New Media Analytics
2015年5月5日星期二
2015年4月28日星期二
Are The Feed Ads of Wechat Moments Based on Big Data on Earth?
Written by Joey Wang
On Jan
25th, 2015, Wechat-the most popular Chinese instant message and social
network service application, started to feed ads in Wechat Moments. Coca-Cola,
BMW China, and Vivo, the Chinese smartphone maker were the first advertisers to
conduct the tested advertising. Interestingly, it seemed that the sponsored ads
followed some mechanisms as different users had loaded different ads, which
dramatically caused a hot topic among Wechat users. All they wanted to know is
why did I receive this specific ad instead of others?
Then nearly
every guess pointed to big data, a kind of analytic way used to unlock hidden
patterns, market trends, customer preferences and other potential business
values, etc. And according to IBM data scientists, big data could be broken
into four dimensions: Volume, Velocity, Variety and Veracity, which means that
big data encompasses information from multiple internal and external sources.
As after
analyzing by some passionate users, a conclusion was generated that the rich
ones with annual income over 1 million RMB received BMW ads, those who are not
iPhone users but able to afford Xiaomi got Vivo ads and those who even cannot
afford Xiaomi or teenagers got Coca-Cola ads. Sounds like a joke, but worth
deeply thinking, as it did show a clue that the notifications based on users’
demographics and behavior information detected from their chatting history or
moment posts such as hobbies, habits, preferences, etc. From this perspective,
the feature of Variety can be approved. Also, on the other hand, it is known
that with the help of big data analytics, advertisers will have more
opportunities to reach different consumers with personalized and provide more
precise advertising. All these messages could be tailored to users interests
based on the information gained from aspects mentioned above. What’s more, in
the third quarter of last year, Wechat has already owns 468 million monthly
active users who keep creating large scale information everyday, which ensures
the volume and velocity of big data. Therefore, we have the reason to believe
that it is big data that gives Wechat or its advertisers a hand to engage with their
target or potential customers.
However,
when taking the effect of big data into consideration, the fact that big data
helps provide precise information to target customers is inevitable. Hence,
precision becomes one of the standards of big data. Here we defined precision
into two dimensions: precise channel and precise content. Then reflecting on
those Wechat ads, which were not sent in a one-to-one private chat way but
spreading with the help of Wechat moments’ socialization, they failed to reach
the standard of precise channel in a way. Meanwhile, when focusing on the
content of these feed ads, all of them are brand advertising instead of
specific product promotion, which are actually aiming to raise brand
recognition. Therefore, it is undeniable that those ads did not cover precise
content, either. From this perspective, did big data real matter? I think it is
worth doubting.
Overall,
it seems that although the feed ads of Wechat moments have the ability of big
data as they did reflect the nature of big data, the applying of big data
analytics still needs to be more precise.
2015年4月25日星期六
KPI And KPD, Which One Is More Valuable?
Written by Joey Wang
When evaluating if an organization or
company has meet its business goals or whether it is a successful engaged
activity, many of them would like to set a series of metrics to measure
performance, among which the most frequently used type is Key Performance
Indicator (KPI) as a performance measurement to measure the progress. Generally
speaking, key performance indicators are numbers that reflect the outcome,
which deliver messages and provide feedback about companies’ business, but they
don’t really tell how these occurred and why. In other words, indicators cannot
be managed.
However, there is another type of
performance metric called key performance driver (KPD), which is aligned to
measure different aspects of the business progress that will directly influence
results and outcomes. Or we can directly regard KPD as a metric to produce
performance, which also means that you can easily figure out who made the
largest contribution towards the success. Unlike KPI, KPD tells you why and
gives you instructions about what to do next.
Thus we can understand the differences
between KPI and KPD: KPD produces performance and KPI measures performance; KPI
delivers feedback but KPD provides results; KPI are not manageable while KPD could
be well managed. In hat case, here comes a question: which one is on earth more
valuable?
Imagine if indicators inform you that your company
fails to meet the goal, the first thing came to your mind is to identify
issues, find out the reason and fix it, which means that you have to check the
monitored KPDs, determine the best actions to correct the problems and improve
the way your key drivers perform. Also, those presenting KPIs only represent
your past performance and does not guarantee the future results, while when you
look at KPDs, you will have a clear version about what to do next step and
which part should be put more efforts on to optimize the performance and drive
the possibility of success. In a word, KPDs capture information about what is
exactly driving and stimulating a business operation and management. They
proactively help companies identify processes that are in danger, and processes
that are in alignment with companies’ best practices, which are the essential
roles that KPIs cannot play. On the contrary, when proper KPDs set, the
monitored KPIs will straightly tell you whether it works and reach the
objectives or not.
Hence we could draw a conclusion about the
relevance between KPI and KPD: KPIs are the numbers that are produced as an effort
of the KPDs.
In other words, KPDs are the key
components in delivering the KPI’s. Without KPDs, we cannot get KPIs.
Therefore, it seems that KPDs are more
valuable than KPIs, especially when a company wants to build and lead a
practice that consistently performs at the upper levels of its potential, the
pursuit for decisive and actionable business metrics should not begin and end
with KPIs alone, but have to pay more attention on KPDs. However, looking at the
corporates in China, most of them still stay at the stage that is preoccupied
with performance indicators but fail to focus on and manage performance drivers,
which indeed needs to be adjusted immediately. In a word, if you want to
improve the performance and growth of you corporate, focus more on key
performance drivers PLEASE!
2015年3月27日星期五
Will CPE Play An Important Role among Pricing Models?
