China Mobile Advertising Industry Review & Forecast

There is no doubt that 2020 will be the year of breakthroughs and innovations in digital marketing. Facing the impact of the pandemic, China’s internet marketing has not only shown great resilience but also provided a basic guarantee for the production line and the real economy.

According to the “2020 Mobile Advertising Industry Report” found that the total number of clicks on the whole platform effect ads decreased by 4.2% year on year in 2020, compared with 2019, the fluctuation range is not large, and remains stable. To improve the quality of traffic, most advertisers tend to run the campaign on large media and DSP platforms and reduce the effort of running the campaign on CPA channels, leading to a decline in the magnitude of putting on CPA.

Industry Trends:

• The growth of 2nd-tier regional investment slowed down, and the growth of the lower-tier market was rapid.

Data show that the click of advertisements in China’s 1st and 2nd tier cities has decreased significantly, and advertisers are also paying more attention to the acquisition of traffic from the lower tier market. The increase was significant in the northwest, with Qinghai province up 81% and Gansu province up 63%. Beijing and other places, which have historically been larger in magnitude, saw Y-O-Y growth of -6% due to the saturation of market coverage.

• Advertising is placed close to the head media, and the amount of advertising is reduced compared with the same period last year.

– Total platform activations increased 83.4% year-on-year, a significant increase compared to 2019.

– WeChat mini-program has been gradually used by users, open action accounted for 25%.

– More than 60% of users access mini-programs through WeChat chat pages, advertisements, or sharing on Moments.

• OTT delivery continues to rise, and brand advertisers attach importance to multidimensional reach.

Mobile terminal brand advertising accounts for 49.25%. At the moment when the mobile terminal has become the mainstream delivery terminal, advertisers’ investment in OTT has increased compared with the past, and OTT terminal brand advertising accounts for 29.05% in 2020.

• Marketing and promotion budgets are rising and advertisers are more willing to increase their budgets.

The epidemic has had an impact on the mobile advertising industry, with advertisers choosing to reduce their advertising budgets during the outbreak and increase their spending during the mitigation period. Heading into 2021, more than 80% of advertisers have increased their marketing budgets or stayed the same.

• The target trend for 2021 promotion is to attract new users and increase activity.

The proportion focusing on the operation of old customers increased from 29.51% to 61.6%, while the proportion focusing on the acquisition of new customers decreased from 59.84% to 20.5%.

• Advertisers pay more attention to diversification, and rich marketing product matrix is becoming an appeal

From 2021, advertisers will use more platforms/tools for marketing promotion to achieve the appeal of automated marketing to reduce costs and improve efficiency. Also, KOL/ social promotion analysis platform is gradually being paid attention to by advertisers.