations (including customer service) (not just activity rate); tilt operational resources toward user service positions, provide employees with necessary authority, and formulate specific incentive measures. Only when employees are well served can they truly serve users well; organize user activities periodically to maintain emotional ties with users (avoid private chats to harass users for no reason. Some operators think that chatting with users for no reason is to build emotional ties, which is very harmful); The familiar Haidilao and early Xiaomi both adopted similar "old user traffic" business strategies and achieved amazing results. The second type of traffic: low-weight active traffic The second type of traffic is still the channel where users "actively" search when they have specific needs. The most typical second type of traffic includes: major search engines (such as Baidu), major app stores, large e-commerce platforms, etc. 

 There are two situations in which users will use the second type of traffic. The first situation: It is also the most common. After users obtain key decision-making information through the first type of traffic, they continue to "actively" search for decision-making support information through the second type of traffic, or directly download (place an order) through this channel. *Note: For Internet products (or brand owners, suppliers of unique products), the second type of traffic is not worth investing a lot of money at this time (a lot of money should be invested in the construction of the first type of traffic); but for channel products or other non-"unique" services (such as securities firms , telecommunications operators, Lanzhou ramen, etc.), the second type of traffic must be controlled, otherwise it is easy to make wedding clothes for others. The second situation: when the user’s target product (commodity) is relatively niche or highly specialized, and few people around them have used it. For example, when a user is responsible for purchasing an enterprise-level management software for his company, he can only seek help from Baidu or other management software forums, Zhihu and other vertical information content platforms; or, when the user's goal is a product with high privacy, for example, the user needs a "special medicine for habitual lying" and so on; or, when the user's goal is a product with highly asymmetric information, for example, medical care, medicine, real estate and so on. In the second case, that is, when the first type of traffic loses its effectiveness or has a very small impact, the second type of traffic becomes a battleground. If you are operating a product that falls into the second category (niche, highly professional, information asymmetry, and personal privacy), please be sure to make "second-category traffic" your core operating goal. Now if we look back and think about why the previous "Putian Group" invested such a large advertising share in Baidu, it is not difficult to understand. The third type of traffic: optional passive traffic This type of traffic is closely related to what we are familiar with as “big data”. It usually predicts our "needs" based on our behavior on the Internet (for example, we have searched for a product, talked about a product when talking with friends), and makes recommendations among all the channels that can be recommended. Therefore, Li Shaojia named this type of traffic "passive", because we do not actively contact the target product through this traffic, and it is named "optional" because the products (goods) recommended by this traffic mostly appear in the path of our decision-making whether to choose a certain product, which is equivalent to adding optional options. Typical third-category traffic includes: precise push notifications from well-known social and content-based apps, and related push notifications from e-commerce platforms. 

 In Li Shaojia's personal opinion, the third type of traffic is a slightly embarrassing traffic. After all, with the current prediction accuracy, it is nothing more than three situations: 
  1. Precision and lag (meaning that the user has already made a decision, for example, they searched for a book and placed an order, but Amazon only shows “Guess you like it” at this time)
  2. Accurate, no lag
  3. Inaccurate
 Among these three situations, for us operators, only the traffic in the second situation has real value. After all, in the case of delays or inaccuracies, this information will simply be ignored by users. So, does this mean that the third type of traffic is “low in value, low in cost-effectiveness, and should be avoided as much as possible”? not necessarily. The reason why Li Shaojia emphasized the word "optional" in the naming of this type of traffic is that it is a metaphor that when your product (or commodity) has differentiated advantages over competing products in terms of function, performance or service, and price, especially when the product decision-making time is long, the third type of traffic is likely to become the end point of the traffic, causing the competing companies that have carried out large-scale promotion in the second type of traffic to "lose both the wife and the army." For example, I once operated an enterprise-level service product. Because it was “forever free” (the mainstream competing products at the time were still paid), I achieved a very high input-output ratio just by doing precise push on a certain platform (customers who initially searched for competing products eventually chose us). The fourth type of traffic: awakening passive traffic This type of traffic is almost completely integrated into the daily life trajectory of users: For example, on the way to work, you may check your Moments every day, or visit specific news content websites and entertainment activities (depending on the user's personal habits). Although the volume of traffic encountered in these life trajectories is large, they do not know the exact needs of users (the traffic that can obtain user needs belongs to the third type of traffic mentioned above), but there is the possibility of awakening certain desires of users. For example, seeing a Coca-Cola drink advertisement at a bus stop on a hot summer day is likely to lead to purchasing behavior. Therefore, Li Shaojia named this type of traffic "awakening passive traffic." Typical ways to “awaken passive traffic” include: subway, bus, WeChat Moments ads , KOL, content ads, event ads, member group ads, etc. 

