The underlying logic of information flow advertising

In fact, when I first entered the industry, I only knew about the advertising spaces on huge engines, such as Douyin, Toutiao, Xigua, and Volcano. Recently, there are also Tomato Novel and Ohayoo. If you go deeper, for example, you may have no idea what kind of advertisements these commercial apps have, or even how the advertisements appear. As an optimizer, the right thing to do is to be familiar with the underlying logic and presentation methods of the media.

01. What is information flow advertising ?

To put it simply, information flow advertising is a form of advertising that is interspersed among the numerous information in an app. It is like the ads you used to see on telephone poles are now moved to the apps you frequently use.

However, one of the biggest differences between information flow advertising and traditional advertising is that information flow advertising has different faces for different people. This feature is particularly evident in Toutiao apps, which means that it will only recommend content that the system thinks you will like.

02. Basic terminology explanation

As an optimizer, you may also often see some high-sounding basic names. Here are some common explanations

Refresh: Each time you swipe down to refresh the information flow interface, it is called a refresh;

CPT: Cost-per-time advertising. By duration, it means delivery in package time period and location;

GD: guaranteed delivery ads, i.e. guaranteed quantity ads, priced by impressions;

CPM: cost per thousand impressions, i.e. payment per impression;

CPC: cost per click, i.e. pay per click;

OCPC: Target conversion cost, still pay per click;

OCPM: Target conversion cost, still paid by impression.

03. Display logic of information flow ads

It should be noted that [new users will not see ads within a week when refreshing in the commercial app of the Bytedance information flow], so when doing joint debugging and testing, do not choose new users to do joint debugging and testing.

The trigger mechanism of information flow advertising.

1. Match the corresponding advertisements according to the targeting (region, age, gender, etc.)

When the user refreshes the page, the advertising request mechanism is triggered.

The background analyzes the user's attributes (region, age, gender) and tags (2D, singing, dancing, etc.). All conditions set in the background targeting must be met before it will be displayed to the corresponding users.

2. Ad sorting and filtering

There are three main filtering mechanisms for information flow ads:

• Dislike filtering: The user clicked on this ad and is not interested in it. The system will not push this type of advertisement in the future.
• Frequency control filtering: filtering similar ads from the same advertiser (including copywriting, videos, tags, etc.)
• Flow control filtering: For plans or accounts that are expected to hit the limit, the system will filter the corresponding plans and will not continue to deliver

Information flow advertising bidding is a dynamic sorting mechanism that relies on the ranking of ECMP values. The system has a specific formula for calculating the value, so if you want to improve your ranking, you just need to remember the formula.

ECMP=system actual bid*ectr*ecvr*1000

According to the formula, the ranking is mainly affected by three factors

• The actual bid of the system: Why is this bid called the actual bid of the system? Because the system will make some fine-tuning to the bid according to the traffic situation, your bid will be slightly different from the bid of the participating auction, but it is generally not very large.
• Ectr (estimated click-through rate): directly related to the material. The system will make a judgment on the planned ectr based on the material style of the corresponding plan and the historical data of the account.
• Ecvr (estimated conversion rate) is related to the matching degree of the target group. The key point is whether the targeted group is the target group of the landing page content. The system will also combine historical data for measurement.

Therefore, optimize the materials to increase the click-through rate, and optimize the landing and the crowd to increase the conversion rate. In addition, the ecmp value and the cpm (cost per thousand impressions) in the account background are not the same thing.

3. Mixed layout of articles

When an ad wins the price cut, it will be mixed with the article, and then it will be exposed to users, and then the AD background will start charging.

At this point, all the processes before an advertisement is exposed have been completed. As for the optimization of the backend of the delivery, it requires continuous iteration of the account after a certain amount of data has been accumulated.

04. Big Data Engine Information Stream Advertising Resources

Toutiao News Stream Advertising Resources

• Channel information flow: Our most common form of information flow, which is the form of advertising that will appear when you refresh the various channels on the homepage of Toutiao app. The general styles are: large picture/group picture/small picture/horizontal video
• Video recommendation information flow: In the first position below the video playback page, recommendations are made based on the video content and the user's background attribute tags. The styles are: large picture/group picture/small picture/horizontal video
• Video patch: An ad that appears after the video is finished playing. Style: Large picture/horizontal video
• Article details page advertisement: in the first position above the comment area at the bottom of the article details page. The general styles are: large picture/group picture/small picture/horizontal video
• Short video information stream: A short video will appear when you slide into the video stream. The general style is horizontal video/vertical video

Tik Tok information flow advertising resources

• Compared with Toutiao, Douyin has fewer advertising spaces, which are concentrated under the recommended flow on the homepage.
• Video information flow: Appears when you slide up and down under the recommended flow on the home page. The main styles are: horizontal video/vertical video

Douyin (Volcano Edition) information flow advertising resources

• Information flow ads: ads that appear under the video stream on the home page. The general styles are: large picture/group picture/small picture/vertical picture/horizontal video/vertical video
• Video stream advertising: The video playback information stream slides up and down to reveal the advertising space.

Xigua Video Information Stream Advertising Resources

• Channel information flow: small video channel video flow mixed, general style is: horizontal large picture / horizontal video
• Short video information flow: Information flow ads of short video channels, generally in the following styles: horizontal large picture/group picture/vertical picture/horizontal video
• Post-video patch: the patch after the video is played. The general styles are: horizontal large picture/group picture/horizontal video

Tomato Novels and Ohayoo Games

• Tomato Novel: Information flow ads before chapters, information flow ads in chapters, and information flow ads on the first page of the audiobook
• Ohayoo Games: Rewarded Video Ads

Pangolin information flow advertising resources

There are three main styles: opening screen, information flow and incentive video. Here we mainly talk about the information flow style.

• Display location: article details page, video details page and native information flow
• Display style: small picture/horizontal large picture/group picture/video information flow

Well, that’s all for this article. If it is helpful to you, please share, bookmark, like, and read it. Of course, the most important thing is to give me a follow! ~

Author: Schrödinger's Information Flow

Source: Schrödinger's Information Flow