Analysis of mobile advertising market in Q1 2021

After a comprehensive analysis of the mobile advertising market in Q1 2021, we found that:

1. Games, software applications, and cultural entertainment became the key industries in Q1, and the amount of software application advertising increased significantly year-on-year;

2. Q1 advertising formats are still mainly pictures;

3. Software application advertising accounts for more than 30% of the advertising on Bytedance, and games have become the key industry advertisers for Tencent Advertising and Baidu Information Flow;

4. After the “3.15” incident, the information flow of mobile phone cleaning apps increased instead of decreasing, and mobile phone cleaning apps entered the top 5 of the Bytedance Engine promotion list

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Competition in mobile marketing is fierce. With a huge population and limited budget, what methods are various industries looking for to quickly grow their business? Q1What are the new trends in advertising? What advertising strategies can key advertisers refer to?

In the overall advertising spending in Q1 2021, advertising spending in the gaming, software application, and cultural and entertainment industries was strong. Compared with Q1 last year, the proportion of advertisements for clothing, shoes, bags, digital products and home appliances has dropped significantly .

Under the influence of the epidemic in the first quarter of last year, industries such as e-commerce shopping, games, and online education achieved certain bonus growth, so the proportion of advertisements for clothing, shoes, and bags was relatively high. This year, the impact of the epidemic was small, the growth rate of traffic slowed down, and advertisers also adjusted their investment efforts accordingly.

The number of newly placed advertisements in each key industry accounts for more than 90% of the total, and the materials are updated and iterated quickly.

2-1 Game industry: Casual & online earning mobile games are launched strongly, and IP-adapted mobile games have become the "treasure" of big companies

Taking stock of the popular launch styles in the mobile game industry in the past three months, we can find that in January, war and Three Kingdoms mobile games were the main ones, while in February and March, leisure and online earning styles were the main ones . Among them, due to the long Spring Festival holiday in February, the proportion of leisure and online earning mobile game advertisements increased to more than 30%.

Ohayoo's casual mobile game "Emerald Master" became a hit mobile game during the Spring Festival thanks to its diversified marketing on the Douyin platform.

During Q1, a total of 8,500+ mobile games were monitored. Compared with Q1 last year, this year's newly launched mobile games are obviously more enthusiastic about buying traffic. While the proportion of all new mobile games is similar, the proportion of mobile games entering the Top 100 and Top 1000 has increased significantly.

In addition to the epidemic factor, it is more because small manufacturers find it difficult to get rid of their dependence on buying volume, and most of the new mobile games launched in Q1 come from small game manufacturers.

So how do big companies perform in game promotion?

It can be seen that major manufacturers attach great importance to their own new mobile games. Among them, Tencent's game "Fairy Tail" was launched on the test server, NetEase's "Legend of the Forgotten River" was just launched in March, and Sanqi Interactive Entertainment's "Douluo Dalu: Martial Soul Awakening" was officially launched in March.

Moreover, the mobile games that various companies promoted during Q1 were basically IP-adapted mobile games, and the graphic style tended to be two-dimensional. IP-adapted mobile games have also become a shortcut for various manufacturers to enter the two-dimensional field.

Last year, the huge success of "Genshin Impact" made more manufacturers discover the huge potential value of two-dimensional players, and also ignited their enthusiasm. Currently in the TapTap community, except for "Genshin Impact" and "Fairy Tail", the ratings of these IP-adapted mobile games are basically below 5 points, which means that even with the blessing of IP, users will still not buy it, and their primary concern is still the gaming experience.

2-2 Education Industry: The proportion of vocational skills training advertisements increases month by month, while that of K12 education decreases month by month

Among the overall education and training advertisements, vocational skills training and academic qualification examinations are still the main ones. Among them , the proportion of vocational skills training advertisements has increased month by month . It is speculated that this is due to the increase in investment due to the influence of the teacher qualification examination in March. After the winter vacation, the proportion of K12 education advertisements has decreased month by month , which is also affected by the strict control of education advertisements.

It is reported that after the false marketing incident of "one actor appearing in four education advertisements" fermented, the Douyin platform cleaned up a batch of education advertisements and strengthened review and supervision, which may have a certain impact on advertising placement.

Taking stock of the hot apps and brands in the education industry during Q1, it can be seen that the hot apps are basically preschool education applications, while the hot brands are mostly K12 education . K12 brands that mainly promote online courses will often launch additional homework tutoring apps, such as "TiPaiPai" from Xueersi Online School and "XiaoYuanSouti" from Yuanfudao. The advertising selling point of online courses targets parents’ anxiety about their children’s academic performance, while the selling point of homework tutoring apps targets students who need to search for questions and see the problem-solving process.

It is worth mentioning that during Q1, Xueersi’s “TiPaiPai” topped the list of education hot investment App promotion for three consecutive months, with strong advertising.

2-3 Financial industry: Insurance and lending brands increase advertising

The most popular apps in the financial industry in Q1 were mainly stocks and financial management, with online stock diagnosis/selection and online financial management courses becoming the focus of marketing. The hot investment brands are mainly focused on insurance and lending .

According to the 2020 full-year financial report released by ZhongAn Insurance, total premium income last year reached 16.7 billion yuan, and its "old rival" Shuidibao also announced the good news of its upcoming IPO.

The Internet insurance industry is thriving and does not seem to be affected by much market regulation. The continuous injection of capital has given Shuidibao sufficient budget for online advertising. In addition, since December last year, Shuidibao has topped the financial brand promotion list for four consecutive months .

2-4 Direct-sale e-commerce: Compared with last year, there are more new products in clothing, shoes and bags, and the sales volume of catering and food has increased significantly

Compared with Q1 last year, the proportion of new products in clothing, shoes and bags has increased significantly, and the sales volume of catering and food has increased significantly , becoming the key category of direct e-commerce. Sales of beauty and personal care products were basically the same as last year, while sales of daily necessities declined.

The degree of enthusiasm of advertisers in various industries for the platform can also reflect the changes in the population labels of each platform.

Software application advertising accounts for the largest proportion in Bytedance, while Tencent advertising and Baidu information flow account for games .

In terms of specific sub-styles, casual and online mobile game advertisements account for a high proportion on Bytedance , while the other two platforms are dominated by legendary game advertisements.

Combined with the non-game style promotion situation, system tool ads are popular on the huge engine , novels, comics, and reading are popular on Tencent advertising, and Baidu information flow is characterized by a high proportion of platform e-commerce.

Most of the online money-making mobile games and memory cleaning tools target the traffic in the lower-tier markets, which means that the users in the lower-tier markets are mostly gathered in the massive engine. This group of people are not early Internet users, they have a high acceptance of new applications and are easy to believe in advertisements. This is also the reason why many large companies are competing for the traffic in the lower-tier markets.

In terms of key media, the media within Bytedance is mainly education and training, software applications, and game advertisements. In addition to the Pangolin Alliance, video and vertical video advertisements are the advertising trends that advertisers are keen to choose.

Note: This report is produced by App Growing. All texts, pictures and tables in the report are protected by relevant trademark and copyright laws. Reprinting must indicate the source. If some text, data or image materials are collected from public information, they are only quoted for illustrating the problem and the copyright belongs to the original author. The contents of the report are for general reference only and should not be regarded as advice or basis on specific matters.

The above is an excerpt from "2021 Q1 Mobile Advertising Market Analysis".

Author: App Growing

Source: App Growing