Insights into advertising on traffic platforms in Q1 2020

This article selects six major mainstream mobile advertising platforms, including Tencent Advertising, ByteDance, Baidu Information Flow, Baidu Baiqingteng, Sogou Xingyao and NetEase Yixiao, and starts from the overall advertising overview of the platform, advertising copywriting, Top 10 App advertising amount rankings, advertising media intelligence, etc., to decipher the advertising trends of various mainstream traffic platforms in Q1.

Based on the advertising intelligence we tracked during Q1, we have compiled the distribution of advertising volume in the top five industries as follows. The proportion of culture, entertainment, and gaming industries remained in the top two for three consecutive months. The proportion of education and training increased significantly in February and March. The proportion of social, marriage, and financial industries was more prominent in February. In March, the proportion of skin care, beauty, clothing, shoes, and bags gradually recovered.

1. Insights into Tencent Advertising

To further analyze the distribution of advertisers in different industries, we intelligently classify landing page materials based on AI technology, and subdivide them into event promotion (promoting brands or events, collecting and attracting phone calls and consultations through forms), application promotion (landing pages guide the download of a certain App), and e-commerce promotion (landing pages are for the sale of a certain product, such as second-tier e-commerce or the sale of goods on e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and JD.com), and the same below.

Among the advertisements placed by Tencent Advertising in Q1, advertisements for the purpose of application promotion accounted for the largest proportion, reaching 47.56%, the number of event promotion advertisements accounted for 30.02%, the number of e-commerce promotion advertisements accounted for 22.44%, and the number of advertisements placed in the cultural and entertainment industry accounted for the highest proportion. The gaming, social and marriage, education and training, and financial industries had a good momentum of placement.

The most popular game styles are mostly war, simulation, and fantasy, while non-games should mainly be short videos, live broadcasts, social networking, and novel reading.

Note: The Tencent advertising data mentioned in this article does not currently include advertisements that attract users to directly click on and follow public accounts. In addition, App Growing has not yet tracked data from Tencent’s advertising platforms such as WeChat Moments, QQ Browser, and App Store, so the advertisements here do not include those from these platforms.

From the word cloud diagram of the advertising copy, it can be seen that "mobile phone", "free", "cleaning", "red envelope", "cash" and other high-frequency words in the advertising copy of this platform. Further inquiries revealed that during Q1, the advertising copy of software applications, education and training, games, insurance and other industries all appeared with the keyword "mobile phone", such as "Is your phone stuck? Just use Cleaner Master to clean it with one click and avoid phone lag!", "It's a pity to buy an Apple phone but not use it to learn English!", "Sunshine Pig Farm, raise pigs with your mobile phone every day to relieve stress and make money, easily receive red envelopes, and the money will be credited to your account in seconds", "Enter your mobile phone number to receive a free 500 security deposit" and so on.

We estimated the advertising spending of each tracked app and compiled the top 10 gaming and non-gaming apps in terms of advertising spending in Q1 of Tencent Advertising. The same applies below.

During Q1, Tencent Advertising's key app advertiser types were mainly short video, novel reading, and live streaming. Bilibili, Qimao Free Novels, and Kuaishou Speed ​​Edition ranked among the top three non-game apps in terms of advertising spending (estimated). There are many styles of TOP10 mobile games, with fantasy "Sword and Expedition", casual "Crazy Guess Idioms" and "My Broadsword is Forty Meters" ranking in the top three of the game list.

2. Insights into Massive Engine Delivery

Among the advertisements placed by ByteDance in Q1, those for event promotion and e-commerce promotion accounted for the largest proportion, at 37.84% and 34.66% respectively. The number of application promotion advertisements accounted for 27.5%. Games, culture and entertainment, clothing, shoes and bags, skin care and beauty, and education and training were the top five industries in terms of the number of advertisements on the platform.

In terms of game style, simulation ads account for the largest proportion, more than twice that of Xianxia (10.48%) and Three Kingdoms (9.86%). Non-game applications are mainly live broadcasts, short videos, and novel reading, which are similar to Tencent's advertising platform.

"Free", "cost-effective", "subsidy" and "hundreds of billions" are high-frequency words in the platform's advertising copy. Further inquiry into the advertising copy reveals that during Q1, JD.com made strong investments, the cultural and entertainment industry focused on promoting "free" welfare activities, and Juhuasuan was also vigorously promoting it. Popular advertising copy included "Easy to use and cost-effective, these phones are worth having!", "Free! Free! Free! A truly free novel APP", "The premiere of "The Big Winner", Douyin is free to watch! Free to watch! Free to watch!", "No tricks, no order cancellations! Juhuasuan's hundreds of billions of subsidies, so good!", etc.

Among the top 10 apps with the highest advertising spending (estimated) on the ByteDance platform, TikTok, TikTok Speed ​​​​Version, and Xigua Video were the key app advertisers on ByteDance during Q1, ranking among the top three non-game apps with the highest advertising spending (estimated). "Fantasy Westward Journey", "Rate of Kingdoms" and "Sunshine Pig Farm" dominate the top three game apps.

3. Insights into Baidu Information Flow Distribution

More than 80% of advertisements on Baidu’s information flow platform are for event promotion purposes. Education and training, skin care and beauty, finance, games, and home furnishings are the top five industries in terms of the number of advertisements on the platform, with the education and training industry accounting for a prominent proportion.

