The Official WeChat advertising add-on was launched just a couple of years ago, but it immediately became an important part of any WeChat marketing strategy in China and abroad. Today, WeChat has numerous advertising categories and pricing systems. How do you choose the appropriate advertising model for your own strategy? This article will help you explore the advertising options available on WeChat.

SUMMARY :
I/ WeChat advertising:  the target audience
II/ WeChat Public Account Ads
III/ WeChat Moments Ads
IV/ Mini program advertising
V/ WeChat advertising budget:  number of exposures
VI/ WeChat Advertisement Budget: Bidding based on exposures
VII/ WeChat Advertisement Budget: Bidding based on clicks
VIII/ Price based on single article

The Official WeChat Advertisement add-on was launched just a couple of years ago, but it immediately became an important part of any WeChat marketing strategy in China and abroad. Today, WeChat has numerous advertising categories and pricing systems. How do you choose the appropriate advertising model for your own strategy? This article will help you explore the advertising options available on WeChat.

WeChat advertising strategy

Weibo and WeChat have become the two most important mobile advertising media platforms for social marketing in China since 2013. In 2019, Chinese social media advertising platforms are still evolving with a variety of features, and the WeChat platform has long been a major base for advertisers to attract customers. With MAU of 1 billion + (2018 Q3), WeChat is one of the most seductive platforms for e-commerce, communication and brand awareness. WeChat is still the app for Chinese customers in 2019, and more and more local and foreign brands keep leveraging this platform this year!

But before thinking about advertising budgets, lets see what is the platfrom all about and when is it most frequently used.

Taking a look an an average person’s day on social media platforms, WeChat is the app people are most reluctant to abandon.

First of all, advertisers’ marketing goals determine the types of WeChat Advertisement services. WeChat Advertisement provides eight promotional goals, namely: Promoting brand activities, promoting stores, promoting applications, promoting commodities, promoting public accounts, distributing coupons, collecting sales information, and promoting mini games.

Each promotion goal has its corresponding alternative form of advertising. The following is a detailed description of WeChat’s advertising formats.

WeChat Advertisements have three realization schemes, namely custom H5, native promotion pages and mini programs, and each scheme may choose different advertising locations.

Currently, WeChat advertising has the following six advertising locations:

These six WeChat advertising locations can be summed up in three categories, namely public number ads, Moments ads and mini program ads.

WeChat advertising policies 2019

In order to start advertising with WeChat, you must register an advertising account, where you will later do the targeting, pay for services and set up design of the ads. For companies that are registered in mainland China, the use of WeChat advertising is quite efficient. But if you are a company from abroad, and would like to advertise in China, every campaign you prepare will have to go through the special applicaiton and audit before going live. Also, such companies are only audited if they have advertising budgets of 50K RMB or more.

As a publisher you are responsible for any content you publish, so better make sure you are familiar with the local laws. For a detailed policy guide please see the official WeChat service policy.

WeChat services

When we talk about WeChat in 2019, we do not simple mean texting and sharing content on Moments. Today, WeChat is an Ecosystem in which one can get easily lost. It is also a very “closed” space, where it is hard to discover an account of piece of content which one did not know exist. Unlike Instagram or Twitter, where users are exposed to new content, WeChat’s accounts are only found via keyword search.

• WeChat Browser
• App market similar to Apple’s
• Text, Audio, Image Messaging
• Live Video Sights
• Moments (personal feed)
• Didi (Chinese version of Uber)
• E-Wallet & Payment Services
• Booking trips, cinema tickets etc
• Tencent News
• Incorporated JD Shopping Channels
• WeChat Stores
• Geolocation & Mapping Services

Here is a bigger outlook to WeChat’s ecosystem:

Looking to connect your Official WeChat account and E-commerce platforms of China? Check out what works in our article!

Advertising on WeChat.

