WeChat is one of the most widely used platform globally - with majority of the users centred around users who are from or frequent Mainland China. Presently, WeChat has a global user audience over 1.14 Billion and it is only poised for greater growth as Tencent continues to forage overseas and break new growth horizons.

Over the years WeChat has also evolved to having a seamless integration between the audiences within Mainland China and the world outside, and companies no longer require to setup an actual China business to be able to setup their business account has enabled brands ease of access when it comes to growing their audience & business via WeChat’s native platform.

It is important to note that there are actually two different types of WeChat account, one which is our personal accounts that we use for daily interaction, and the other being the Business Official Account that brands use to create content & build ads to develop a customer following via WeChat’s native platform.

Via our Personal Account, we can add friends from our mobile contacts & even via functions like WeChat Shake, search for latest news within the platform, follow business accounts & internet personalities, make full use of WeChat’s Mini Program, as well as post regular updates about our lives in our WeChat moments.

However, to run WeChat ads, create interactive WeChat Mini Programs or to even post regular content articles to share about our business brand of products and/or services, we will need to setup a WeChat Business Official Account.

So how do we setup a WeChat Business Account and how do I run ads?

To setup the business account, we will need to create a proper account via https://bit.ly/SetupWeChat and go through a thorough authentication process whereby several layers of documents will be requested from your company to prove business legitimacy.

It can be rather daunting, and the application process usually range from 2 weeks to 3 months, depending on the difficulty for your company to fulfil their requirements - it is also highly recommended for at least one of your mandarin-speaking colleagues to be appointed as a point of contact, to communicate effectively with Tencent’s 3rd party authentication teams.

Alternatively, you may also work with appointed agencies like Seconds Media to assist you with the administrative & account liaison work so that you can worry less about the application process.

After your business account is setup, the next step is to apply for your Advertising Account access which would likely require the support of Tencent’s appointed WeChat marketing agency to assist you with, which includes another level of liaison work - and once that is done, congratulations, you are ready to begin advertising!

What can I expect from WeChat Advertising?

Last but not least, when we are looking to embark on advertising, it is important to be very clear about the various advertising objectives because the type of targeting & advertising medium would be quite different.

Below are the various objectives that we can take note of when we are planning to launch our very own WeChat ads, and similar to Facebook, Google or LinkedIn ads, they are catered for different outcomes.

Typically clients would choose the most effective objective, and distribute their ads either via: WeChat Official Account Articles; WeChat Moments; WeChat Mini Program; or WeChat GDT (similar to Google Display Network Ads).

For WeChat creatives wise, they also enable brands to create internal landing pages via WeChat Canva Ads or for brands going for no-frills approach, they may instead opt for H5 Ad Format instead and direct users to a singular objective (not recommended)

You may take a look at how the ad visual can look like in the video example below, which can capture users attention & drive leads/follower opt ins accordingly.

Today if you are exploring WeChat advertising in the year 2020, we hope that this article provided you valuable insights on how to get started - and feel free to reach out to our agency if you find that we may be able to provide you valuable insights to getting started with China Marketing.