2022 Online Marketing Traffic Observation

Clay Shirky pointed out in "The Age of Everyone" that the Internet does not introduce new competitors into the old ecosystem, but creates a new ecosystem.

From a macro perspective, the upgrade of 5G technology in recent years has indeed driven the evolution of Internet currency flow, information flow, and product flow, while also promoting changes in the business landscape and accompanying marketing models.

Over the past year, the online traffic dividend has faded, and multiple players including brands, platforms, influencers, and service providers have been constantly changing and exploring more possibilities for online marketing amid fierce competition, especially in the content ecosystem. From Mr. He, whose short video caused the sponsoring brand's stock price to surge by 13.51%, to Liu Yexi, a virtual character who emerged based on the concept of the metaverse, the value of KOLs and the importance of content creativity have begun to be re-evaluated.

In the field of live streaming e-commerce, from phenomenal e-commerce events to daily brand self-broadcasts, it has become an important content field and consumption scenario. With the complexity and variability of multiple touchpoints, it is difficult to determine the growth patterns of brands in the field. Everything is a new challenge, but also full of opportunities.

Some time ago, CBNData and Yigrowth jointly released the "2022 Brand Online Marketing Traffic Observation Report", clarifying the diverse ecology of the traffic world from the platform perspective, and using brands as a fulcrum to restore the true face of players in the traffic field, providing brands, institutions and platform practitioners with a panoramic description and reference.

01. Traffic marketing war and e-commerce landscape

Technological iterations are accelerating, effective traffic is in high demand, and online marketing has entered the era of full touchpoints. This also means that brand marketing must lay out channels in as many dimensions as possible to compete for limited traffic, so as to better reach the brand mind and build a closed loop.

According to CBNData data, in 2021, brands' marketing investment on the three major platforms of Douyin, Xiaohongshu and Taobao increased significantly, and more than 70% of brands chose to invest mainly in Douyin. This also indirectly shows that short videos, e-commerce and content seeding platforms have become the main touchpoints for online marketing. In addition to these three channels, brand private domains, JD.com, Bilibili, Kuaishou, Pinduoduo, etc. have also become important venues for brand marketing.

Source: "2022 Brand Online Marketing Traffic Observation Report"

Among them, Xiaohongshu and Bilibili, as important players in the content seeding field in recent years, have seen an increase in the proportion of brand attention year by year. Compared with 2019, the proportion of advertising spending by Xiaohongshu and Bilibili in 2020 increased by 119% and 141% respectively.

It is not difficult to see from the brands' choices of online marketing that their investment levels in different channels vary, but the full-touchpoint layout has become the mainstream trend. The full-touchpoint not only means that brands need to use a combination of channels based on their own categories and tracks, but also puts higher demands on traffic platforms. We can also perceive this well from the multi-faceted strategic adjustments of content platforms.

According to QuestMobile data, as of the end of Q3 2021, the number of monthly active e-commerce users reached 1.101 billion, with a penetration rate of 94%. This also means that the leading e-commerce companies have basically completed the coverage of users of different age groups, the growth of the e-commerce marketing market has stabilized, and marketing methods are seeking new highlights.

Source: "2022 Brand Online Marketing Traffic Observation Report"

Among them, Taobao creates a brand-planting atmosphere through shopping, and achieves brand-planting + ordering in the same domain. JD.com relies on multiple platforms outside the site, binds variety show IPs, and creates a circle-based sharing space for in-site marketing to gain new growth or promote activation.

In addition to the marketing growth of e-commerce platforms, content platforms are also constantly seeking breakthroughs. Among them, the short video platforms Douyin and Kuaishou are the most dominant. In the first half of 2021, Douyin and Kuaishou accounted for nearly 40% of the media industry's advertising revenue.

And with the development of policies and markets, major platforms are still exploring new commercialization paths. Douyin proposed interest-based e-commerce, which stimulates interest by building content and then generates a chain of consumer demand. At the same time, it has deepened its investment in e-commerce, launched an official mall, and launched an independent trendy e-commerce app "Douyin Box".

Kuaishou has built an e-commerce platform based on trust, making full use of its private domain advantages and improving the infrastructure of the platform's e-commerce. At the same time, the platform's monetization rate is much lower than other platforms, and it also actively guides merchants to settle in. Xiaohongshu emphasizes the e-commerce attributes of promoting products, accelerates the transformation of e-commerce, and at the same time broadens the male user pool and increases the possibilities of commercialization.

Bilibili is gradually building brand marketing scenarios, deepening its e-commerce capabilities, becoming a large-scale brand promotion base at important nodes, and getting a taste of live streaming sales.