 Judging from the "appearance" of traffic alone, the user group reached by the fourth type of traffic seems to be very large, but what we operators should really care about is effective traffic. From this perspective, the effective value of the first two types of traffic is close to 100% (those who actively search are users with direct needs), and the third type of traffic, except for the "inaccurate" users, also has an effective ratio of nearly 50%. But for the fourth type of traffic, the effective ratio is usually far less than 50%. For example, there is a recruitment advertisement at the subway entrance of a high-tech park. Although there are many white-collar workers, the number of users who want to change jobs within a period of time will not exceed 10%, no matter how high it is. For example, in the circle of friends’ advertisements, I sometimes even see shampoo, enterprise-level software, luxury cars, etc. Although this can generate certain brand exposure value, the proportion of effective traffic that is ultimately realized is very low. So for the fourth type of traffic, how can we scientifically maximize its value? Li Shaojia believes that "awakening passive traffic" still has a powerful role to play when and only when the following three conditions are met at the same time: Condition 1: The products (commodities) being operated are popular. For niche products, this means that the user density of traffic is extremely low, so the cost of effective traffic is very high, which is not worth the cost. Condition 2: The products (commodities) being operated are those with low decision-making costs. For products with high decision-making costs, such as real estate, studying abroad, high-end digital products, financial products, etc., it is impossible for users to make quick decisions. At this time, it is just an entry traffic, which can easily produce the effect of "making wedding dresses for others". Condition three: The advertising copywriting is of high quality. The fourth type of traffic has a notable feature: most of the users’ needs are not generated actively, but are “awakened” after being exposed to specific copywriting. In addition, most users of this type of traffic have a distracted attention span (we rarely pay close attention to advertisements on the subway, in newspapers, magazines, or in Moments). Therefore, whether the fourth type of traffic is used well is also a test of the team’s copywriting skills. Below, the characteristics and applicability of the above four types of traffic are summarized as shown in the following table: 

 4. Application strategies and cases of four types of traffic Based on our understanding of the four major types of traffic, when the boss asks us to "create traffic" in the future, I believe that everyone will no longer be the same as before: 

 Instead, you can start thinking like a professional operator: 

 Below, we give four typical examples of how to formulate traffic strategies under typical product descriptions (those who already understand can skip these four examples): Product 1: A public account about health knowledge. We follow the above thinking strategy and answer the following questions one by one: 1. What are the characteristics of the product? Free content information has low user decision-making costs, but it is a non-standard product with a high degree of specialization. 2. In what situations do users need your product (content information)? For example, if you hear about someone dying suddenly from working overtime... 3. Where would you proactively look for someone? Baidu, Zhihu, etc., but the trust level is not high (of course). Friends will recommend it, but it is relatively rare . 4. Where else can you contact users? Hospitals, various clinics, medical publications, medical appointment websites, areas surrounding large hospitals (buses, subways), other health-related public accounts, WeChat Moments, health apps, office buildings in areas most affected by overtime... 5. What resource advantages do you have? The team has professional medical knowledge and has good relationships with some health publications; 6. Conclusion: What traffic strategy should be chosen? Priority is given to wake-up traffic (large base, relatively low price, Figure 4 below), followed by high-weight active traffic (obvious effect, but small base, Figure 1 below). Low-weight active traffic (high price) has low cost performance, and optional passive traffic is not suitable. Therefore, the traffic type and promotion priority that the public account should first select are the shaded areas in the figure below: 

