What are WeChat Moments ads? How do they work? Introduction
WeChat moments ads have become a must-have for brands to connect with Chinese customers. With 1.2 billion monthly active users, WeChat is one of the most popular social commerce platform in China. Moments ads appear seamlessly in user’s Moment feed on WeChat. The advertising approach gives brands access to a massive customer-base through an integrated ecosystem. The highly visual and engaging content of WeChat moments ads combines social media with e-commerce, completely changing how brands advertise and customers make purchases online.What are WeChat Moments ads? How do they work?
Source: peripherydigital
Moments ads are type of paid promotions that appear in the social feeds of users on WeChat. Unlike the common banner ads, they are visual and feature content like images and videos. They blend with a user’s social media experience in a natural way, making them feel more organic and less disruptive. These can show customer testimonials, 360-degree product views, or event highlights, to catch the eyes and minds of viewers instantly.
Moments ads blend into user’s WeChat feed like a post from friends. This makes advertisement feel more natural than spammy and forced. They can appear as photos, videos, or merchandise windows. When user clicks the appearing image, button, or link, they are taken to the brand’s WeChat Official Account, mini-program, or H5 page. This smooth transition makes interaction more engaging and helpful.
Types and Ad Formats for WeChat Moments Advertising
Source: sekkeidigitalgroup
Standard In-Feed Ads
These are the simplest kind of Moments ads that appear on WeChat. They feature a single image with short text that describes what’s in it, along with a simple call-to-action. These ads are good for brand awareness campaign, with a clear objective and message.
“Shop Window” Collage In-Feed Ads
This format is optimal for brands who want to showcase multiple products. It allows brands to display up to 6 product images in a grid layout. This makes Shop Window ads useful for for fashion, beauty, and retail brands.
Multi-Plugin In-Feed Ad Cards
If you want to add elements of interactivity in your ads, the card format works great for that purpose. People can interact with pictures and engage with brand through dynamic experiences. Therefore, this ad format is best for store promotions and lead generation.
Display In-Feed Ads
Brands can also add advanced visuals like short videos of 6-15 seconds, GIFs, 360-degree product visuals, and out-of-frame effects. This helps to acquire more customers through immersive experiences and storytelling marketing.
How to Create Effective WeChat Moments Ads?
Source: agencychina
Define your target audience
Knowing your target audience is the key step to make a successful Moments ad. Highly precise targeting options of WeChat help to narrow down your desired audience by age, gender, location, device, and networking mode. Moreover, the “exclude marketing” feature makes sure that your ad reaches to interested non-followers, rather than regular followers.
Choose the right ad format
After determining which audience you want to advertise, the next step is selecting your Moments ad format. You can choose from different formats, including posts or cards, to tell your story in a personalized and unique way.
Craft compelling ad copy and visuals
Use high-quality pictures and visuals of your brand, with your name and logo. Create an ad copy with short description, with up to 40 characters. Eye-catching visuals with less text overlays tend to perform best on Wechat Moments ads in acquiring customers.
Set a budget and bidding strategy
Budgeting and bidding should be done carefully, keeping your marketing objectives in mind. There are two bidding models to choose from: cost per thousand impressions (CPM) or optimized cost per thousand impressions (OCPM). The cost of both models varies according to different target groups, launch conditions, and industries, and you can choose what suits your needs best.
Monitor and optimize performance
Lastly, track the performance of your Moments ads by monitoring factors like click-through rates (CTR), engagement, and conversions. This way, you will get to know what’s working and what’s not and make changes where needed.
WeChat moments ads case studies
Cartier New Year’s 2024 collection ad
Source: mp.weixin.qq
Cartier used WeChat Moments ads to advertise its New Year’s collection through digital red envelops. The campaign brought traditional red envelopes (hongbao) to life in a fun and modern way. While scroling through their Moments Feed, users can spot and tap open the cute little envelops just like the real ones. The interactive advertising trick makes the new year celebration an exciting and digitized event.
