In-depth analysis of Douyin's hot-selling methodology

As a short video APP with a relatively high daily active users, many brands have settled in Douyin. At the same time, the increase in brands means an increase in traffic costs and instability in delivery, making brands prone to becoming disabled. Faced with such a situation, sorting out the relevant policies and regulations of the platform will help promote account changes. The author analyzes Douyin from four aspects: new policies, new gameplay, popular cases and Douyin influencer investment.

Tik Tok, a phenomenal short video application with 600 million daily active users, has long been a must-have for brand marketing. However, with the increase in the number of brands entering the market, the continuous increase in traffic costs, and the instability of delivery effects, brands have fallen into a "disability" dilemma. Understanding the latest platform rules and policies, understanding the internal rules of popular videos, and finding out the trends in popular content are the keys to effectively improving the effectiveness of brand delivery.

What new policies did Douyin introduce in August? What are the hot new ways to play? What are the popular cases? Which high-quality Tik Tok influencers are worth investing in? Weibo has conducted an in-depth analysis of the above content.

1. Platform policies and trends

1. Keyword: TikTok search

"More than 400 million Douyin video searches every day" means that with 600 million daily active users on Douyin, more than 60% of them will use Douyin video search. Douyin's search function has been fully upgraded recently. It can be said that Douyin search may become the next traffic explosion point, and it is a short video version of the "through train" bonus that e-commerce and brand self-broadcasting cannot miss. The optimization of the search function is mainly reflected in:

1) Related word search is strengthened

Whenever you go to a user's homepage and open a video, there will be a search box at the top of the video. In most cases, this search box will form a search recommendation term based on the video screen, spoken content, and copy content.

2) Richer search keyword channels

In the comment area of ​​​​TikTok, when some names appear in the comments, the words will turn yellow and a search icon will appear in the upper right corner. Clicking it will jump to the TikTok search page.

3) New Douyin store search function launched

A new search icon has been added to the homepage of Douyin Store, where users can find the product information they need by searching for keywords. The account's recommendation showcase homepage and search function page also add search result categories, and the overall page is similar to Taobao.

What these changes mean for brand marketing:

First, when brands place ads on Douyin video influencers, it is increasingly important to pre-embed keywords, which will affect the long-term communication effect in the later stage;

Second, currently brand keyword searches can directly lead to the live broadcast room (many brands have already done so). Specifically, when users search for products, they can jump directly from the product to the live broadcast room. This closed-loop model of search + brand self-broadcasting is called a bonus. In other words, only when the search traffic is taken over and converted by the brand live broadcast room that cannot be used for broadcasting can it be called an opportunity.

2. Keywords: Douyin brand self-broadcast

Douyin’s e-commerce self-broadcasting incentive policies and gameplay will be further strengthened, and the platform traffic will continue to tilt towards brand self-broadcasting to help more brands achieve new growth through continuous self-broadcasting.

1) Brand self-broadcasting incentive policy

In August 2021, Douyin E-commerce launched a brand self-broadcasting incentive policy for the entire industry. A single brand can get a maximum traffic reward of 10,000 yuan. Brand merchants who successfully participate can get corresponding incentives as long as they complete the relevant tasks under the three conditions of "effective number of days of live broadcast room with shopping cart", "incremental self-broadcasting effective settlement GMV", and "number of purchases". The maximum single reward is 9,999 yuan Qianchuan coupons, and a single brand can get a maximum of 15,997 yuan in traffic coupons.

2) Brand self-broadcasting peak competition

Douyin’s monthly “Brand Self-broadcast Peak Competition” includes self-broadcast ranking competitions, self-broadcast task rewards, star experts are coming, bosses are coming, and traceability of big-name products, etc., which fully mobilize the enthusiasm of brands to invest in self-broadcasting. In each iteration of the competition system, the reward policy is continuously optimized and the highlights of the live broadcast room are upgraded, so that the peak competition is not just a competition, but also a fuel for brands to build long-term self-broadcasting operational capabilities and explode business growth.

