In the increasingly competitive world of advertising, finding effective ways to connect with consumers is crucial. For global brands looking to reach affluent Chinese consumers, including Chinese tourists, advertising on iQiyi is a powerful tool. As one of the largest online streaming platforms in China, iQiyi offers a range of ad formats that can help global brands achieve their marketing objectives. For a comprehensive guide for marketers on advertising on iQiyi, please refer to our prior article [Add link]. In this article, we’ll look more closely at the different types of ads on iQiyi and how they can help you reach and convert Chinese customers.
Opening Splash Ads: Highly Visible for Maximum Exposure
Opening Splash Ad is a full-screen ad that appears when a user first visits iQiyi on their mobile devices. This ad format is designed to capture the user’s attention before they start browsing the content. This format is ideal for raising brand awareness and promoting new products. The advantage of this ad format is that it is highly visible, providing maximum exposure for the brand. The ad can be an image or a 5-second video.
Showtime Ads: Captivating Video Ads Experience
Showtime Ad is a video ad format that plays before or after a video. This format is ideal for promoting new products or creating brand awareness. The advantage of this ad format is that it offers a more engaging experience for the user, allowing the brand to convey their message effectively.
Masthead: Prime Position for High Visibility
Masthead is an ad format that appears at the top of iQiyi’s mobile app. It is a large banner that contains a call-to-action (CTA) and an image or video. This format is ideal for promoting brand awareness and driving traffic to a website or landing page. The advantage of this ad format is that it offers a prime position for the ad, increasing visibility and click-through rates. The banner can be an 8-second image or a 15-second video, with the sound off by default but can be turned on.
Carousel Banners: Interactive and Informative Slideshow
Carousel Banner is an ad format that displays multiple images or videos in a slideshow format. This format is ideal for showcasing multiple products or promoting a sale or event. This type of ad allows brands to share more information and create a more interactive experience for users.
In-Feeds Ads: Seamless Integration for Increased Engagement
In-feeds ad is an ad format that appears in a user’s feed on iQiyi’s mobile app. This format usually blends seamlessly with the surrounding content. But there is also a label to indicate that the ad is “sponsored” or “promoted.” This type of ad can be an image or a 30s or less video. The advantage of in-feeds ads is that they are less intrusive and can generate more clicks. It is ideal for increasing engagement and promoting new products.
Static Banners: Highly Visible Call-to-Action
Static banner is an ad format that appears at the bottom of the iQiyi app. It is usually a small banner that contains an image, text, and a CTA. This ad format is ideal for promoting new products or driving consumers to a landing page. This type of ad is good because it is easy to see, and marketers can also choose ad positions with the most attention. Also, users can be redirected to brands’ official sites after they click this type of ads.
Pre-Roll Ads: Capturing Attention and Building Brand Awareness
Pre-roll ads are short video ads that play before the main content. They are a great way for global brands to get people’s attention and raise brand awareness. This ad format is particularly effective for product launches, branding campaigns, and boosting brand awareness.
Mid-Roll Ads: Increasing Engagement and Driving Conversions
Mid-roll ads are ads that play during the content, providing more time for brands to showcase their products or services. iQiyi’s mid-roll ads come in different combinations, with non-skippable ads that can be 15-30 seconds, skippable ads that range from 15-180 seconds, and flash ads that are 5-6 seconds long. All these mid-roll ads appear during natural breaks in the content. Since viewers are already watching the content, this ad format is particularly effective for boosting engagement and driving conversions.
Paused Ads: Engaging Users Without Disrupting Viewing Experience
Paused ads are ads that activate when a user pauses a video. It is usually a static image or a 30s or less video with a call-to-action (CTA). This ad format is great for promoting new products, driving traffic to a website or landing page, and building brand awareness. The good thing about this type of ad is that it shows up when the user is already interested in the content. This keeps the user’s interest high. Paused ads are non-intrusive as they do not disrupt the user’s viewing experience. As such, pause ads usually have a higher engagement rate.
