Specifically, how to immunize against false traffic depends on what you do right and who you really trust.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “Li Meng” (ID: imslimeng), author Li Meng, founder of IMS. Authorized to reprint.
In recent years, China’s Internet has faced a new round of information “big bang”. In the field of brand marketing, the competition for users’ attention has continued to heat up.
In the past, I mainly advertised on the portal, bought the rankings on the e-commerce platform, and bought keywords on Baidu, thereby obtaining traffic.
With the rise of “double micro-shake (microblogging, WeChat, vibrato)”, social networks have absorbed almost half of mobile user traffic.
This is an unprecedented social marketing era, KOL (net red, big V, opinion leader) has become the most important traffic master.
Becoming a KOL can bring huge exposure and user traffic, involving a lot of commercial interests, and the traffic competition behind it is inevitable. The fake KOL and fake traffic will be flooded.
It is said that there is a large proportion of the Top 500 KOL list, and fans and traffic data are directly spent on money. Millions of people in China are engaged in brushing work.
However, I believe that one of the “out of control” caveats: chaos will lead to order, and stability will bring death. All the chaotic and out-of-order places will have a chance to change, and you may become a key variable in this industry and this era.
Here, I want to talk about the way to deal with fake KOL and fake traffic from four aspects:
1. What is the underlying logic behind the fake traffic?
2. What is the basic idea of breaking false traffic?
3, the best pharmacy: Party B’s customer homology.
4. What are the values of “industry influencers”?
Specific to how to immunize against false traffic depends on what you do right and who you really trust.
01.What is the underlying logic behind fake traffic?
The Wall Street Journal reported a well-known fact: a large percentage of advertisements on the Internet are ineffective and no one is watching. Now, I say that many of these advertising traffic are fake fake traffic (using zombie accounts and bots). As an advertiser, do you know when you advertise?
The advertisers’ bosses certainly know, but this is “operational level” and their way of thinking is result-oriented and effect-oriented.
Not long ago, I was in touch with some of the heads of China’s international fast-moving brands, and I would like to hear from them: Does the false traffic on the Internet affect their confidence in digital advertising and KOL advertising?
The general view of them is: “If advertising investment and sales growth are consistent in the general direction, we will not care about the specific operational aspects. Excluding these interferences (false traffic) is responsible for the market and brand departments, we allow They conduct trial and error within a tolerable range.”
In short, there is no error in the big direction, and the operation details have a “fault tolerance range”.
Think carefully, has the Internet created a lot of troubles that have been particularly troublesome and unresolved for many years?
Sure, the rumor is.
As of now, which country do you completely solve the network rumor problem? No matter how the government supervises, how to torture the law, how to track the technology, and how to publicize the public relations, the rumors have always been rampant and have been regarded as part of the Internet ecology.
However, most of the rumors will soon be punctured.
Like Lincoln said: “You can fool all people at once, or you can deceive some people forever, but you can’t deceive everyone forever.”
Do you know? In the past 15 years, the most watched TV show in the United States has been “MythBusters”, which is aimed at various rumors. (The highest domestic ratings are generally variety shows)
In the same way, false traffic can hardly be eliminated.
Just like the human body is also symbiotic with bacteria and viruses. It has bacterial activity and virus latent, which does not mean that you have health problems. The most important thing is whether the core biological functions in your body (such as cardiovascular system, nervous system, respiratory digestive system, etc.) are well immunized.
Specifically in the new media marketing field where IMS is located, I want to emphasize two basic perceptions:
False traffic is almost impossible to resolve in the short term
Just like the human body can’t eradicate bacteria and viruses, this is an ecological problem. Everyone knows that KOL creates content, content absorbs traffic – bringing user attention, and social marketing is going to be combined with KOL. So, how to measure the actual value of KOL? Can’t you have your standards, I have my standards.
Traffic is the greatest common denominator.
Although this is not a solid consensus, there is at least a unified context. The advertiser’s bosses must of course look at the effect, how is the effect measured?
The marketing director and brand manager will tell boss a lot of “objective data”, and these “objective data” are also the common language between them and Party B’s advertising (media) company up to KOL.
Especially, the price has to be discussed. Then, “objective data (flow)” is the choice of the least cost of communication.
There are many drawbacks in this area (the possibility of traffic cheating), everyone knows. This is a “rigid loophole”. Everyone detours and turns a blind eye, and is unwilling to make it an obstacle to the next business.
Follow the core value areas that false traffic can’t fool
The bacteria and viruses in the human body are more than the cells, but bacteria and viruses can’t damage the core body function. This is the value of the immune system.