3) 1V1 diagnosis & platform training

Douyin E-commerce has also set up a learning center, offering courses for brands and updating Douyin E-commerce rules in real time; at the same time, in response to the need for brands to grow their self-broadcasting capabilities, the platform also provides brands with 1v1 diagnostic services.

It is reported that this year, Douyin e-commerce will allocate 70% of its traffic dividend to corporate self-broadcasting and 30% of the traffic to influencer live broadcasting. This shows that Douyin’s policy support for brand self-broadcasting is very strong, which also means that brand self-broadcasting on Douyin is a new frontier for bringing in goods that cannot be ignored.

3. Keyword: Douyin Hotspot

Douyin launched Hotspot in August 2021, aiming to help creators, brands, and marketing practitioners grasp the content direction of the platform and grasp marketing hot trends.

Hotspot collects all the current hot topics on Douyin, with more than 3,000 events updated in real time every day, and can query all historical hot events. It uses the powerful data technology behind TikTok to display the popularity value and popularity trend of each hotspot, helping brands, creators, and marketing practitioners predict hotspots that have the potential to become "explosive hits."

In addition, Hotspot has another capability: providing Douyin’s official event calendar. You can see in advance the theme submission activities that Douyin officials plan to focus on in the next 1-2 weeks, including event details, sample videos, etc. Brands, marketers, and creators can plan topics in advance.

4. Keyword: Heart-beating takeaway

Xindong Takeout was launched in internal testing on July 15, 2021. It is a new takeout business established by Douyin, a subsidiary of ByteDance. Its slogan is "Xindong Takeout, eat what you love." It is reported that "Xindong Takeaway" will be opened first in first- and second-tier cities, and then gradually promoted to cities across the country.

On August 11, KFC and Heytea started delivery services on Douyin, and both are currently processing delivery orders by connecting to mini-programs. It is understood that the "Heart-warming Takeaway" mini program currently launched by Douyin is still in the internal testing stage and has not yet recruited external investors. Most other catering brands and businesses still attract customers to shop in their stores by issuing group purchase coupons.

Douyin has three inherent advantages in entering the food delivery market:

• With the advantage of huge user traffic, as of August 2020, Douyin has 600 million daily active users, with an average daily usage time of more than 1 hour per person.
• The algorithm's advantage in precise push notifications is that it can realize the logic of "different faces for different people" and "stores finding people" based on user portraits.
• Compared with traditional food promotion in the form of pictures and reviews, Douyin’s short video content output method is more intuitive, concise and attractive.

In fact, Douyin had already begun to develop its local life territory as early as 2018.

It is reported that the current investment policy for local businesses is quite favorable. I believe that in the near future, by leveraging the widespread promotion of KOL public domain traffic and directing users online to Xindong Takeaway, it may become a new revenue growth point for local businesses.

2. Hot Content and Gameplay Trends

With the layout of Douyin in terms of pictures, texts and long videos, Douyin's content ecology has become more and more abundant. Weiboyi has continuously monitored the content types and popularity changes released by Douyin influencers from July to August and found the following gameplay trends:

1. Gameplay trends: Video-based promotional videos are gaining popularity, and “fake books” promotions are becoming a hot topic

Interpretation of gameplay: The content is presented in the form of text, usually in the form of high-information-density dry goods, lists, and collections (but different from the pure graphic and text format of Xiaohongshu). The presentation format adopts the visual sense of "pseudo-book" or "memo", and the text is typed on the book or memo, which makes people feel full of dry goods.

This type of gameplay has strong industry adaptability and is more practical in the beauty, food, 3C and other industries. In addition, compared with pure video production, the content output speed is faster.

2. Gameplay trends: Brand anthropomorphism is very popular, and the hot topic of "what if brands/products could talk" is just right

Interpretation of gameplay: Use anthropomorphic methods to describe the characteristics of brand products, and use human tone and perspective to give the brand and products new warmth and personality, making the cold products instantly alive and making people feel close. This is a new Douyin gameplay that brands cannot ignore.

