The super traffic code behind small advertisements

In life, we often see all kinds of advertising copy, some of which seem ordinary, but are actually powerful. This article disassembles the advertising copy of the product and takes a look at the super traffic code behind the small advertisement.

I was free and scrolling through Douyin, and saw an information flow advertisement of Pinduoduo, which said that a small ice maker could be purchased for 9.9 yuan. This aroused my curiosity, so I simply followed the clues to study its advertising strategy and traffic path. I was shocked. This operation was simply out of this world. No matter you are an international 4A or a local advertising giant, you would have to kneel down and sing "Conquer" after seeing it. No wonder it has risen so quickly and directly threatened the status of Taobao. It is worthy of being Pinduoduo.

01 How to write the most sales-effective advertisement?

First look at this seemingly simple and crude information flow advertisement:

Get a small ice maker for 9.9 yuan! It doesn't take up space in your car or home! Limited time and quantity

Video copy:

Get a small ice maker for 9.9 yuan/You can make ice cubes freely at home/Put in pure water/One-touch start to make ice quickly/Make ice cubes in 6 minutes/Use it to mix with coffee, drinks, juice/It is so cool to drink/Low power consumption and no electricity consumption/No need to worry about tripping when using it in the dormitory/Handle design makes it easy to carry/Can be used anywhere in the home or car/Get it now for only 9.9 yuan/The quantity is limited/If you want it, hurry up and click the link to get it

In his book “Money-Making Advertising”, Drew Eric Whitman talks about 41 proven sales secrets. I seriously suspect that the copywriter of this Pinduoduo video ad was learned from him, because the content structure is almost strictly implemented in accordance with the first 4 secrets.

① Be concise so that people can understand easily

The text in this video is understandable to anyone who can read, and even to those who can't read. Even chimpanzees can get the general idea. Many of our advertisements are artificially designed with reading difficulties, and some even require consumers to guess the clever ideas behind the text. Consumers don't have the energy to do that. I'm already tired after being a social animal for a day, so don't ask me to use my brain anymore.

② Bombard readers with various benefits

Second-rate copywriters write about product attributes and various product parameters; first-rate copywriters write about product features and at least write about how this product is different from others; and great copywriters only write about what benefits this product brings to readers. Because people don't care how good your product is, they only care about what benefits they can get from it (what's in it for me). How many benefits are written in this 20-second video ad with just over 100 words?

The price of 9.9 yuan is extremely cheap. Even a cup of milk tea is more expensive than this.

• One-button start: easy to operate, you can use it as soon as you get it.
• 6 minutes to get out of the ice: This puts speed and precision into time, which makes it more credible.
• Can be mixed with various drinks : There are three largest categories: "coffee, beverages, and juices", and there is always one that you like.
• It’s so cool and addictive: the simple repetition of words perfectly depicts the feeling of adding ice.
• Low power consumption and no electricity consumption: Not only is the machine so cheap, it also saves you electricity bills.
• It can be used at home, in the car, and in the dormitory: This brings the readers into the usage scenario. No matter you are a otaku, middle class, or a student, you can use it. "Not afraid of power outages" is really amazing and has a lot of insight into life. It is estimated that this copywriter must have played around with high-power electrical appliances in the dormitory when he was in school.

③Put the biggest benefit of the product in the title

The biggest advantage of this product is that it is cheap, so it puts "Small ice maker 9.9 yuan" as the subtitle at the top of the video and stretches it to the maximum. The second advantage is that "it does not take up space for family cars" and its small size is suitable for many scenarios.

④ Scarcity makes things valuable

The title of the video directly talks about limited time and limited quantity. Don't underestimate this kind of tacky copywriting, it is very lethal to ordinary people. The time and quantity are limited, so consumers will feel that this thing is hard to get. The harder it is to get, the more they want it. One of the six elements of "influence" is "scarcity", whether it is real scarcity or artificially created scarcity.

At the end, it calls you to buy, and there is a link button to call for action. There is not a single word in this video that is redundant. From the copywriting to the information layout, it is very clever and amazing, but the more amazing part is yet to come.

02 Marketing tricks that good students can’t play

The small ice machine at 9.9 yuan attracted me and successfully motivated me to take action. When I clicked the red "Buy Now" button, I found out that there was a lot of mystery behind it.

①You can’t buy directly on Douyin, you must download the Pinduoduo APP

Since I had never used Pinduoduo before, I downloaded it temporarily. This is a powerful way to attract new users. Compared with the situation in Shanghai some time ago when people were giving away goose dolls everywhere to ask for the download of Kuaishou APP, its cost is unimaginably low.