We know that in some places, false traffic can’t be fooled. For example, “brush flow” will not be accompanied by “brush sales.” The core business value of KOL is to help advertisers determine the brand tone and drive public opinion. These are advertisers. Can be intuitively felt, no way to falsify.
To measure the commercial value of KOL, professional companies have many dimensions and various scales. “Traffic” is just an isolated concept. We can’t talk about traffic from the actual results and real effects of business.
02. What is the basic idea of breaking false traffic?
I want to emphasize one point: traffic thinking is definitely a short-sighted, time will become the ultimate battlefield of business.
Here, I want to clearly state two basic facts:
The traffic is very expensive, it will be expensive until you can’t afford it
Many brand companies often do some marketing planning. At this time, they have to calculate an account: Can you find any way, the “input-output ratio” of advertising is very clear?
It’s money that goes down, and whether the return is cost-effective and predictable.
I can clearly give the answer: no.
And when you have this idea,The next step is likely to cost money. why?
Note: Any marketing budget is based on an investment that returns to expectations, and investments are risky.
For example, you may have bought “advertising” on e-commerce websites and portals. You may have bought “keywords” on Baidu. The initial import of traffic is particularly good, and the asking price is not expensive. However, this account person will count, gradually, the “advertising position”, “keywords” asking price will rise, so expensive you can not afford.
The traffic is getting more and more expensive, and some key channels you can’t get around, just like being hijacked and being kidnapped. At this time, those fake KOL, fake traffic can be multiplied, especially when you are weak, as if to give you a life-saving straw.
The marketing department of many brand companies has the pressure of KPI, but they will face this choice. Traffic fraud and cheating will endure.
You have lost your flow sovereignty, which is definitely not a long-term solution.
The deposition of traffic depends on product and operations
You can get users through pits, scams, abductions, and deceptions, and you can even spend money directly to buy users (there are direct cash subsidies for listed companies to see APP content).
However, you still have to figure out when you are calculating: Who is your user and where is it from? How high is the cost of getting a customer, and does it live for a long time? How high is the user retention rate and how much conversion rate…
When you want to do business conversions, all the fake, cheating traffic numbers will be visible.
I remember one of the big names in the consulting industry said: “The easiest time to see people is to let him save money. At this time, everything in the past will vanish, what brothers are short, teachers are good, right now. I will finally let you see the truth.”
“What does payment mean? The other party really has a sense of value and value, and the other party really has a very good relationship with you.”
Business, the ultimate referee of the value of the flow, and the judgment came very quickly. The flow must be precipitated, and the value must be highlighted. The most important thing is to see the effectiveness of both the product and the operation.
For example, you are a game company. There is a set of rules, data, and server systems hidden under the game app. You are an e-commerce company. Under the e-commerce app, there are countless goods, shops, and algorithmic mechanisms. This is directly related to the user being uncomfortable with you, and can’t stay.
The operation of Internet companies is often online cool technology, many of them are tired, dirty and hard working. How do you want users to spend money without being disgusted by users?
So, the real specialty of a marketing company is not to follow the flow, to talk about actual results, and to talk about long-term value.
In the “Double 11” event of the past few years, Net Red or KOL has confirmed the amazing ability to bring goods. Part of the head KOL’s day of shipment size, more than one department store sales year.
Advertisers do the delivery, the most difficult thing is not to make judgments, but to make the basis for judgment – the principle that has been proven mature is the actual effect and long-term value. If not, what are the reasons for advertisers to invest heavily in a marketing channel that did not exist 10 years ago?
03. The best pharmacy: Party B’s customer homonym
There is a “Samuel-Wolf hypothesis” in linguistics, that is, the language structure determines the behavior and thinking habits of group members, and the process of language formation is a culture. Weaving our own process of cognition of the world.
For example, many marketing companies say “to be responsible for the customer’s effectiveness,” but the implications behind it are quite different.
The so-called effect is directly understood by most practitioners as traffic, and traffic is equal to the effect. Currently, there are two main ways to combat false traffic:
Frequently modify rules for blind spots
In the past year, many platforms have been filling gaps in the blind spots of the rules.
Internet platform iQiyi, Youku, today’s headlines have announced the closure of the front-end broadcast volume, WeChat public number for the number of readings and points to set a limit of 100,000, Weibo will also forward the microblogging, comments counting display Adjustments are made and the maximum limit is 1 million.
What’s more, in May of this year, Xiaohongshu launched the “Brand Partner Platform Upgrade Instructions”, which made higher requirements for KOL fans and monthly exposure. Some KOLs that did not meet the requirements were canceled by brand partners. Qualification, no more ads.
Designing a portfolio of policies based on “customer co-location”
Someone asked me, after doing so many years of social media marketing, how would I let customers convinced me?
