Luxury Brands Have Moved To WeChat Moments Marketing, Ditching WeChat Gamification

If you aren’t familiar with the vast WeChat ecosystem, do get yourself acquainted with the app’s advertising options in this article https://www.digitalcrew.com.au/2016/11/01/wechat-supercharging-mobile-commerce-china/

Tencent’s Move in 2016

Marketeers encouraged WeChat users to participate in their interactive gamification feature through mini programs and share a screenshot of their scores on their WeChat Moments. Users were then rewarded in cash also known as ‘Lucky money’ that Tencent wasn’t very happy about. Tencent released a list of restrictions that prohibited brands from asking followers to share their campaigns in exchange for monetary rewards because they wanted brands to try out the ‘Moments ads’ feature and simultaneously reduced costs for the ads. Marketers gradually started shifting base to this advertising platform making it one of the most sought-after forms of WeChat marketing with short video ads in focus.

What is WeChat Moments Advertisement?

A WeChat moments advertisement feature gives marketeers the opportunities to advertise within the moments section by buying an ad slot for a particular budget. It lets advertisers place the name and logo of a brand with a description of the brand within 40 characters, add up to 6 images or a video (with a specified duration) and an external link leading to the brand’s website or app. However, the feature is restricted to:

• Companies registered in Mainland China(either local companies or Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprises – WFOE) willing to invest at least 50k RMB (~8,000 USD)
• Foreign companieswilling to invest $1,500 – $8,000 USD

In 2017, Tencent also offered WeChat Overseas Advertising to target Chinese travellers in 42 countries and regions.

Is It Similar To Facebook & Instagram Stories?

The most relatable comparison to WeChat Moments is Instagram and Facebook stories that have overtaken snapchat and a few months ago, Facebook announced that Instagram Stories surpassed its competition by acquiring 250 million daily active users within a year of its launch! That’s roughly 50% of Instagram’s total number of daily active users accessing the application.

Why is WeChat Moments popular?

The engagement rate for WeChat moments currently stands at 800 million users because moments is an inevitable feature available to a basic WeChat user. This brings us back to the understanding that users all over the world are geared towards viewing live content updates!

How Does The Moments advertising feature target users?

• Advertisers can target WeChat moments users based on demographics like location, gender, age, education, interests, devices and mobile networks that are similar to Facebook and Instagram ad parameters
• WeChat equipped this section of advertising with top-notch marketing and data analysts from competing internet companies to dive into data at their disposal and produce optimized ad results

How does WeChat advertisements distribute impressions?

• After the advertiser has selected his/her targeting preferences, WeChat identifies key active users and starts targeting them with the ads. Ads only appear if the user has a minimum of four new updates in their moments, which means that the ad will appear in the fifth spot after 4 organic updates. If the ad doesn’t receive any likes or comments in the first 6 hours, the ad will automatically disappear from that user’s newsfeed
• However, if a user interacts with the ad within those 6 hours, there’s a high chance of this ad featuring in the target audience’s friends’ feeds. These ads are active for seven days and each WeChat user will only see one ad every 48 hours

WeChat Moments advertising rates within China:

This form of advertising is charged on a CPM basis (cost per 1,000 impressions)

WeChat overseas advertising targeting Chinese tourists:

The basic entry price for a slot would be 50,000 RMB for countries like Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, United States, Australia and 10, 000 RMB for countries like Germany, France, England, Italy, Canada & New Zealand.

Conclusion: Is WeChat Moments advertising right for your business?

• This advertising feature with its engagement rates and user data is a tempting option for advertisers to salvage the benefits of optimized targeting and results. However, a business needs to evaluate its core identity and products before it jumps onto the moments bandwagon
• This advertising option is ideal for WeChat brands that have recall value which is why brands like Dior & Lancôme invest heavily into it. For small and medium companies, or companies in service or B2B industries, other advertising channels such as KOL, WeChat banner ads, and Tencent ads on QQ and Q-zone maybe are better options