② You can’t buy an ice machine directly for 9.9 yuan, you can only win a prize in a lottery

The normal price of an ice machine on Pinduoduo is around 200-300 yuan. You paid 9.9 yuan and thought you had ordered an ice machine. Sorry, you only got a chance to win a prize, which might include an ice machine. The possibility is very small. Spending money to win a prize? Do you feel that things have become a little weird here?

③The prize you win is most likely not an ice machine, but a 100-yuan red envelope

It was then that I noticed a line of small black words on the left side of the video:

At 23:00 on the 3rd Sunday of every month, limited to 10 pieces, brand and style will be sent randomly, download to participate in the limited time sale.

This should be considered as an exemption for the 9.9 dollar ice machine game. You can't say it is a scam. After all, there is still a chance to buy it at the price of 9.9 dollars. It's just that you have to wait until 11pm on a certain Sunday night for this ice machine and compete with thousands of people who want to get a bargain like you for 10 spots.

Why Sunday? You have to go to work on Monday, and you should go to bed early, but you stay up late for this thing and risk being late the next day. Hey, you are the seed user that Pinduoduo is looking for.

④ Endless red envelopes of 100 yuan, Pinduoduo’s “cutting down” method appears again

Please note that after you draw a 100 yuan red envelope, you cannot withdraw it all at once, otherwise Pinduoduo will suffer a huge loss. The first time you can withdraw 10 yuan, which is your own money because you paid 9.9 yuan to buy this lottery spot.

Then, the most exciting operation came. If you want to withdraw money for the second time, you have to scroll through the Pinduoduo product page for 19 seconds. If the page stays there, it will not be counted. You must browse the products for a sufficient amount of time before you can withdraw money, and you can only withdraw 0.7 yuan. And those displayed products are cheap enough, so you are likely to place an order on the spot.

If you want to withdraw money for the third time, you can't, you have to wait until tomorrow. I didn't explore further, but I roughly understood how it works. In theory, if you want to withdraw all the 100 yuan red envelope, it can be divided into 100 days for you to withdraw. With such a long time and such a high frequency, it can guide you to do various things on the APP.

Do you think it is very similar to Pinduoduo’s “one-cut price method”?

It is difficult for good students with 4A grades to write copy like Pinduoduo's, let alone think of gameplay that reveals human weaknesses and schemes.

What is refined operation? This is refined operation.

03 Reverse the strategy system of Pinduoduo’s traffic diversion

If Pinduoduo's Douyin information flow ads are charged on a CPC (click) basis, the cost of one ad is only a few cents. After guiding users to download and participate in the lottery, the cost of keeping users engaged every day is also only a few cents.

I have to admit that Pinduoduo is powerful. Let’s summarize its traffic strategy.

① Incredibly low-priced popular products of the season to attract traffic

Ice machines are a hot commodity in the hot summer. The video advertisement fully demonstrates the benefits of ice machines to you, bombarding you with 20 seconds of advertising, especially the price of less than 9.9 yuan for a cup of milk tea, which makes it difficult for ordinary users to resist.

②The purpose of traffic generation is not to sell hot products, but to sell more products

This carefully designed lottery mechanic is not intended to make the ice machine a hot-selling item. The purpose of holding a lottery for 10 ice machines every month is to use this as a hook to attract traffic to the entire platform and maximize sales.

③How to sell more goods? We need to find a way to get people to check in every day

It is not enough to just get people to download the APP to attract traffic. Some people download the APP and leave after taking advantage of the benefits. That’s unacceptable. The devil is always one step ahead of the saint. You have to get people to check in every day.

American scholar Locke once proposed the goal setting theory. Once a goal is set for people, it can motivate people to achieve it. Pinduoduo's "cutting down" is like this. Once you have a goal, you will keep cutting down. Picking up the red envelope balance every day is also a goal set by Pinduoduo for you.

As long as you come every day, we don’t have to worry about you not buying.

It’s like you didn’t want to buy anything, but after walking around the street you found that you bought a lot of bags.

Taobao changed its slogan to "It's so fun to shop here", upgrading from a shopping strategy to a window-shopping strategy. As long as users come to shop and have fun, there will be more business opportunities.

You may wonder, who would clock in every day for a few cents? This requires looking at this from the perspective of "outside the Fifth Ring Road". You may be too busy to have time due to the 996 schedule, but there are a large number of people in third-, fourth-, fifth-, sixth-, seventh- and eighth-tier cities who have plenty of time and will never get tired of it if they win a few cents in red envelopes, and will recommend people around them to play.

It is a chain of events that are closely linked to each other and are carefully planned. It seems ordinary, but in fact it is a powerful sword without a sharp edge. When it comes to effective advertising, Pinduoduo is invincible on the entire Internet.

Author: Chen Wuyong, WeChat public account: Chen Wuyong (ID: wuyongzhiyong2022)