Written by Joey Wang
It is well known that for display advertising, the pricing models of CPM (cost per thousand impressions) and CPC (cost per click) are the most frequently used ones, which are also the proof of the increasing maturity of the web and mobile channels. Undeniably, shortages exist as well. For example, there is no doubt that not all the ad impressions are dutifully viewed by the audience but it is a nature of CPM. For those advertisers who do care about ROI, it always causes waste of money. Thus, CPC is always regarded as the most common alternative model to CPM, which could reflect the readers’ initial engagement willing with the ads.
It is well known that for display advertising, the pricing models of CPM (cost per thousand impressions) and CPC (cost per click) are the most frequently used ones, which are also the proof of the increasing maturity of the web and mobile channels. Undeniably, shortages exist as well. For example, there is no doubt that not all the ad impressions are dutifully viewed by the audience but it is a nature of CPM. For those advertisers who do care about ROI, it always causes waste of money. Thus, CPC is always regarded as the most common alternative model to CPM, which could reflect the readers’ initial engagement willing with the ads.
Then speaking of engagement, there are more
advertisers now focusing on creating interactive content to attract audience to
get involved in the online campaigns as they have realized the phenomenon that
CTRs for traditional banner ads been declining for years.
Therefore, in response, it is said that an increasing number of
publishers have started providing a new model called CPE, which stands for cost
per engagement. In CPE model, the impressions are free, it asks advertisers to
pay only when users “engage” with the ads. In the past, we always treat those “like”s,
“comment”s, “share”s, page or video views, etc. on social media as vanity
metrics, which make not that much sense. While the CPE model takes all these
into considerations, as advertisers have begun to wonder that whether their
display advertising are exactly doing something to reach their business goals,
especially for those brand marketers who want to move the needle on brand
awareness, purchase intention and favorability. From this perspective, it seems
that the CPE model does have its necessity of existence. Some advertisers even
claimed that, clicks are a good proxy for direct response, but cognition is the
right measurement for branding. CPE models that guarantee message comprehension
will be seen as a last mile solution for branding.
Also as mentioned above, in CPE model, the impressions are free,
which means that publishers who promote CPE pricing must believe that they can ensure
genuine engagement at larger scale or even lower cost than their peers or
competitors. Maybe because they have effective format or they can reach
audience with a more relevant context. Otherwise, if CPE publishers fail to
drive the engagement as promised, they will never get paid, which is actually
beneficial to marketers.
However, what must be clarified is, the CPE does not fit for all
the marketers. For example, for direct response marketers who are typically
very focusing on ROI when buying advertising, all they want to know is whether
people are going to buy, how many of the sales and whether the media they spent
is going to be profitable. Engagement is not included in their business goals
and then CPE should never become the choice of them. Therefore, it also reminds
the advertisers that do understand what you are paying for and balance whether
the model matches with your business goals. Besides, once decided to pay for
engagement, marketers also have to make sure that they target at the right
audience, if not, it will not make any difference to the situation that people
will ignore your advertising.
Then back to the question of the title, as discussed above, I don’t
think CPE is going to replace CPM who is the dominant display advertising
metric as it is closed linked with the business goals of advertisers who are
aiming to influence perception and gain brand awareness. But it still matters
when necessary.
2014年12月14日星期日
Final Summary
Written by Joey Wang
When asked to pick up a platform for our essays, the first choice came to my mind is LinkedIn, as it is my most familiar one with many of my professional connections there. So I thought that my essays might gain some valuable comments from them. However, LinkedIn will not allow users to write long blogs until reaching a proper level while I failed to fulfill the level. Finally I just turned to choose Blogger as my friends around me are all using it.
When asked to pick up a platform for our essays, the first choice came to my mind is LinkedIn, as it is my most familiar one with many of my professional connections there. So I thought that my essays might gain some valuable comments from them. However, LinkedIn will not allow users to write long blogs until reaching a proper level while I failed to fulfill the level. Finally I just turned to choose Blogger as my friends around me are all using it.
In order to make my essays more
eye-catching, I created all titles as questions such as “Will Apple Pay
Threaten The Status of AliPay in China?”, “Can E-commercialization of Paper
Media Be Successful?” and “Will Wechat Contacts Grab Chinese Mobile Operators’
Market?”, which may inspire readers’ interests and thoughts and make them more
willing to read my insights. At the same time, such questions also help
encourage readers to present their own thoughts and interactions as well as discussions may occur. Besides, every essay has relevant picture I picked to
match with the main idea, which also helps attract readers and make them better
understand what I am talking about.
As I am a newcomer of Blogger who has no
connections with anyone, raising the attention of others became one of the most
significant tasks. Therefore, every time I finished one piece of essay, I would
like to share the link through Wechat Moments to my friends and ask them to
have a look at the topic I discussed about if they are interested. I will make
a brief introduction of the issue I focused on this time, putting forward my own
opinion and invite them to give their own ideas. At last, my Blogger gained 521
page views totally with the visitors from 9 different countries and districts
such as Hong Kong, America, France, Mainland China, Japan, Taiwan, Canada,
Britain and Macau, which surprised me very much. And 58% of them viewed my
Blogger through the link I shared on the Wechat Moment, showing that such a sharing
is helpful. Thus, it also proves the influence of social media.
Even so, there are also some limitations of
my promotion this time. The expected heated debate and interactions failed to achieve
because every comment from my friends is about praising the structure, the
topic as well as the so-called “insightful thoughts” and nobody would like to
present their own critical ideas of the topic I mentioned. Maybe it is because
that what I talked about is still not attractive enough or not insightful enough,
which should be optimized in the future!
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