Weibo Advertising in 2021: The Ultimate Guide

Weibo is one of the most popular social media platforms in China. It currently boasts around 523 million monthly active users (MAU) and has a userbase of almost a billion. This means an immense opportunity for advertisers.

With such impressive numbers, you might be wondering how to run advertising on Weibo to leverage the massive audience for your benefit.

Well, that’s exactly what our Weibo advertising (adstochina.westwin.com/Weibo-Advertising) guide will teach you. So, let’s dive in right away.

A Brief Introduction to Weibo

Weibo is a microblogging social media platform that allows users to easily share text, images, and videos on their timelines.

It is known as China’s Twitter but is actually a much more effective social platform in terms of advertising opportunities than its western counterpart.

The social media platform was initially launched as “Sina Weibo” way back in 2009 by the Sina Corporation. And in 2014, it was spun off into a dedicated social network known as Weibo.

Why You Should Advertise on Weibo

Clearly, the massive userbase and MAU are the primary reasons why Weibo is a sought-after social media platform for advertisers. But there are more reasons why you should start Weibo advertising.

1 Niche Audience Targeting

Weibo comes with a wide range of demographic targeting options to help you fine-tune and direct your messaging. You can target by the following criteria:

● Gender, age, and location

● Device (laptop, desktop, mobile, etc.)

● Interests or hobbies

● Competitors

● Specific followers

2 Perfect Entrypoint to Chinese Market

With such a mammoth user base, Weibo offers a great starting point for you to make a splash in the Chinese market.

Weibo advertising is cost-effective which means you can test the water before ramping up full-scale campaigns and putting down all your money and time.

3 Helps Grow as An Organic and Paid Channel

Just like Instagram and Twitter, Weibo is not all about paid advertising only. In fact, much of the traction you will create could be organic in nature.

Paid ads will help you have a massive following on Weibo which means you will have reduced reliance on paid channels later on.

Types of Ads on Weibo

Before you start initiating Weibo advertising, you should know that there are four major ad types as mentioned below that you can use with Weibo to communicate your message.

Fan Headline

It is an ad placement located at the top of a user’s personal timeline for 24 hours. It helps you target your existing followers along with their personal connections.

There are three variations of Fan Headlines as mentioned below:

● Fan Headline for Posts: This helps position a post at the top of the targeted users’ timelines.

● Fan Headline for Other’s Posts: Similar to the above, but the only difference is that you can pin another user’s post.

● Fan Headline for Accounts: This will suggest your profile to Weibo users to bring in new followers.

Fan Tunnel

It is similar to the Fan Headline but the major difference is that Fan Tunnel helps you target all of the Weibo community and not just your following and their connections.

It could be very effective if you have a small following and want to reach a large audience quickly.

Display Ads

Weibo helps you run display ads on its platform. Unlike other platforms, you will get a targeted approach with selected keywords to increase your brand or product’s visibility on user searches.

You can also display advertisements on other featured accounts to increase advertising.

Weibo Search Engine

Weibo comes with a real-time search engine which makes it stand out from its rival WeChat.

It helps users to search for posts, other users, and brands. Just like Google Ads, you can choose to be placed in the results for particular search terms which makes your brand’s positioning and targeting much more seamless to manage.

Payment Models

Weibo comes with flexible pricing models. It offers two payment models that are:

CPM(Cost Per Thousand Impressions): You will be charged based on the number of times your ad is displayed within the feed of Weibo users.

CPE (Cost Per Engagement): You will be charged based on how many times your ad is engaged with by users.

So do you have any questions about Weibo advertising?