60% of short video ads are allocated to mid-level anchors. Are top anchors no longer popular?

These two days, I saw a short video KOL marketing report jointly launched by Communication University of China and Weibo platform.

It was mentioned that advertisers’ KOL investment is rapidly “sinking”. Especially for the “two Weibo, one Douyin, and one Hong Kong” platforms, an average of 60% of the investment was directed to mid-level accounts.

Generally, we classify KOLs as top or mid-level based on the number of fans they have.

The general standard is that the top fans must have at least 100,000, and the mid-level fans must have at least 10,000. If the number is smaller, it is generally not called KOL. Now, these accounts with even fewer fans have been given a new name, KOC, which stands for key opinion consumer. Some people also classify them as the tail account of KOL.

This report is more detailed and provides different standards for different platforms. For example, on Weibo, accounts with more than 2.5 million fans are called top accounts, and accounts with more than 100,000 fans are just mid-level accounts; but on Xiaohongshu, accounts with 50,000 fans are top accounts, and accounts with 1,000 fans are mid-level accounts, which can take orders and monetize. This is consistent with industry practice, which shows the professionalism and rigorous analytical attitude of the report.

According to the report, the average order price of the top accounts is 2.2 times that of the mid-level accounts, which means that advertisers spend almost half and half on the top KOLs and mid-level KOLs.

Why are advertisers increasingly favoring mid-level accounts? The report gives several reasons.

First of all, mid-level KOLs can reach many groups of people that top accounts cannot reach.

From the above figure, we can see that, on average, the top accounts cover people over 40 years old, living in third-tier and below cities, and people with medium and low consumption levels, while there is a serious lack compared to the mid- and lower-tier accounts.

This means that if your product targets women over 40 years old, living in third-tier and lower cities, and with low and medium consumption, spending a lot of money to invest in top accounts may result in disappointment.

Naughty E-commerce has been trying to help members sell goods through live streaming since last year, and we have encountered this situation:

For a certain hot-selling product with free shipping for 9.9 yuan, a large account with 4 million followers sold more than 60 orders in a single session, and a small account with 200,000 followers sold more than 2,000 orders. However, their other sales performance was normal, which can only be explained by the mismatch of the crowds.

From the perspective of brand exposure alone, the lack of this group of people in the top accounts is also very fatal. This is the most important reason that drives brand owners to shift from single to refined multi-platform combination delivery.

The second reason is that the fans and traffic of mid-level accounts are relatively more real.

The report bluntly pointed out that on the Weibo platform, the abnormal fan rate of the top accounts is as high as 58%, and even the abnormal fans of the bottom accounts are 54%. In comparison, the abnormal fan rate of the mid-level accounts is the lowest, but it is also 51%. It sounds scary, but based on industry experience, this number may be too low...

In comparison, the WeChat platform is much better, with the abnormal reading rate of the top accounts being 31% and the abnormal reading rate of the bottom accounts being 27%. The mid- and lower-level accounts are also the most "real", with an average abnormal reading rate of 22%.

In addition, what’s interesting is why no matter which platform it is, the two ends are high and the middle is low? We made a bold guess as to a possibility.

Because of the fierce competition and large investment in the top accounts, suppliers often "help" to inflate the data in order to meet KPIs; the new entrants at the bottom of the market also have a stronger motivation to inflate their own volume in order to quickly build up their accounts.

In contrast, mid-tier accounts already have a certain fan base thanks to their first-mover advantage, and are usually more Buddhist in accepting orders and disdain to inflate data, which results in this unique “high at both ends and low in the middle” situation.

The third reason, to some extent, strengthens and supports the second reason.

The report found that investing in mid- to low-end accounts is more cost-effective. Specifically, the CPE (cost per engagement) of mid-tier accounts is lower. The ROI of investing in mid- to low-level KOLs has also performed better overall and is steadily increasing. In short, the exposure data (number of reads and clicks) of the top accounts performed better, while the conversion data of the mid-level accounts performed better.

One reason for this difference is that mid-tier accounts are usually vertical categories, and fans are more interested in the content presented by the account (the products introduced) rather than the KOL himself.

The report shows that when comparing the comments of top accounts and mid-level accounts, only 9% of the top accounts focus on the products, while 49% focus on the KOLs themselves. The focus of communication has obviously been blurred.

23% of mid-level accounts follow products, compared to 35% who follow the KOL himself. In other words, mid-level KOLs can basically ensure that the product is always in the center of the communication process.

Some time ago, when summarizing the live broadcast experience of Three Squirrels, Zhang Liaoyuan raised a thought-provoking question:

Why did they spend so much money on live streaming, but the fans stayed with the anchors instead of becoming Three Squirrels’ own?

This is because, whether consciously or unconsciously, top anchors often put themselves in the C position of communication (for example, repeatedly instilling in fans: "Follow me and I will help you find the best and cheapest goods", "Don't think about what I recommend, just buy it"), while mid-level anchors, because of their vertical positioning and expertise in professional content, often put the product at the core and maximize the benefits of the product itself.

I randomly took a screenshot of the promotional content of a top WeChat account and found that almost no one mentioned the main character of the promotion, the milk bottle, in the comments.

What else?

Don’t forget the second point, the top accounts have more abnormal data in followers and traffic. Of course, zombie fans will not interact and convert. This is another important reason why mid-tier accounts are more cost-effective. In fact, it depends on what each needs. After all, there are many investments that depend on "good-looking data".

In fact, whether it is the sinking of e-commerce in recent years or the current "sinking" of KOL investment, it all comes down to two words: traffic.

E-commerce penetration has peaked in first- and second-tier cities. If it wants to grow and acquire new traffic, it has to move lower-tier cities. When investing in KOLs, in order to pursue accurate traffic, we must also change from broad-based investment in the top to refined investment in the middle and lower parts of the platform.

A few days ago, I happened to see @风中厂长 expressed a similar view on Weibo, "Internet celebrities are replacing celebrities." The reason is that the media people use to obtain information has changed from television, newspapers and magazines to intelligent recommended information streams on social networks, which makes Internet celebrities more exposed than celebrities.

Moreover, people’s pursuit of internet celebrities is extending from the top to the middle and lower levels, and even the tail KOLs, or KOCs as they are called in the industry, are also increasing in proportion.

Just as mentioned in the above report, the target audience of mid-level influencers who focus on vertical categories is more precise, and the increasingly complete delivery mechanisms of various platforms make it possible to carry out refined operations and combine the delivery of a large number of KOLs or even KOCs. Who makes brands nowadays want both exposure and results?

Perfect Diary was once a typical "successful" case of rising by relying on the differentiated marketing route of investing in mid-level accounts.

However, a few days ago, Perfect Diary disclosed its financial report after its listing, and everyone discovered that Perfect Diary's annual revenue in 2020 was 5.2 billion, but its marketing expenses were as high as 5.5 billion, and its final net loss was 2.7 billion.

One of the important reasons is that the mid-level KOLs on Xiaohongshu, which once allowed Perfect Diary to reap the benefits of high cost-effectiveness, saw their prices soar after many new consumer brands (including Huaxizi) flocked to Xiaohongshu and imitated Perfect Diary's marketing path to increase the number of mid-level accounts. As a result, the value gap of mid-level KOLs in this niche of the beauty industry no longer exists. However, in other areas, the value of mid-level KOLs can still be explored.

After all, the essence of marketing is differentiation. When others shoot at the head, you only have a chance if you shoot at the waist. When everyone starts investing in the middle, it's time for you to look for a new low point.

Author: Muxin

Source: Tiaopi E-commerce (ID: tiaopiEC)