How Chinese Marketers Use Native Ads

What Is Native Advertising?

       Also known as news feed ads and information stream advertising, it’s a form of paid media that’s different from display ads. Stream refers to the placement in the news section of social media platforms or dedicated applications. Facebook’s News Feed Ads are equivalent to China’s WeChat, known as Weixin, native advertising. Aggregate news products in China, such as Toutiao, known as TopBuzz in the U.S., are famous for their news feed advertising’s effectiveness in increasing stickiness. Bytedance decided to move out TopBuzz because its American impact wasn’t as powerful as Toutiao’s among the Chinese aggregate news app market (Baker-White, 2022).

       In the West, native advertising infamously rose to public and civic attention thanks to the crackdown on Facebook’s algorithms. Native advertising integrates “brand messages directly into the editorial flow” (Morris, 2014). It’s also an editorial style for key opinion consumers to create branded content, known as a horizontal communication paradigm. The result is that native advertising leads to higher advertising and brand attitudes in comparison to traditional display advertising (Du; Yang; Ying & He, 2021).

       Information sciences tell us native advertising is an advantageous persuasion form. Its brand activation function offers the choice to use a more discreet brand connection to influence consumer experience interpretation. The belief is that information processing fluency is faster, bringing attention to the consumer’s intuitive thinking to recall brand experiences. In a permission-based environment, native advertising has better inbound marketing conversion results.

Features

       Location-based services are the key to a higher command of cost-effective precision marketing (Xin & Xia, 2020). Personalized mass marketing’s economies of scale led to a breakthrough in mobile advertising.

       Native advertising is widely defined in Chinese and foreign marketing and advertising literature. The characteristics that set native advertising apart are that its circulation is accurate, the format is reader-friendly, and its engagement rate is strong. The platforms on which it appears are social network services, news aggregator applications, and short video and media sites. Its impact has exploded in the industries of social services, dining, tourism, entertainment, and door-to-door services. Its higher usage penetration in usage is in e-commerce areas such as check-in marketing, life services, social marketing, and business marketing.

How Does It Fit into Your Strategic Advertising Plan?

       Multi-channel attribution modeling is the concept that advertising contributes to the final step of converting potential customers or obtaining repeat purchases (Du, 2019). Maintaining relationships while exchanging media platforms on the customer journey is important. Native advertising is best known to complement users’ previous brand experiences for recall. It has the means to complement the online-to-offline (O2O) marketing journey for existing customers or potential customers with high awareness (Xin, 2020).

       For example, from a WeChat Moment page, a potential customer might get an impression from a friend’s share of a wedding photo gallery. On another platform such as Toutiao, the same user looks for recommendations for photography studios, and native advertising may place a studio brand. The studio brand’s integrated promotion strategy has the goal of moving the user from their first impression to a landing page. Here, the bounce rates on both the native ad and the website are high. A third channel, either online or offline, may then improve the customer experience with more direct, tailored interactions. Then, the conversion would be possible.

       Understand that native advertising in numbers is more than meets the eye. Deceptive confusion exists everywhere online. Many marketers new to this form may not immediately feel or see its cost-effective nature. When comparing results, beware of fake data online, mismatched key objectives, evading important information, using fallacious arguments, and concluding by using parts for the whole. Know that misinformation is an enemy wearing many hats before making decisions. It’s difficult to interpret the data. A standard professional marketer is clear about the market in the consumer’s mindset and analyzes beyond the data.

Why is In-App Search Important?

       We’ve heard of algorithms targeting search engine keywords, and we’ve heard of tagging for blog posts. Combining these two concepts, the native advertisement article tags are searchable from in-app searches. Each platform’s user penetration rate is high, such as the abovementioned Facebook, WeChat, and Toutiao.

       Therefore, the users would be more susceptible to ads through an in-app search on these platforms. The use of native advertising leverages user interest, an active environment, and product needs. For example, a worker who is on a 9 a.m. to 9 pm schedule six days a week would interact with time-sensitive ads before or after work. A lifestyle segment would then filter through psychographics such as a first-year mentality or a veteran mentality. For first-year mentality, an online course native ad may go like this: “Free listening, thirty days to employment, sign up now for 20% off” (Zhao, 2019).

       To leverage native ads, remember that they’re not dependent on search engine keywords. The tagged ads are matched to social listening, media tracking like cookies, and in-app search terms. The originality of content is most important to convey the horizontal messaging characteristic of native advertising. Branded content should use backgrounds that are more distinguishable from the product selling points. The type should be legible and read nicely next to any imagery with the one-third rule. The design of any posters at the end of the editorial should use three color schemes that attract and stir interest.

Learn More

       From this article, you’ve learned the basics of native advertising. Chinese consumers are highly educated readers who interact with ads between headlines. News platforms, therefore, move the target audience through several channels for impressions and engagement before conversion. Tag optimization can make materials more relevant to the audience’s interests. To see more content regarding this and other channel topics, visit our website.

       Cerberus Marketing offers services for every process step. We use the digital strategy as a mean to capture target customers. Our clientele includes nationwide Chinese companies and foreign multinationals. Leave your Chinese digital strategy to us. Contact us today for a free consultation.

References

[1] Baker-White, Emily. 2022. TikTok Owner ByteDance Used a News App on Millions Of Phones To Push Pro-China Messages, Ex-Employees Say. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emilybakerwhite/tiktok-bytedance-topbuzz-pro-china-content

[2] Du, Jiang. 2019. Decode Information Stream Advertising Placement, Data Analysis’s Five Chaotic Phenomena! https://www.opp2.com/127158.html

[3] Du, Qinglong; Yang, Yanxia; Liu, Ying; He, Qiqi. 2021. News Feed Advertising and Positive Attitude: An Interpretation Model Based on Information Processing. Frontiers in Psychology.  doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.724140 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8632635/

[4] Morris, Dan. 2014. 5 Tips for Using Facebook News Feed Ads. https://www.searchenginewatch.com/2014/03/12/5-tips-for-using-facebook-news-feed-ads/

[5] Xin, ChenJie; Xia, MinShou. 2020. Location-Based Service’s Mobile E-commerce Information Stream Advertising Precise Marketing Plan Analysis. https://www.xdsyzzs.com/shangyeliutong/6376.html

[6] Yang, Jia. 2021. Information Stream Advertising and Search Advertising’s Differences. https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv9577051

[7] Zhao, Yang. 2019. Piece on Information Stream Advertising Optimization Techniques: How to Precisely Position Target Audience. http://www.mysemlife.com/10688