When it comes to WeChat ads and growing your followers base/generating sales, there are tons to choose from. Depending on what type of service you want to advertise, WeChat provides different placing (and budgets) for your branded adds. Keep in mind, that some industries are still not permitted to advertise on the platform, and include third party media, healthcare services, gambling and adult content, tobacco products etc.

Before the campaign will run, your WeChat ad account will go through an audit to assure that you “play by the rules”.

1. WeChat Public Account Ads

WeChat public account ads are displayed in the following four advertising locations in the layout of a related public article: bottom of the article, middle of the article, mutual selection ads and pre-rolls.

• Advertising location at the bottom of article

• WeChat Advertising location in the middle of the article

• Pre-roll advertising location

• Mutual selection ads

WeChat public account mutual selection ads are a launch mode based on mutual selection and freewill cooperation between the advertiser and the flow owner through the WeChat advertising platform. The advertisement is presented in the public account article.

2. WeChat Moments Ads

WeChat Moments ads are original ads precisely launched in the Moments of users to targeted groups in the form of originally generated content similar to that by a friend. It has two product forms, namely regular ads and card ads.

3. Mini program advertising

WeChat mini program advertising is based on WeChat mini programs and minigame sectors, and its actual location is determined by data flow owners of mini programs. It includes two advertising forms: banner advertisements and motivational advertisements.

The common display scenarios for banner ads are: article page – end of the article, detail page – bottom of the page, news feed – on top or in the middle of the news feed. The common display scenarios for motivational ads are points / gold rewards, unlocking of new features, end of game rounds, and props experiences.

WeChat Advertisement Charges

Now we will talk about the charging issue which people are most concerned with. Based on different advertising content and place of delivery, WeChat establishes different sales thresholds, pricing standards and delivery time models. The lowest sales threshold is 50 Yuan and the highest sales threshold is 50,000 Yuan. The pricing is divided into 1,000-exposure and click-based pricing criteria, and the delivery time is divided into scheduled purchases and bidding purchases.

Core cities (2)

Beijing, Shanghai

Key cities (20)

Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Suzhou, Chongqing, Nanjing, Tianjin, Xi’an, Shenyang, Changsha, Qingdao, Ningbo, Zhengzhou, Dalian, Xiamen, Jinan, Harbin, Fuzhou

Ordinary cities

Cities other than the core cities and key cities listed above

Based on the above rules, WeChat advertising has launched four purchase methods respectively, based on exposure scheduling, exposure bidding, click bidding and single article purchase.

1. WeChat advertising budget:  number of exposures

Reserve advertising opportunities for future target people, freeze the corresponding advertising amount, and ultimately settle the advertising costs according to actual exposure. At present, the three advertising locations (Moments news feed, bottom of public account articles and pre-rolls in public account articles) support scheduled purchases based on exposure.

Advertising locations	Sales thresholds	Pricing	Schedule scope
Moments news feed	One-off advertising budget is 50,000 Yuan and above	Priced per 1,000 exposures, jointly determined by launch areas and external layer media type of advertising content External layer video Core cities: 180 Yuan / 1,000 exposures Key cities: 120 Yuan / 1,000 exposures Other cities: 60 Yuan / 1,000 exposures External image Core cities: 150 Yuan / 1,000 exposures Key cities: 100 Yuan / 1,000 exposures Other cities: 50 Yuan / 1,000 exposures	Time to start launch: 1-28 days in the future Total exposure time: 12 hours – 5 days
Bottom of public account articles	One off advertising budget is 1,000 Yuan or more	Priced as per 1,000 exposures, jointly determined by launch areas External layer video Core cities: 40 Yuan / 1,000 exposures Key cities: 35 Yuan / 1,000 exposures Other cities: 30 Yuan / 1,000 exposures External image Core cities: 35 Yuan / 1,000 exposures Key cities: 30 Yuan / 1,000 exposures Other cities: 25 Yuan / 1,000	Time to start launch: 1-28 days in the future Total exposure time: 12 hours – unlimited