I will especially emphasize a “co-location.”
Catch the netizen or consumer psychology, mainly with a sense of homology.
I will turn myself into a customer. When I am a customer, I would like to know more about the company and products I care about in a state of communication with myself. If you have a sense of homology, you can get closer to your customers.
Don’t treat customers in a smart way, but rarely seriously think about how customers will look at themselves.
An old story can still inspire me: NASA is struggling to develop a fountain pen that can be used by astronauts under weightless conditions, so it recruits the whole society, but most recruited At first glance, the plan was not feasible. Until one day, a letter written by a first-grade elementary school student in a pencil made the NASA scientist suddenly realize that he was embarrassed. There was only one sentence in the letter: “Why don’t you use a pencil?” /p>
You think that customers prefer a product service. In fact, customers just want to solve a problem, just need a solution.
We have been promoting KOL marketing, but we will not passively follow KOL, but KOL as a part of the strategy portfolio, the real center is to help customers solve practical problems. Therefore, false traffic is difficult for us to interfere with.
04. The values of “industry influencers” are key pointers
We resist false traffic, but we don’t exclude big data analytics. Instead, we’re reporting data from the “most valuable perspective.”
Traffic data is actually the roughest and most superficial data feedback. We value the effective strategy of segmentation and positioning. Here, I will briefly talk about some basic ideas:
The value of data varies by platform and needs
Large platforms like Jingdong Mall and Dieduo are “first data, post content”, systematically positioning the fans.
There is a corresponding user analysis/fan analysis in their content background, and after understanding the characteristics of the crowd, they can better target the content they are interested in. Such as regional consumption styles, different information points of different consumer classes, different consumer needs at different age levels. This is all about local conditions and varies from person to person.
The Net Red company, such as the hammer mobile phone, mainly uses the ticket revenue to verify “fan loyalty” by regularly holding events. The sale of tickets on the spot is not to make much money, but to get real feedback and form a virtuous circle.
If there is no box office, no sponsorship, no copyright fees, the business is not established, indicating that “the relationship between fans and you is not enough.”
In terms of “fan marketing”, Tencent’s social advertising emphasizes the four-step method of “selecting red, finding users, playing content, and monitoring”, from “data analysis, refined marketing, customized creativity, optimization strategy” and other dimensions. In-depth integration.
The goal is to target fans and potential fan bases, implement precise marketing, especially creative ideas to be “placed” in place, and customize creative ideas in combination with fan focus and net red features, which makes it easier to impress and touch fans.
Put the data behind KOL into a specific scene and judge its true value. This is very laborious, but the profession is not just talking about it. It is more professional and harder.
The more subdivided, the clearer
The real value of traffic data is “qualitative, fixed”, which is important.
For example, the key to our data monitoring for fans is to conduct “fan gathering and grouping”, which is also a fan community and accurate implementation.The necessary steps for marketing.
Based on the user’s social behavior and interactive data, the fans can be divided into six categories: “talkers, truers, likes, insiders, value explorers, and consistent interests”. “Craders, It’s more important to contribute to the time of attention. It’s important to help the brand to deliver data based on real-time ads, evaluate fan conversions, and adjust marketing strategies. “In-round people, value explorers, and consistent interests. Partners” They have the willingness to participate deeply in the communication of brands and the development of enterprises, and are the most important group of high-value fans.
For example, the key to our data monitoring for KOL is to “level” and prepare for the strategic combination of customer service.
After years of market testing, the “key influencers” at all levels have gradually formed a pyramid structure:
Tower:
Authorities, public figures (such as top scholars, first-line movie stars) still occupy the highest level of influence, they have cross-domain, cross-regional public awareness, always head KOL.
Tower waist:
People opinion leaders (such as the big V network red, TOP self-media people), they have the cognitive rate, exposure, traffic absorption capacity, and even higher than the second-line movie stars, with the ability to detonate topics, create sound volume.
Tower:
Small opinion leaders (such as TOP self-media people in specific professional fields, grassroots network red), they mainly radiate specific people, the number of users is large, and there is long-term deep interaction.
Taki:
A lot of nano KOLs (such as the brand’s super fans), even if the number of users is only a few thousand, but the cohesiveness and loyalty are extremely high, and have the potential to develop into a community of destiny.
The brand management can’t just move closer to the KOL at the spire and the waist of the tower. You can get the flow and sound volume with high hits, but it is easy to lose precision.
The creation and deep cultivation of any brand reputation must be based on the laying and sedimentation of the foundation. It is especially important to combine KOL for promotion and to build a foundation. All of the above professional arrangements are based on a value, which is the core pillar. Good data will map valuable information under the guidance of values.
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