How do advertisers choose “KOL” to promote their products?

Today, the self-media industry is developing at an unstoppable pace, and the social influence and commercial value brought by the emerging media product "KOL" cannot be underestimated. Currently, a large number of advertisers on Douyin are using KOL as a new marketing outlet to build momentum for their brands.

So, faced with such a large number of KOLs, how can advertisers choose KOLs efficiently? How to maximize the advantages of KOL resources?

01. What is KOL?

KOL (Key Opinion Leader) refers to those celebrities who have credibility and appeal in their own vertical fields. Kas Data divides KOLs on the Douyin platform into four types: head, shoulders, waist and tail.

• ① Top KOL: The number of fans is over 10 million, and the huge number of fans has an influence comparable to that of celebrities.
• ② Shoulder KOL: The number of fans is between 5 million and 1 million, with high influence and public recognition.
• ③ Mid-level KOL: The number of fans is between 1-5 million, with a large number of vertical fans.
• ④ Tail KOL: The number of fans is between 100,000 and 1,000,000. The fan base is small but the fans are more vertical and precise.

Brands can combine the above four types of KOLs for promotion, which is beneficial for advertisers to distribute content multiple times with the best cost-effectiveness. You can first use the top or shoulder KOLs to lead the topic, then the mid-level KOLs to cover and disseminate information in multiple fields, and finally the long-tail KOLs to deliver more accurate information and assist in distributing marketing information.

02. Why do more and more brands prefer KOLs to promote their products?

① High stickiness between KOL and fans

Fans have been paying attention to the real life of KOLs for a long time and have maintained a high frequency of interaction with KOLs, thus establishing a kind of trust with KOLs across the screen. Based on this, when KOLs conduct in-depth promotion, guidance or promotion of a brand, it helps to enhance fans' favorability towards the brand, thereby stimulating fans' consumption behavior.

② Accurate content distribution

Because each KOL has his or her own unique personal charm and label and will attract the same type of users, brands choosing KOLs for advertising will help brand information reach users more accurately. Brands can choose a vertical KOL based on the attributes of their own products to avoid wasting resources.

03. How to choose KOL?

① Target KOLs and deliver targeted advertising

First, advertisers determine the KOL’s person and content tags based on the advertising entity and audience, that is, which vertical field the KOL belongs to, and then choose the KOL’s fan base based on the budget. Kas Data recommends that advertisers should not ignore the commercial value of mid- and low-end KOLs when choosing the size of their fan base, as their advertising is more cost-effective.

The commercial version of Kas Data provides an "intelligent screening" function, which allows advertisers to screen KOLs from several dimensions, including business attributes, celebrity attributes, data range, and fan attributes, greatly improving advertisers' screening efficiency.

Image source: Kas Data Business Edition, the same below

② Pay attention to the fan stickiness and conversion ability of KOL

When evaluating whether a KOL has conversion capabilities, it is not only necessary to look at the number of fans. The key lies in whether there is a high stickiness between the KOL and the fans. When a KOL posts a video on Douyin, does it trigger positive behavior from fans? The fan activity of the KOL should be assessed based on data such as the number of likes, comments, and shares of the video. Kas Data summarizes the above evaluation criteria into a "fan quality" score, allowing advertisers to clearly understand the value of KOL fans.

For KOLs who open “product showcases”, advertisers can directly judge the KOL’s ability to bring products through the sales volume of the “product showcases”.

In addition, the "Expert Sales List" module recently launched by the commercial version of Kas Data for advertisers can more intuitively view the KOL's ability to bring goods. The Douyin Expert Sales List comes from the Douyin APP-Douyin Expert Sales List, which ranks celebrities based on product sales, and mainly displays the celebrity name, label, and number of fans.

③ Conduct background checks on KOLs

After identifying the target KOL, advertisers need to conduct a background check on the KOL, understand the KOL’s video performance, user portrait, public opinion data and other information based on basic data, and investigate whether the KOL has engaged in data falsification in past advertising. Filter out KOLs that do not match the brand’s appeal and narrow down the selection range again.

Advertisers can also use the "Business Analysis" function in the commercial version of Kas Data to view all brand information, promotional video lists and advertising delivery status that the KOL has collaborated with.

④ Consider the value of KOL in the long term

KOL placement is not just a simple business cooperation, the KOL image is equivalent to the brand image. Advertisers mainly need to determine whether the KOL has the ability to continuously output high-quality content and whether the number of fans of the KOL is on an upward trend. These are indicators that advertisers use to measure KOLs. If the feedback after the initial launch is good, advertisers can seek long-term business cooperation with KOLs, which will help consolidate the brand image.

The number of KOLs is still increasing, and data-based delivery will be an inevitable trend for advertisers to conduct short video marketing. When selecting KOLs, advertisers should consider both the product and the KOL. Shortcomings in any link will affect the advertising and marketing data.

Author: Kas Data

Source: Kas Data