If you don’t understand the algorithm mechanism of information flow advertising, how can you promote it?

The bid has reached more than two hundred, but why is it not exposed yet? !

I was able to run over 50 miles yesterday, why did I suddenly run no miles today?

What should I do if the new plan performance is too low?

The above problems are all caused by not understanding the internal algorithm mechanism. What is the algorithm mechanism?

The number of times, before and after, and placement of ads in information flow will vary depending on the information that visitors browse, so the measurement standard for information flow ads is display effect ads based mainly on ECPM.

ECPM determines whether an ad can be displayed in front of visitors and its display position . This indicator can explain the question of “why I see competitors’ ads every day but not my own”.

Since ECPM is so important, how can we improve the ECPM value? You can start from two aspects: one way is to write a hit idea, a hit idea can save an account; the other way is to bid high, sufficient traffic base is the prerequisite for conversion.

The core of Toutiao is creativity. If you want to avoid competition among traffic from different plans, you need different groups of people. The groups are determined by account attributes and creativity. Different types of creativity can find different groups of people.

Information flow advertising exposure mechanism

Once we have set up settings such as bidding and targeting, and your creative and account are set up, your ad will go live for review.

After the system review, it will give you an estimate, which we call "rough sorting". For example, it is 8:00 p.m. now, and 100 new ads have been uploaded to a certain ad space in the Toutiao APP. The system will perform a rough sort based on a series of factors such as your CPC bid, estimated click-through rate, etc. After the sorting is completed, the system will compare them. If an ad wins, the system will display the best and highest-scoring high-quality ad.

If there is a click during the display process, OK, add 1 point! The reward is that you will get higher performance! But don’t be happy too soon, because if no visitors click on you after the display, OK, deduct 1 point, and then go back to compete again!

In addition , in the competition process, competition from the same type of advertisements and user interests will affect core competitiveness , and it is also restricted by the following factors:

Freshness of the advertisement: It accounts for a large proportion. Last year, old materials could still be very popular, but now it is difficult. For exclusive categories or businesses, it is difficult to run with copied materials. You must use your own, which is also due to the freshness.

01. Category freshness: Is it a blue ocean market industry?

02. Remarketing: Has it been repackaged?

03. Ad quality scoring: There is scoring in the background

04. Diversity wash: If there is only one video and a few creative ideas in an advertisement, it is not called diversity.

05. New advertising strategy: Is the strategy new?

06. Advertiser levels: framework, sub-account, master account

07. Exposure smoothing: whether consumption and exposure are unstable recently, and whether the promotion will be stopped on some days

Information flow advertising review process

1. Number of ad requests initiated by users at this traffic position: 1 million

Assuming that 1 million new ads are added to the platform at 8 o'clock in the morning, the system will exclude other ads that are not within the targeting range.

2. The number of remaining ad requests after filtering out user requests that are not within the ad targeting range: 150,000, a proportion of 15%

Let me put it this way, if the advertising space is for investment and franchise, the creative labels, creative content and industry account qualifications of the user's advertisements are for the investment and franchise industry, accounting for about 15%. This means that these 150,000 advertisements are in line with the targeting, and the system will filter out the remaining advertisements from other industries.

3. Number of remaining ad requests after filtering out requests from users who have viewed the same type of ad too many times: 105,000, or 70%

The second wave of the system will filter out users who have seen the same type of ads too many times. This is why we have been encouraging everyone to use original creativity. If the system determines that yours is original, it will give you about 70% exposure opportunities. Even if you change a character, you will get more exposure.

Of course, if you copy other people’s ideas, the system will filter them based on the ads that have already been run among users. If these ads are already being run or are similar, then I’m sorry, they will be filtered out directly. The result waiting for you is less exposure or no exposure at all!

4. The number of remaining ad requests after being filtered out due to lack of interest in the ad or inappropriate material style: 104,000, accounting for 99%

The system will evaluate users based on their attitude towards ads. Approximately 1% of users will be uninterested or will directly click “×” on ads. Congratulations to the remaining 99% for entering the next level.

5. The number of remaining ad requests after filtering out ads without sufficient available budget and balance: 104,000, a proportion of 100%

Continue filtering. Ads without sufficient available budget and balance will not be delivered!

6. Estimated probability of being successfully placed after entering the rough ranking: 104,000, 100%

If you have passed the screening process without any problems, it means you have the opportunity to be shown. Your budget, presentation, quality and type are all good, and the system will give you higher exposure.

7. The ECPM of the rough sorting is high, and the qualification to enter the refined sorting stage is obtained: 10,400, the proportion is 10%

In steps 1 to 6, you will find that 90% of the ads are wasted in the rough ranking stage. Basically, they still have exposure in the first one or two days, but the effect begins to decline on the third day. This is because the ads have not entered the fine ranking stage.

You were eliminated during the competition before you could even eat meat. Is the competition very fierce?

8. ECPM above the threshold can participate in ECPM ranking: 5000, 50%

If you make it through the "fine ranking" stage, you will have about 5,000 ads that can participate in the final exposure competition.

9. ECPM ranks high and successfully enters the next step: 2500, proportion 50%

The ads at the front will move on to the next stage, which is basically another competition process.

10. After being mixed with articles, ECPM bid wins and there is no brand advertising, successful delivery: 1250, proportion 50%

In the end, there may be only 1,250 ads left out of the 1 million. For the ads that can survive, if we assume one step per day, basically no creative ideas will survive more than three to five days. You must be asking, it's just a casual vote, why is it so complicated?

Because the competitiveness of one advertising pool is different from that of another, as we mentioned above, in the competition process, competition among the same type of advertisements and user interests will affect core competitiveness, and it is also subject to factors such as "advertising freshness, category freshness, remarketing, etc."

You must understand that only by properly controlling the exposure can you be the upstream source for subsequent high clicks and high conversions! Only through real user and data feedback can we continuously optimize our delivery methods.

Author: Hou Chang

Source: Houchang College