 Product 2: A financial management APP product. Following the above thinking strategy, we answer the following questions one by one: 1. Product features? Users put all the money they would use to marry a wife into it, so of course they need a high degree of trust, so the user's decision-making cost is extremely high. 2. Under what circumstances does the user need it? After work, before buying a house , where would you take the initiative to look for one? Mainly let friends recommend . 4. Where else can you contact potential users? White-collar office areas and surrounding areas, various financial media, bank and securities outlets... 5. What resource advantages do you have? Strong funds and high financial management interest rates 6. Conclusion: What kind of traffic strategy should be chosen? Priority is given to high-weight active traffic (operating old users, recommending profit sharing, etc.), followed by awakening traffic (but the goal is to create a broad brand effect, not to make conversions), optional passive traffic (compared with competing products, grabbing competing product traffic), low-weight active traffic (can be done after the brand effect is established). Therefore, the traffic type and promotion priority that this financial product should first select are the shaded area in the figure below: 

 Product Three: A cost-effective mobile phone brand follows the above thinking strategy and answers in order: 1. Product features? It is a low-frequency, high-consumption digital product, and the user decision-making cost is high. 2. What do users need it for? When you discard your old phone, or after an Apple conference... 3. Where will you actively look for it? Various digital evaluation websites, ask friends for recommendations, and use search engines as entrances . 4. Where else can you reach potential users? White-collar office areas and surrounding areas, various financial media, bank and securities outlets... 5. What resource advantages do you have? The product is extremely cost-effective and the operation service team has strong support. 6. Conclusion: What kind of traffic strategy should be chosen? Since the product has extremely high competitive advantages, priority should be given to optional passive traffic (using competitor traffic for one's own use). In addition, since the service team is powerful, high-weight active traffic can also be used for operation (user word of mouth). If funds are insufficient to support wide coverage, the latter two types of traffic can be temporarily not considered. Therefore, the traffic type and promotion priority that this product should first select are the shaded areas in the figure below: 

 Product 4: An enterprise information product Following the above thinking strategy, answer the following questions in order: 1. Product features? 2B products, information asymmetry, high specialization 2. What do users need? When business management is needed (when the boss is hot-headed), especially during the business expansion phase 3. Where will you proactively look for it? Baidu and other search engines (because no other channels can be found) 4. Where else can you reach potential users? Investment and financing platform, private director training courses... 5. What are your resource advantages? No special advantage 6. Conclusion: What traffic strategy to choose? Priority is given to low-weight active traffic (traffic entrance, precise coverage), followed by wake-up traffic (), and the other two types of traffic: optional passive traffic (the comparability of 2B products is not obvious). High-weight active traffic is not suitable. Therefore, the traffic type and promotion priority that the 2B product should first select are the shaded areas in the figure below: 

 *To avoid being too long, the above four examples have not been analyzed in a complex manner. If you have any questions, you can refer to the detailed discussion of each type of traffic above. V. Summary: Learn and apply It must be stated that there are more things to consider when promoting in actual combat, such as product life cycle, market strategy, internal adaptability of the organization, etc. Of course, at this stage, it is more important for us to start shaping a multi-dimensional view of traffic and move further towards professional operation: After all, only if we truly understand the meaning of traffic can we harness it for our own benefit. Otherwise, all promotions are nothing more than "lotteries" among many channels, which are time-consuming and laborious to implement, and success or failure depends on luck. If so, what is the value of our operations? This article is long, but once we can interpret the internal logic of traffic with the correct attitude, we should remember the four characteristics of traffic: ● Traffic is not an isolated concept, it must be linked to the product to be meaningful;Traffic is closely related to the user's decision-making behavior;Traffic is larger than the scope of the channel;Traffic must have "path integrity", only the end of the traffic path is the winner; In this way, we will be able to effectively transform operational thinking into feasible operational strategies (tactics) in subsequent traffic operations. 

Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising

The author of this article @李少加 is compiled and published by (APP Top Promotion). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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