With the explosion of paid traffic on Xiaohongshu, how should small-budget merchants adjust their advertising strategies?

For small businesses with limited budgets, how to seize opportunities and achieve efficient conversion in the era of paid traffic has become the key. This article will share the advertising strategies of small-budget businesses on Xiaohongshu to help them find new growth points in the era of paid traffic on Xiaohongshu.

In 2025, Xiaohongshu is no longer a platform that can become popular by simply posting notes.

Data shows that starting from the second half of 2024, the proportion of natural traffic will drop sharply from 65% to 28%, and the platform algorithm is more inclined to allocate traffic to paid content. This is the inevitable choice of Xiaohongshu's commercialization.

In the future, the platform needs to prove its profitability through advertising revenue, and paid traffic is the core source of revenue.

Is it true that Xiaohongshu will become the domain of big brands in the future?

Big brands have advertising budgets of millions, which seems to crush small players, but the data reveals another side: among the 100 brands with the fastest sales growth in 2024, 47% have an annual advertising budget of less than 500,000. Their success stems from a deep understanding of the rules of paid traffic. They compete not on budget size but on traffic efficiency.

How can small-budget businesses seize the benefits of paid traffic?

1) Combine natural traffic with micro-payment model

Cold start of natural traffic: After the note is published, observe the natural traffic test performance within 24 hours, focusing on the collection rate. If the collection rate is >5%, it means that the content has high potential, and you can add a small amount of paid promotion

Step-by-step amplification strategy: After the initial investment, small investments are made to high-potential notes to observe ROI performance. If the initial investment ROI>2, the budget can be gradually increased by 20%-50% to avoid excessive one-time investment.

Note: If ROI < 1.5, stop zooming in, re-optimize content or adjust the targeted audience

2) Low-cost testing and data optimization

Paid promotion for small-budget merchants should focus on "precise testing + data-driven" to avoid blind investment

Initial launch strategy: The test budget for a single note is controlled within 100 yuan, and Xiaohongshu's "Focus Lite" tool is preferred to reduce the cost of trial and error. Then, the vertical group is precisely targeted according to the product features and selling points, and the launch is carried out according to the active peak period of this group of people to improve the exposure efficiency.

Core indicator monitoring: click-through rate (CTR) > 5%; interaction rate > 3%

Note: If the click rate is <3% or the interaction rate is <1%, you need to stop streaming immediately and optimize the content before testing again.

Bidding logic optimization: Prioritize content quality. The platform algorithm is more inclined to recommend highly interactive content rather than simply high CPM bidding notes. Therefore, merchants should prioritize increasing click-through rate and collection rate rather than blindly increasing bids.

3) Leverage the platform function and free resource comment area link function: a low-cost conversion tool

Xiaohongshu launched a product link function in the comment area a few days ago, which can shorten the conversion path and improve conversion efficiency. You may want to give it a try.

Does not affect the note traffic pool: The link function is only displayed in the comment area, which will not trigger the platform's advertising logo, avoiding the note being downgraded. The link effect is best in the comment area of ​​practical notes (such as tutorials, strategies, and reviews). At the same time, the product link comment can be pinned to the top to ensure that users see it first.

Clear user intent: After reading the content, users are more interested in the product. The link can directly guide purchases and shorten the conversion path.

4) Refuse to rely on KOLs and make good use of the amateur matrix + part-time system

Amateur matrix is ​​one of the core strategies for small-budget businesses to acquire customers at low cost. Amateurs with 2,000-5,000 fans are becoming new traffic levers. They can recruit part-time KOCs to gain user trust with real experience and original content.

Recruiting part-time KOCs: mainly college students, mothers, freelancers, etc., requiring the number of fans to be less than 5,000, the content to be authentic and cost-effective, screening 100 amateurs, requiring real experience + original content, must include a comparison of before and after use of the product, and can avoid template copywriting

It should be noted that KOC notes are prone to appear stiff and have a large proportion of advertisements. It is important to control them to prevent the soft advertisements from being too obvious and being deducted by the brand’s deduction mechanism.

5) Participate in official activities to get free exposure

Especially Qianfan and Chengfeng, there are some official activities all year round. Actively participate in posting notes, interacting or leaving information as required to obtain traffic coupons or weight bonus

6) Focus on long-tail keywords and segmented scenarios to seize search traffic at low cost

Long-tail keywords are the core strategy for acquiring accurate traffic at low cost. Through Xiaohongshu search association function and third-party tools (such as Qiangua Data), you can filter out low-competition, high-demand vertical keywords.

Search association function: Enter the main keyword (such as "whitening mask") in the Xiaohongshu search box, and the platform will automatically associate related long-tail words (such as "affordable whitening mask for students"). These long-tail words usually have less competition, but the user intent is clear and the conversion rate is high.

Third-party tool assistance: Use tools such as Qiangua Data to analyze the search popularity, competition intensity and relevance of keywords, and select long-tail keywords suitable for small-budget merchants

Final Thoughts

In the paid era of Xiaohongshu, success or failure no longer depends on the size of the budget, but on the difference in cognition and efficiency.

• Delivery ≠ consumption, but rather the accumulation of data assets: precipitate high-conversion content templates through AB testing and establish a proprietary traffic model
• Growth does not equal expansion, but ecological niche: find niches with rigid demand and leverage natural traffic with high-quality content and micro-payment models