Source: "2022 Brand Online Marketing Traffic Observation Report"

02. Marketing strategies of traffic platforms

CBNData data shows that the top three online marketing models that brands pay most attention to in 2021 are live streaming marketing, short video marketing, and e-commerce marketing. Among them, live streaming marketing, as a popular form in 2021, has become a focus of many brands.

In 2021, more than 70% of brands conducted live broadcasts on Taobao and Douyin, and nearly half of the merchants interviewed had a presence on both Taobao and Douyin. Moreover, the brand self-broadcast penetration rate on Taobao and Douyin was about 5 times that of Kuaishou. The penetration rate of brand self-broadcasting on WeChat Video Account and JD.com is comparable, with more than 20% of brands broadcasting on the above platforms.

From the perspective of brands, user accumulation, price discounts, and platform traffic support are the three major driving factors for self-broadcasting ROI. Moreover, in the process of building self-broadcasting channels, most brands hope to internalize them into brand assets through self-operation or co-construction.

In addition to brand-owned broadcasts, short video marketing and social media marketing models conducted by influencers have also become a focus of brand owners, and conversion effect is a common factor that brands consider when launching campaigns.

The difference is that brands’ consideration for live streaming influencers is more focused on the anchor’s past conversion rate and advertising budget, while the selection of KOL/KOC focuses more on the fit between the content audience and the brand’s target market and the blogger’s vertical influence.

Source: "2022 Brand Online Marketing Traffic Observation Report"

With the adjustment of market policies and the development of trends, fierce competition for traffic will continue in 2022. At the same time, the era of industry standardization will come, and brand self-broadcasting will also develop towards self-ordering and product promotion.

The most direct influencing factor is that in May 2021, the "Regulations on the Management of Online Live Streaming Marketing (Trial) " jointly issued by seven departments including the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Commerce was officially implemented, which made comprehensive and specific regulations on the live streaming e-commerce industry.

In addition to live streaming, content seeding will also show its diverse possibilities in both depth and breadth in 2022. On the one hand, the content sections of various platforms have been laid out, and the whole region has become an incremental space for brands. On the other hand, the energy of content creativity will be further released, and the value of content creativity will once again surface.

03. The way for players in the traffic world to break through

Regarding new marketing touchpoints and trends, what are the small points that brands can tap into to break through?

The first thing is to clearly understand that not every brand has the strategy of generating explosive traffic. On April 8, 2021, Kang Zeyu, President of Douyin E-commerce, first proposed the concept of "interest e-commerce" at the first Douyin E-commerce Ecological Conference, providing a clearer starting point for the layout of Douyin e-commerce.

However, after trying the waters, many brands found that the start was not friendly, because high exposure investment does not necessarily lead to good conversions. Instead, releasing some content that can stimulate interest in a short period of time and shorten the transaction chain will have more significant results.

Focus on member operations and increase repurchase rate. After attracting traffic through multiple self-broadcasting accounts and long live broadcasts, how a brand encourages viewers to purchase tests its ability in recommendation focus and membership operations. E-commerce platforms like Douyin have also launched store memberships, which help brands build private domains and drive product sales growth by providing membership benefits, various membership rights and access channels.

Source: "2022 Brand Online Marketing Traffic Observation Report"

The key to building a distinctive brand is to meet the segmented needs of a small group of people, seize the dividends of e-commerce and traffic to create popular products, and then expand the scale.

However, with the rise of new consumer brands, the replication of models has made the business logic itself no longer new. Therefore, creating a "personalized" brand, forming a unique memory point that is different from similar brands, and generating "three empathy" with consumers have become the iterative direction of the brand's "personality".

Summarize

In the current market landscape, the brand marketing situation has become complex and intense, and omni-channel multi-touchpoint communication has become a conventional means of communication. How to use this combination of punches will be a test of the brand's comprehensive operational capabilities in terms of platforms, content, and users.

Secondly, the value of creative content will become particularly prominent in this chaos, and good ideas are not limited to advertising suppliers and brands. Platforms, individuals, and MCN organizations will all be channels for producing good ideas and can efficiently obtain good feedback in the market.

In addition to the "external" changes, there are also clear trends in the brand's internal strategic adjustments. The first is the layout of the e-commerce strategy. Brand self-broadcasting will become the norm, and the corresponding e-commerce personnel configuration will also become a new demand.

The second point is the accumulation of the brand’s own methodology, which will help the brand find a suitable growth path that suits itself in the chaos, thereby forming barriers and strengthening the moat.

Author: Community Marketing Research Institute

Source: Community Marketing Research Institute