Gab China Visits Tencent

WeChat advertising is one of the quintessential digital mechanisms for reaching your audience in China. We are constantly optimizing our strategies for WeChat advertising to better enhance the results for our clients. This article explains the insights we gained about WeChat advertising during our visit to Tencent. 

Gab China values building partnerships with Chinese marketing channels Tencent, Baidu, Bilibi, Weibo, and Douyin (China’s TikTok). We visit their offices regularly and invest time to work closely with their advertising teams. These consistent conversations allow us to share a close connection to the leaders of Chinese marketing. As a result, we stay ahead of new marketing strategies. We understand how to fully support our clients and create the most opportunities because of these connections.

Tencent’s Visit & WeChat Advertising

China’s ultimate “Super-App” is WeChat.  Stretching across China’s different demographics to reach over 750 million active daily users and more than 2 billion users worldwide. In other words, WeChat is the leading platform to deliver your advertising message on and grow your Chinese audience because of this reach.  Furthermore, China offers endless business opportunities to tap into to through strategic marketing.  However, the wide variety of advertising options WeChat PPC presents can be a challenge to successfully navigate.

Earlier this spring, the Gab team headed to Guangdong to visit Tencent’s Advertising Team. We believe that in-person relationships are essential to building long-lasting partnerships. Tencent shared with us that most agencies never visit, and that our founder Gabby is the first non-Chinese to ever visit their office. After our in-depth conversations with Tencent’s advertising specialists, we are excited to share several new Chinese marketing insights with you. From WeChat advertising placement to WeChat advertising campaign packages, our team is already implementing these WeChat advertising strategies.

Optimizing WeChat Advertising

Our team listened as Tencent described how WeChat Moments is not the only prime space for WeChat advertising. Brands advertising on WeChat Moments is similar to advertising a post on Facebook or Instagram. See an example below:

Designing advertisements for WeChat Moments is helpful to grow your account, there are additional strategic methods for building your brand’s visibility and conversion rates.

Why WeChat advertising and articles?

Tencent advised us to leverage other spaces such as WeChat ads and articles. For WeChat ads and articles, they recommended placing marketing ads between text or at the bottom of the article. Compared to WeChat Moments, posting at the bottom of an article generates a higher conversion rate. It’s time to redirect your focus.

What are the Advantages of the Tencent ecosystem?

Their team also highlighted videos and external platforms which are embedded within the Tencent ecosystem. If you are unfamiliar with Tencent, they are a technological powerhouse and hold one of the highest financial standings in China. They are also the developers of Weixin (WeChat) and QQ (an instant messaging platform). Within the Tencent platform, Tencent’s new Video platform, WeChat Channels, is going to become more prominent within the Tencent ecosystem.

Advertising Within WeChat Articles

WeChat articles, particularly the bottom of the article, generates a higher ROI than WeChat moments advertising. Therefore, this option is more effective and reduces cost. Here is an example of a WeChat advertisement at the bottom of the article:

We learned that several luxury brands such as Tiffany & Co. were initially reluctant to implement WeChat ads in WeChat articles from chatting with Tencent. This is because they believed it wouldn’t match their luxe identity and would be off-brand. However, they adopted it after several trials of testing and seeing the impressive ROI results. These brands became comfortable with WeChat article ads. And as a result, more and more prominent brands are choosing this path.

Recycling Target Audience Packages

Cut out extra work by recycling previous target audience packages used by other WeChat advertising campaigns.

Unlike Weibo, Tencent shared that when setting up the target audience for WeChat ads, WeChat allows a shortcut. An advertising account can use the same target audience package previously used by another advertising account. This means you can save time by recycling an advertising package from a brand that has already invested time and resources in developing a successful target audience for their WeChat advertising campaign. However, to attain these recyclable target audience packages, a brand needs to contact their agency (let us know if we can help) or their WeChat advertising account manager.

Exploring WeChat Channels

Another marketing development we are excited to share from our conversation with Tencent involves WeChat Channels. WeChat Channels is on the rise, so your brand should invest in building your WeChat Channels account as soon as possible. Read our article that introduces WeChat Channels, here. Currently, WeChat Channels isn’t directly connected to WeChat’s official account. However, Tencent informed us that this link-up is scheduled to happen soon, potentially this summer.

WeChat Channels Vs WeChat Moments

Why does this matter? With over 1 billion monthly active users, WeChat Channels allows users to post videos and pictures. WeChat Moments Advertising restricts brands in terms of video length. WeChat Channels provides more room for advertising opportunities especially for e-commerce as brands may link the Channels advertisement directly to the store. Here is an example of an advertisement on WeChat Channels:

Numerous top brands are already consistently building their content on Channels. This platform is WeChat’s strategic platform to generate traffic to WeChat Store, a platform that differs from Mini Program with its heavy e-commerce slant. Channels will also be crucial to livestreaming on WeChat, where brands can make a live stream forecast post on WeChat Moments. If you leverage the popularity of Channels, you can plan more deliberate campaigns to generate traffic to your brand’s WeChat Store. Brands should take note of some of the best-performing brand-owned WeChat Channels. Tencent advised learning from Burberry, Dior, Bvlgari, and Hugo Boss. Here is an example of an advertisement from Dior:

Connecting with Chinese Marketing Channels

Gab China continues to build partnerships with Chinese advertising channels. Our advertising team is exceptional at managing advertising campaigns because we invest in our partners. We understand how to attract loyal followers to your accounts, lead your target audience to your WeChat Store, and generate conversions. We were grateful for these in-person insights with Tencent as we look forward to continuing our conversations on innovative marketing strategies. New Chinese marketing trends are always developing, and Gab China stays engaged with our partners to offer the best opportunities to our clients.