In the past when placing WeChat Moments Ads, advertisers were restricted to the option of running their ads throughout the whole day. To increase advertising flexibility, WeChat Advertisers are now able to select time periods for when they want their ads to run.

MORE CONCENTRATED, FLEXIBLE TARGETING

It used to be that WeChat Moments Ads were required to be placed for more than 12 hours, but with the new function, the WeChat advertising platform now supports ads that want to be placed for as little as 4 hours. Advertisers will not need to worry about the shortening of the placement time period impacting results, as WeChat guarantees the targeted exposure for the ad placements to ensure advertisers hit their goals.

There are two types of ads that would benefit from this new advertising function.

01 || TIME SENSITIVE ADS

For product launch PR events, livestream broadcasts, limited time coupons and offers, this new function can ensure the ads are promoted and seen in the hours leading up to the main event.

For example, a large entertainment show’s finale was set to air on June 8th at 7:30 in the evening, so in order to attract more viewers to watch and take part in the live vote, Tencent placed adds using this new ‘limited time placement’ function to concentrate the awareness during a specific time period, increasing exposure, driving traffic, and hyping up the event to the live broadcast online.

On June 6th, Prada hosted their SS ‘20 Men’s Fashion Show in Shanghai, the first time the brand has hosted a Men’s Fashion Week outside of Milan. To help more fans in China witness this inaugural show in Shanghai, Prada placed “Limited Time Placement” ads from 4-8PM to attract more viewers to the show’s live broadcast.

02 || TIMING THE TARGET AUDIENCE’S ONLINE ACTIVITY

We all know some friends who are night owls and some who are extremely early risers, so if a brand wants to target the lifestyle habits of these groups, they will find this new advertising function useful.

Olay had released a new cream targeted at females who tend to sleep late, and so they released the WeChat Moments Ads every Friday from 8 - 12PM and over the weekend from 12AM - 4AM, promoting how their new ‘late-night cream’ will save their skin in time for their weekend date. They targeted young females in their 20s, would be most active online late night swiping through their WeChat Moments, this led to an increase in the ads clickthrough rate by 38% and a session time on the site that was longer than average, leading to an above average conversion rate for the brand.

So if your brand has products of events that are time sensitive such as live broadcasts or is trying to reach a demographic that is active online during certain periods throughout the day, this new “limited time placement” function would be a great addition to your marketing tools to reach the Chinese consumer.

FAQS

Q | How is this new function charged?

This new function is charged according to the desired CPM, the chart below shows the cost for first, second and third tier cities. There is a premium on these ads of 20 RMB / CPM, since advertisers has the added flexibility with a shorter time placement.

Q | What types of ad formats can use this new limited time placement function?

This feature does not support multi-day placements, and the shortest time frame is 4 hours.

Q | How do I create an ad creative for this new function?

You can reach out to WeChat’s Advertising Support team on WeChat or go through your WeChat account manager to apply to use this feature.

Q | What kinds of targeting methods are available with this feature?

This type of ad currently does not support interests based targeting but it does support other basic targeting functions such as gender and age.

Source: WeChat Advertising Support

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