GUCCI Chinese New Year 2024 campaign ad
Source: mp.weixin.qq
Gucci aced the 2024 Chinese New Year celebration by running eye-catching WeChat Moments ads. The brand created a short film named ‘’Homecoming’’, featuring Global Brand Ambassadors Ni Ni and Xiao Zhan.
The campaign included special red packet covers and interactive activations like virtual accessories for Weibo and a WeChat Mini Program. This immersive campaign added elements of interactivity and innovation to the cultural event through Moments ads.
Bodybreeze’s Out-of-frame Moments ads
Source: mp.weixin.qq
Bodybreeze’s out-of-frame Moments ads make the ball moving on a flat surface fly out of the frame. This three-dimensional spectacle creates an illusion that the ball is actually coming out of frame. The immersive display on Moments ads catches the eye of viewer right away and helps the brand get more clicks and conversions.
Zhu Yilong × SAIC Volkswagen
Source: mp.weixin.qq
SAIC Volkswagen’s WeChat Moments ad campaign shows some really smart thinking by featuring the celebrity Zhu Yilong. When users scroll to find content about celebrity Zhu Yilong, they see product displays pop up naturally at the bottom. Also, when they switch to car content, a “test drive” button appears automatically. The transition is so smooth that anyone barely notices that its an ad.
Ni Ni × Huawei
Source: mp.weixin.qq
Huawei’s WeChat Moments ad with actress Ni Ni is a good example of subtle celebrity marketing. Instead of displaying products specs casually, they let Ni Ni do her thing. The actress shot multiple scenes, including taking selfies and professional shots by flipping the camera in many angles. Combing these footages together creates an engaging ad that shows functions of Huawei mobile phones by amplifying the star effect.
Benefits of WeChat Moments Ads
Reach a massive and engaged audience
WeChat’s independent e-commerce ecosystem gives brands and marketers access to a huge customer-base. Moments ads help brands reach highly engaged and active users through integrated shopping features.
Precise user targeting
Moments ads have accurate targeting options, including user location, behavior, and network type. These features help brands display their ads to relevant users and avoid wasting resources on non-interested people. It also makes sure that only right people, with high purchase intentions, get to see and interact with their content.
Seamless integration into the user experience
The natural blending of Moments ads into the user experiences, makes advertising less intrusive and more smooth. Moreover, the integrated features within WeChat ecosystem, like mini-programs and WeChat pay, prompt users to make purchases without leaving the app.
High ROI potential for brands due to WeChat’s ecosystem
WeChat’s e-commerce capabilities help brands earn high revenues and ROIs in a closed shopping ecosystem. It has a trusted native option for all kinds of payments, called WeChat pay. The whole system is integrated with features that make it easier to shop products within few clicks.
Best practices to create engaging WeChat Moments Ads
Localized messaging for Chinese audiences.
Chinese customers respond better to the ads that reflect their local culture, values, and language. Therefore, using localization features help brands get across their message and promotions in a relatable manner.
Use storytelling and emotional appeal.
Effective storytelling gives your WeChat Moments ads a sense of connection by evoking emotions. When customers see visuals related to their interest, they quickly click the ad and open the link to know more.
Use influencers or KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders)
Using influencer marketing for WeChat Moments ads help brands earn trust with the help of KOLs and KOCs. They give your products credibility and brand a wider reach, which leads to high engagement and conversions.
How to create engaging WeChat Moments ads with Kivisense?
Moments ads are the most popular and advantageous way to advertise on WeChat. They yield great results for brands without interrupting their socializing and spamming feeds. Therefore, investing in Moments ads is a guaranteed way to capitalize on e-commerce capabilities of WeChat.
If you want to create high yielding WeChat Moments ads for your brand but do not have the right knowledge to do that, don’t get sad. Kivisense can help you get success on WeChat with highly engaging Moments ads with its innovative and next-gen immersive technologies. Get in touch with us to make a mark on WeChat e-commerce platform.
