Douyin Advertising
Douyin (抖音) the Chinese version of TikTok advertising refers to the ad products placed on the Douyin platform, allowing brands and businesses to showcase their advertisements to a targeted audience on this popular short-video social platform. As a platform with a vast user base, that is very popular in China, it offers an effective channel for advertising and brand promotion.
Douyin’s advertising system uses algorithms to display ads to users who are likely interested, helping advertisers improve ad efficiency and conversion rates. Additionally, Douyin’s ad platform offers a wealth of data analysis tools to help advertisers track ad performance and optimize advertising strategies.
Through these tools, advertisers can gain deep insights into how their ads reach the target audience, as well as the audience’s reactions and interactions, allowing for continuous adjustments and optimizations of ad content and placement strategies.
Ocean Engine (巨量引擎)
Ocean Engine is an advertising and marketing platform under Douyin and its parent company, ByteDance. It provides advertising solutions for businesses and advertisers, enabling them to place ads across multiple ByteDance platforms, including Douyin, Toutiao, and more.
Through Ocean Engine, advertisers can leverage ByteDance’s big data and algorithm technology to accurately target their audience, achieving efficient ad placement and brand promotion. Ocean Engine offers a variety of advertising products and solutions, including but not limited to feed ads, search ads, and performance ads.
Thus, Ocean Engine is primarily an advertising and marketing service platform. It uses ByteDance’s technological strengths and extensive user data to help advertisers effectively place ads and promote brands on its platforms.
Business Account (企业号)
Opening a business account is the first step for businesses to operate on Douyin. It provides multiple benefits such as identity verification, marketing conversion, user management, and data analysis.
Opening a business account is the first step for businesses to trade on Douyin. The blue V badge enhances brand authority and builds user trust. The account name is unique, preventing any duplicates among verified business accounts. It allows businesses to showcase their products and services to a vast audience.
Uploading video materials enables intelligent editing; recommending popular videos for creative inspiration. Supports fan tag management for convenient user information management. Supports private message management, including setting auto-replies; provides fan demographics data for targeted operations.
Enjoy special live streaming privileges and widgets, allowing fans to contact the business account directly via a website or phone; configure marketing activities to distribute coupons to fans.
Advantages of Douyin Advertising
- Large User Base:
As a leading short-video platform in China, Douyin has a massive user base, offering strong ad reach. - Rich Content Formats:
Douyin ads come in various creative formats, easily attracting user attention. - Strong Social Features:
Douyin users are highly interactive, making ads more likely to be shared among users. - Precise Targeting:
Ads are delivered to the most potential target audience through big data analysis and user profiling. - Effective Marketing:
Douyin ads have a high conversion rate, helping businesses improve performance.
The Forms of Advertising
Douyin offers a variety of distinctive advertising formats, and choosing the right type of Douyin ad is a critical consideration for advertisers before placing ads. Online classifications of Douyin ads vary by type and method. This article primarily categorizes Douyin ads based on standards provided by Douyin’s official ad placement platform, serving as a reference. Here, we will specifically introduce five types of Douyin ads.
1. Brand Takeover Ads (开屏广告)
Ads appear on the Douyin app’s launch screen, offering strong visual impact and brand exposure. Brand takeover ads can also merge with the first in-feed slot for a more immersive experience. Available in image, animated GIF, video, TopView, and TopLive formats.
Image
When users open the Douyin app, a static image ad is displayed on the launch screen for 3 seconds, allowing for pure display and landing page redirection; a must-see upon app launch, capturing attention immediately (see below image for example).
Animated GIF
Upon opening the Douyin app, an animated GIF ad is shown on the launch screen for 4 seconds, supporting pure display and landing page redirection; a must-see at the first visual entry, strongly capturing attention.
Video
When the Douyin app is opened, a video ad plays for 5 seconds on the launch screen, enabling pure display and landing page redirection; a must-see at the first visual entry, strongly capturing attention.
TopView
Upon opening the Douyin app, a video is fully displayed in full screen for the first 3 seconds, then transitions to the first in-feed ad from the 4th second, supporting video materials of 10-60 seconds.
TopLive
When users open the Douyin app, a video is shown in full screen for the first 3 seconds, with a button that leads directly to a native Douyin live stream, offering a 60-second video content with sound upon launch.
2. In-Feed Ads (信息流广告)
Ads are displayed in the Douyin App’s feed, offering a native vertical screen immersive experience. Suitable for lead collection, app downloads, product promotions, and brand dissemination goals. Available in native, single image, FeedsLive, and Local Lighthouse formats.
Native and Single Image
Ads are shown within Douyin’s content feed in a vertical display, native to the platform. Strong account association gathers followers, supporting various ad styles like native & single image.
FeedsLive
Live broadcasting scenes and cards from the live room are seen in the Douyin recommendation feed. Clicking on the live scene within the recommendation feed allows one-click entry into the native Douyin live room.