Pre-rolls in public account articles

One off advertising budget is 1,000 Yuan and more

Priced as per 1000 exposures, jointly determined by launch areas Core cities: 25 Yuan / 1,000 exposures Key cities: 20 Yuan / 1,000 exposures Other cities: 15 Yuan / 1,000 exposures

Time to start launch: 1-28 days in the future Total exposure time: 12 hours – unlimited

2. WeChat Advertisement Budget: Bidding based on exposures

Flexibly set the target audience and advertising time, adjust advertising exposure single price and design quality advertising content, compete with other customers for advertising and display opportunities, and improve advertising effects based on advertising performance. Currently three advertising locations, namely Moments news feed, pre-rolls in public account articles, and mini game motivational advertisements support bidding based on exposures.

Advertising locations	Sales thresholds	Bidding scope	Schedule scope
Moments news feed	Daily advertising budget is 1,000 Yuan and above	Priced as per 1,000 exposures, determined by launch areas Core cities: 100-300 Yuan / 1,000 exposures Key cities: 60-200 Yuan / 1,000 exposures Other cities: 30-200 Yuan / 1,000 exposures	Time to start launch: the earliest time is the same day Total exposure time: 6 hours – 30  days
Pre-rolls in public account articles	Daily advertising budget is 200 Yuan and more	Priced based on 1,000 exposures. The lowest bid is 10 Yuan / 1,000 exposures	Time to start launch: the earliest time is the same day Total exposure time: 12 hours – unlimited
Mini game motivational advertisements	Daily advertising budget is 1,000 Yuan and more	Priced as per 1,000 exposures, jointly determined by launch areas Core cities: 50-200 Yuan / 1,000 exposures Key cities: 40-200 Yuan / 1,000 exposures Other cities: 30-200 Yuan / 1,000 exposures	Time to start launch: the earliest time is the same day Total exposure time: 12 hours – unlimited

3. WeChat Advertisement Budget: Bidding based on clicks

Flexibly set the target audience and advertising time, adjust advertising click single price and design quality advertising content, compete with other customers for advertising and display opportunities, and improve advertising effects based on advertising performance. Currently, bottom of public account articles, middle of public account articles and mini program advertisements support purchase based on clicks.

Advertising locations	Sales thresholds	Bidding scope	Schedule scope
Bottom of public account articles	Daily advertising budget is 50 Yuan and above	Bid as per single click; lowest bid is 0.5 Yuan.	Time to start launch: the earliest time is the same day
Bottom of public account articles	Daily advertising budget is 50 Yuan and above	Bid as per single click; lowest bid is 0.5 Yuan.	Total exposure time: 12 hours – unlimited
Minigame advertisements	Daily advertising budget is 50 Yuan and above	Bid as per single click; lowest bid is 0.5 Yuan.	Time to start launch: the earliest time is the same day

 

4. CPS or Pricing based on article type

Mutual selection advertisements (CPS – cost per sale type of ad) charged according to the article, and the article price is determined by the flow owner. This advertising type is made for sales generations campaigns and assures you pay only when the product was purchased. Of cause, WeChat will charge a sales commission of up to 20% depending on industry, and the platform expects a brand to invest at least 50K RMB to the visibility and traffic.

Want to know more about WeChat advertising in 2019? Please get in touch with our marketing team!

HI-COM Asia is committed to a full range of social media marketing services in China and helps you improve your visibility in the Chinese market, covering a full range of social media strategies and every kind of blog. HI-COM provides Chinese social media content management and marketing support for influential Chinese people. If you want to get the best conversion rate in ad delivery, contact HI-COM now to help you surpass your competitors in the internet era!4. CPS or Pricing based on article type

Source : Official Wechat advertising guide [1] https://ad.weixin.qq.com/guide/106

More About WeChat:

Is Your Official WeChat Account Content in Breach of the Chinese Advertising Law?

New ways to reach and acquire WeChat followers – trends of 2019!