Maxview: Attention-Grabbing Engaging Ad
Maxview is a high-impact ad format that covers the entire iQiyi app. This format is ideal for increasing brand awareness and promoting new products. The best thing about this ad format is that it puts the brand’s H5 content right in front of the user, making it easy for consumers to engage with the brand directly.
Interstitial Ad: High-Impact Full-Screen Ad
Interstitial Ad on the iQiyi app is a full-screen ad that appears when the user has viewed relevant content for more than 10 minutes and then exits from such content and must be actively closed by the user. This format is ideal for promoting new products or creating brand awareness. The benefit of this ad format is that it gives the user a high-impact experience. They are more likely to interact with the ad because they have to take active steps.
Site Takeover on PCs: Maximum Exposure for Memorable Brand Experience
Site Takeover is an ad format that takes over the entire webpage or website. This ad format is ideal for promoting new products, creating brand awareness, and creating a high-impact brand experience. The advantage of this ad format is that it offers maximum exposure for the brand, capturing the user’s attention and creating a memorable brand experience.
Top Banner on PCs: Prime Position for High Visibility
The Top Banner is an ad format that appears at the top of iQyi’s international site, IQ.com. It is a horizontal banner with an image or video and a call to action (CTA). This ad format is ideal for promoting brand awareness, driving traffic to a website or landing page, and increasing click-through rates. The best thing about this ad format is that it puts the ad in a prime spot, which means that users will see it and interact with it more. The top banner on iQiyi is an image-only ad format.
Premium Combos and Products
In addition to the above ad formats, iQiyi offers various premium ad combos to global brands, such as “Premium Combo Ads,” which combine Opening Slash Ads with Masthead Ads, providing maximum reach and impact to drive brand awareness and support new launches.
There are also other premium products available on iQiyi, such as Big Day, Roadblocks, and Prime Time.
Big Day
A cost-effective way to maximize reach by scheduling the first video view of the day, targeting users’ top-of-mind recall and awareness, and stimulating consumption among consumers.
Roadblocks
Roadblocks are an ad format on iQiyi that guarantees viewership during prime time and blocks all other advertisers, creating a brand-exclusive time slot. This format is perfect for creating maximum impact and driving top brand awareness for optimal reach, ensuring maximum brand impact and visibility. Pre-roll and mid-roll ads will be displayed at fixed hours, with users only exposed to ads from a particular brand as all other ads will be blocked. This ad format has a high ad recall, a focus on the brand, the best peak reach, and the most ad impact, which makes it a great choice for a highly targeted and effective advertising campaign.
Prime Time
A premium advertising product that targets maximum viewership during peak hours. It’s perfect for new product launches, always-on, and e-commerce promotions, especially flash sales with limited-time offers that target a mass audience base. The ad displays once per video before every user’s video view during the specific hour selected by the brand. This ad format ensures high ad recall and optimal reach while reducing waste. This makes the ad format ideal for creating brand awareness and driving conversions.
Conclusion
Different ad formats on iQiyi have their own unique features and benefits. Generally, advertising on iQiyi can target Chinese consumers effectively by considering their demographics, interests, and behaviors. In addition, these ad formats can create high-impact ads that stick with viewers. This helps build trust and loyalty to the brand, and ultimately boost conversions.
Last but not least, these ad formats are flexible and can be tailored to specific marketing objectives such as increasing brand awareness, driving engagement, or promoting a new product launch. By selecting the right ad format for their objectives, global brands can optimize their campaigns towards Chinese consumers for maximum impact.
Overall, IQiyi’s wide variety of ad formats makes it easy for global brands to reach and convert Chinese consumers. With each ad format having its own unique benefits, it’s important for brands to understand the ideal strategies for their campaign objectives. To learn more about IQiyi advertising – IQiyi ad formats and how they can connect and convert your desired Chinese consumers – reach out to one of our experienced professionals at EternityX for a free consultation.