The most popular game apps tend to be heavy in style, with fantasy, war, and legendary styles accounting for nearly 50%. The non-game apps tend to be lifestyle apps, mainly focusing on life services, renting and buying houses, and second-hand transactions.

"Free", "mobile game", "idle", "divorce" and other high-frequency words in its advertising copy. Many placement-style mobile games are launched on this platform. Popular advertising copy includes "Idle does not hurt your liver, and you don't need to draw heroes. It all depends on your operation. You can draw a mysterious red five-star at the beginning", "Lilith's high-scoring placement masterpiece "Sword and Expedition" is launched on the national server! Gift pack code: AFK888", "This Three Kingdoms is interesting! There is only 1 soldier at the beginning, and it will evolve automatically after being placed. You will become the king in 3 days!" and so on.

Among the top 10 advertising platforms with the highest amount of advertising spend in Baidu’s information flow (estimated), Mosheng, Pinduoduo, and Beike ranked in the top three. The top games on this platform are heavier in style, mostly fantasy, Journey to the West, and fairy-tale mobile games. "Sword and Expedition", "The Sixth Heavenly Demon King", and "Daoyou Please Stay" rank in the top three in the advertising expenditure list.

4. Baidu Baiqingteng advertising insights

During Q1, 96.92% of the ads on Baidu Baiqingteng platform landing pages were for event promotion, while application promotion and e-commerce promotion accounted for a small proportion. The gaming industry accounted for the highest proportion of investment, at 26.93%, followed by education and training, at 10.7%.

The main game styles are war and Three Kingdoms. The proportion of chess and card games is higher than that of other platforms. Non-game apps are mainly life and shopping applications such as renting and buying houses, second-hand transactions, platform e-commerce, discount sales, etc.

"Game", "download", "chess and card", "mobile phone" and other words are the high-frequency words in the platform's Q1 advertising copy. The query found that the advertising copy of chess and card games emphasizes the keyword "chess and card game", such as "In chess and card games! You will meet unexpected opponents in Chengdu!", "Free chess and card games, so fun that you can't stop!", etc.

Among the top 10 advertising expenditures (estimated), Pinduoduo, Duizhuang Jade, and Anjuke ranked in the top three for two consecutive quarters. Most of the popular mobile game apps are fantasy and fairy-tale games. The card game "The Sixth Heavenly Demon King", the fantasy game "Perfect World", and the fairy-tale game "Furious Cultivation" are at the top of the game list.

5. Insights on Sogou Xingyao Advertising

The platform’s landing page has the highest proportion of advertisements for event promotion, accounting for 93.63%. Education and training, investment and franchising, finance, games, and watches and jewelry are the top five industries in terms of the number of advertisements on the platform. The education and training industry still has the highest proportion, reaching 16.91%.

Among the most popular game styles, more than 50% are chess and card styles, while stranger dating, vertical e-commerce, and system tools are ranked the top three non-game app styles.

"Download", "free", "game", "chess and cards", "franchise" and other words are high-frequency words in the platform's advertising copy. Chess and card games and investment and franchise advertisements are relatively common on this platform. Popular advertising copy includes "This game can be played all day long even without WiFi!", "It's easy to join the home accessories franchise, simple to operate, and a store will become popular as soon as it is opened!", "Open a technology beauty store and join a technology beauty brand."

"Little Red Book", "Sogou Films" and "Toutiao" ranked the top three in the advertising expenditure list of non-game apps on Sogou Star Platform. Most of the games on the list are casual, legendary, etc., with the casual game "Sunshine Pig Farm", the legendary game "One Sword Explosion R", and the casual game "Happy Match 3" occupying the top three in the game rankings.

6. Insights into NetEase’s Easy-to-Effective Delivery

During Q1, the platform had a large number of advertisements for the purpose of event promotion and application promotion, with cultural and entertainment advertisements accounting for more than 50%. The most popular game apps focus on heavy themes such as the Three Kingdoms, war, and fantasy. 94.29% of non-game apps are news and information apps.

"Mobile game", "next generation", "A Chinese Ghost Story", "technology", "upgrade", "full" and other high-frequency words are used in its advertising copy. A search found that "A Chinese Ghost Story", "Fantasy Westward Journey 3D" and other games emphasize the "next generation" keyword, and real estate advertisements emphasize the "technology" keyword. Popular copy includes "A Chinese Ghost Story mobile game next generation version is fully upgraded, full of black technology!", "The future Jinmao Mansion has "contactless" black technology, and you can stay at home healthily without pressure".

Among the top 10 advertising platforms with the highest amount of advertising spending (estimated), NetEase News, Sephora China and Farfetch ranked in the top three. Most of the games on the list are heavy mobile games such as war, Three Kingdoms, fantasy, fairy tales, and legends. "Rate of Kingdoms", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Strategy Edition", and "Sword and Expedition" are launched strongly.

7. Inventory of the top ten advertising media key industries

Based on the mobile advertising intelligence tracked by App Growing during Q1, we further calculated the number of advertisements in each industry for each advertising media, and sorted out the distribution of the number of advertisements in key industries of the top ten advertising media in Q1 as follows. Culture and entertainment, games, education and training, skin care and beauty, clothing, shoes and bags are the key industries targeted by major media.

Author: App Growing

Source: App Growing