Three thoughts on the public account advertising mutual selection platform

In early July, the WeChat public account mutual selection platform was officially launched. What impact will the launch of this platform have on the WeChat public account ecosystem? This article analyzes the impact of the WeChat mutual selection platform on the public account ecosystem and how public account owners should respond. I hope it will be inspiring to you.

On July 1, the WeChat public account mutual selection platform was officially launched.

However, the impact of mutual selection platforms on the public account ecosystem has actually begun to emerge since June. Recently, mutual selection platforms have also become the most discussed topic in the industry.

Let me also say a few words about the mutual selection platform.

1. The Death and Rebirth of Advertising Platforms

Before the Huxuan platform was launched, there were three main ways for public account owners to accept advertising: menu bar, automatic replies, or contact information left in articles, advertisers actively approaching them, advertising platform connection, and media connection.

When the mutual selection platform was launched, many of my colleagues and I believed that media and advertising platforms would gradually fade out of the industry.

The result during this period was:

1. Each advertising platform has its own options

Some have reached cooperation agreements with the official, such as Xinbang and Bee New Media. They mainly cooperate with account owners and official public accounts in the form of MCN. Orders are still taken on the advertising platform, and settlements are also made through the advertising platform. There is almost no difference from before. The only difference is the price.

Some choose to transform directly. For example, an advertising platform in Hangzhou that I contacted decided to transform itself into the Xiaohongshu media business.

Some are choosing to wait and see. For example, a relatively large advertising platform in Jiangsu Province is still choosing to wait and see. It has neither chosen to cooperate nor given up its original business.

2. A new approach for media

The reason why the media has been able to survive for so long is mainly because of the information gap. They are good at integrating resources and they have a lot of time and energy to negotiate and communicate with both parties.

After this adjustment, some media have found another way. It is said that they will choose each other openly, but only pay part of the price, and the rest will be settled privately. Obviously, the official cannot interfere with this settlement method.

Of course, some media may have other ways to play, but it is unknown at present. This adjustment has indeed caused some media to leave the industry, but most media are still in a wait-and-see state.

3. Account owners cannot accept advertising and dare not accept it

Most account owners filled out the quotation of the mutual selection platform as soon as possible, but there were very few accounts that could match the advertisements, and most of the feedback was that there were no advertisements to receive.

If they don’t use the mutual selection platform, they are worried that they will be judged as violating the rules. So the phenomenon is that the account owners want to receive advertisements but cannot, and those who can receive them are not willing to post them.

II. Rights and obligations of mutual selection platforms

Why are some platforms unwilling to cooperate with the authorities? To a large extent, it is because there are indeed many problems with the mutual selection platform.

1. Does the mutual selection platform have the responsibility to review?

According to normal logic, as a platform, the mutual selection platform charges a 5% service fee in the process of advertising dispatching, so it should have the responsibility of review. In other words, the advertisements received by the account owner through the mutual selection platform should have been officially reviewed by the WeChat public account, which means they comply with official requirements and therefore will not violate any regulations.

But the reality is that even if the account owner accepts advertisements through the mutual selection platform, it will still violate the rules, and the probability is relatively high. You can search the mutual selection platform and find that many account owners have posted articles expressing their dissatisfaction during this period.

Why did this happen? It's simple. The mutual selection platform team and the review team are different teams. Such a structure is obviously unreasonable.

Moreover, after the violation, the fees will not be settled to the account owner, and the advertiser will not refund them, which means they will be directly deducted by the official public account.

2. What else can attract advertisers and account owners besides hard work?

The officials of the mutual selection platform need to think about one thing: that is, since using the mutual selection platform will also violate regulations, and posting privately by oneself is also a violation, then why should advertisers and account owners choose the mutual selection platform.

In addition to using tough measures such as determining violations to intimidate, do mutual selection platforms also need to provide account owners and advertisers with more attractive things in other operational details?

In fact, in order to attract advertisers to join, the current threshold for advertisers on the mutual selection platform is very low. Content with a strong marketing nature, such as jadeite and Taobao, has successfully entered the mutual selection platform, and there is a high probability that jadeite-related content will violate regulations after being released.

At the same time, the reason why the official is willing to cooperate with platforms such as Xinbang is largely because the other party has advertiser resources, user recognition and mature business models. Indirectly promoting mutual selection platforms through these platforms can be regarded as a strategy to save the country in a roundabout way.

3. The definition of advertising is still unclear

What kind of content is defined as advertising content? The previous definition is: commercial cooperation marketing content in which the operator of the public account promotes goods or services in the form of commercial cooperation with a third party, such as additional shopping links and other purchase methods.

There is no clear definition here for promoting public accounts, mini programs, etc.

Recently, a PDF document titled "Explanation of Related Materials" has been circulated, which further explains the definition of advertising.

This explanation is much clearer than before, but there are still some unclear issues, such as whether promoting a WeChat public account of a different entity or using a company account to promote the personal WeChat accounts of company members (such as customer service staff and sales staff) falls into the category of advertising.

3. How should the public account owner respond?

Since they have invested so much energy in this, the WeChat official account must have full confidence in the mutual selection platform and will definitely not give up in the short term. As account owners who rely on the WeChat official account, they must understand one thing: account owners must cater to the mutual selection platform.

On the other hand, even for a strong company like WeChat, it is difficult to make the mutual selection platform mature quickly in the short term. During the growth period, the mutual selection platform team is bound to encounter many problems, and the losses caused by these problems will most likely be borne by the account owners and advertisers.

If the interests of a group of account owners are tied together, the platform will certainly have concerns. So at this stage, it is recommended that account owners should join forces to seek warmth, either by joining MCN or cooperating with advertising platforms. At least they will have more advantages in terms of voice than individual companies and individuals, and some problems may be solved through communication.

I think the mutual selection platform will be good in the long run, but in the short term, it will definitely cause many account owners to see a significant decline in their income. As for the entire public account business ecosystem, a new round of reshuffle is underway.

Author: Cai Zhao, WeChat public account: I am Cai Zhao