3. Gameplay trends: Sing-along lists with solid content, rich practical information, and cheerful rhythms are becoming popular

Interpretation of the gameplay: Multiple people (usually one man and two women) rap to an inaccurate rhythm, clapping and doing basic dance moves similar to radio gymnastics? chorus? allegro? , make sharp comments on products in the same category or with the same demand scenario (usually with the red and black lists as the main theme).

Gameplay advantages:

• The video version of the recommendation list is more convincing with full of practical information.
• Rhythmic rhythm makes the content less boring, interesting and vivid

4. Gameplay Trend: Immersive Makeup/Skin Care (Beauty)

Gameplay explanation: Immersive makeup/skin care means that beauty bloggers remain silent or whisper while demonstrating makeup and skin care, infinitely amplifying the sounds of the environment and objects, bringing extremely visual and auditory sensory stimulation, so that people can get a sense of healing and involvement.

Gameplay advantages:

• Eliminate environmental noise interference, allowing fans to focus more on the video content itself
• Brand products are usually placed as tool lenses, so that there is no voice-over advertising, which is easier for users to accept.

5. Trend of play: C in the morning and A in the evening (beauty section)

Gameplay explanation: Luo Wangyu (a Douyin beauty blogger) was the first to propose the morning C and evening A skin care method on Douyin, namely: use VC products in the morning to whiten and remove spots and melanin; use VA products at night to fight and remove wrinkles. At present, the topic of "C in the morning and A in the evening" has been played more than 190 million times on Douyin, which is a veritable new trend in beauty and skin care.

The general commercial approach is to use the product as a high-quality product for morning C and evening A, and experts recommend the product and its efficacy by personally using it.

6. Gameplay trend: YES & NO comparison method

How to play and case interpretation: Compare incorrect makeup with correct makeup on half of the face, and implant products in the correct makeup steps. For example, in the following example, the concealer is implanted in the correct concealer method.

3. Case studies of influencers and brand hits

On Douyin, creating commercial hit videos is more difficult than creating daily hit videos. In a video, how can we better balance the tone of daily content and commercial advertisements to achieve both fan applause and advertising effects? Weiboyi conducted a data analysis of the Douyin hot-selling transaction orders generated between January 1, 2021 and August 20, 2021, and came to the following conclusions:

When it comes to creating commercial hit video content for Douyin, top influencers still have a significant advantage.

Judging from the total length of the videos: Most commercial hit videos have a total video length concentrated between 1:08 and 2:13, with an average of 1:47. The shortest is only 38 seconds, and the longest does not exceed 3 minutes.

From the perspective of content type: there are no popular videos that are purely product-oriented. Dramas have become the largest source of popular videos, accounting for the largest proportion of 90%, of which love dramas account for the largest proportion of 58%. In addition, life record VLOGs also account for a high proportion, reaching 16%.

Judging from the duration of ad placement: the ad placement duration of most commercial hit videos is concentrated between 5 and 15 seconds, with an average of 10 seconds, and the longest placement does not exceed 20 seconds.

From the perspective of advertising placement: popular videos are placed at the tail with the highest proportion of 50%, followed by the middle with 28%.

In terms of implantation methods: prop shot implantation + oral broadcast accounts for the largest proportion of 61%+, followed by pure prop shot implantation accounting for 33%+.

Weiboyi proposed a formula for creating commercial hit videos on Douyin - Safety Seat (implantation position): It is best to implant it before or after the climax of the plot, with the end of the video as the first choice and the middle of the video as the second choice Appea (attractiveness): It is necessary to properly set up plot reversals, suspense, interludes, surprises, etc. to increase the attractiveness of the content Form (implantation form): Compared with strong promotion, plot implantation is preferred, and prop lens implantation + oral broadcasting has the best effect.

• Empathy: The plot should reasonably reflect the emotional elements of family, friendship, love, etc., among which love has a greater chance of winning.
• Time: Both the total video time and the embedded time should not be too long. The total video time should be controlled between 1-2 minutes, and the embedded time should be controlled between 5-15 seconds.
• Type (Talent level type): Top talents are preferred, and mid-level talents are second.

Author: Micro Broadcast Easy

Source: Weibo