Local Lighthouse
When browsing recommended feed videos on the Douyin app, there’s a chance to encounter Local Lighthouse ads, meeting advertisers’ local marketing needs for offline store promotion.
3. Search Ads (搜索广告)
When users search for content on Douyin and hit keywords, the search results display promotional information. Supports goals like brand promotion, app promotion, lead collection, and product promotion. Formats include Brand Zone, Search Easter Eggs, Douyin Hot List, Bidding Ads, and Precise Ads.
Brand Zone
When users search on Douyin and hit advertiser’s brand keywords, the top spot showcases brand-specific information with an automatically playing brand video.
Search Pop-up
Full-screen Lottie animations pop-up in the search results, offering high engagement and attracting user attention. Clicking on the easter egg leads to a conversion landing page (See below image for example.)
Douyin Hot List
The sixth spot on the search page displays a brand hot topic word, which leads to a results page showing “Douyin Hotspot Brand Zone” upon clicking (See below image for example).
Bidding Ads
In Douyin’s search results page, between the 2nd to 10th spots, one bidding ad is displayed, mixed in with user content.
Precise Ads
When users search for an app name, a download card style can be triggered; when searching for specific brand words, a precise card is displayed at the top spot.
4. DOU+
DOU+ is a content boosting and marketing promotion tool on Douyin, designed to increase video views, interactions, and live room popularity. With DOU+, expect more excitement! It includes video boosting, live boosting, and advertisement promotion.
Video Boosting
DOU+ helps increase video views and popularity, attracting more interested users to interact and follow; supports various goals such as fan count, likes and comments, page views, etc.
Live Boosting
DOU+ aids in increasing the popularity and exposure of live rooms, bringing in more interested viewers; supports goals like live room popularity, fan growth, viewer interaction, and viewer rewards.
Advertisement Promotion
DOU+ supports users’ marketing promotion needs, including store traffic, product traffic, private messaging, likes and comments, and more.
Douyin Ad Placement Process
1. Identify Target Audience
Analyze the target market’s user needs, interests, age, geographic location, and other characteristics.
2. Choose Ad Format
Select the appropriate ad format (such as short video, live broadcast, etc.) based on brand characteristics and marketing objectives.
3. Create Ad Content
Combine product features and Douyin platform characteristics to create creative ad content.
4. Launch Ad
Set the ad budget, launch time, and other details according to Douyin’s ad placement rules, and start the ad campaign.
5. Monitor and Optimize
Use data analysis to understand ad performance in real-time and adjust the ad strategy accordingly.
Douyin Advertising Pricing Standards
Brand Takeover Ads, In-Feed Ads, and Search Ads are categorized as bidding ads. This means that businesses need to pay to obtain promotion qualifications and resources. However, ad slots on Douyin are limited; the higher bidder gets more display resources and opportunities, thereby reaching more users.
These types of ads primarily use three billing modes: CPM (cost per thousand impressions), where you pay for every thousand displays; CPT (cost per time), paying for ad placement within any 24-hour period regardless of how many times it’s shown; and CPC (cost per click), meaning the advertiser pays each time a user clicks on the ad link.
DOU+ pricing is more flexible, with costs entirely dependent on the advertiser’s exposure needs, allowing for concentrated or segmented placements.
Additionally, there’s Douyin Business Account Verification, which isn’t for ad promotion but is beneficial for businesses promoting on Douyin.
Summary
Douyin advertising, with its unique interactivity and creativity, is becoming an indispensable part of corporate marketing strategies. This form of advertising leverages the powerful capability of the short-video platform, conveying brand messages in a more vivid and intuitive manner to the target audience.
Unlike traditional advertising methods, Douyin ads allow for real-time interaction with consumers through short videos, live broadcasts, and more, enhancing brand visibility and appeal.
For large enterprises, Douyin ads provide a platform to showcase brand image, convey brand values, and establish deep connections with consumers. By collaborating with famous Douyin creators or publishing high-quality original content, large businesses can effectively expand their brand influence and attract more attention and discussion.
For startups and small-to-medium enterprises, Douyin advertising offers a cost-effective marketing method with relatively low barriers to entry. Even startups with limited budgets can attract the attention of their target audience with creative content, quickly enhancing brand recognition. Moreover, Douyin’s algorithms help these companies’ ads precisely reach their potential customers.
With the continuous growth of Douyin’s user base and its expanding influence, the Douyin advertising market is expected to face a broader development prospect. In the future, we can anticipate the emergence of more innovative advertising forms and strategies, along with an increased share of Douyin ads in companies’ overall marketing strategies.
Advances in technology, such as artificial intelligence and big data analysis, will make Douyin ad content more personalized and precise, further improving ad effectiveness and return on investment. In this trend, both rapidly growing startups and large enterprises aiming to consolidate market positions will consider Douyin advertising as an essential marketing tool.
Interested to learn what you can do on Douyin, visit our Douyin page and contact us!
