Targeted Chinese advertising can be hugely effective in China. The practice involves the use of audience buying to tailor online advertisements to a particular user. Using targeted advertising, you can make your marketing much more relevant to your intended audience, increasing the likelihood of a favourable response.

Here’s why targeted Chinese advertising is so important, and how you can use it.

Why should I use targeted Chinese advertising?

Targeted advertising is a reliable way to get the attention of China’s huge internet shopping population. These people spend regularly and often high, with 50% making more than 11 purchases, and 40% spending around $300 minimum, in 2008 (source: China Business Review). An average Chinese internet customer can spend up to three hours online every day (source: China Business Review), with nearly 80% of internet users spending at least 14 hours online per week (source: eMarketer).

Targeted advertising is also a highly effective medium. Over half of Chinese mobile internet users admitted that mobile ads influenced their consuming behaviour to some extent. In 2013, 66% of users noticed Chinese advertising on their mobiles, while 32% of them went on to make a purchase, according to Renren (source: Tech in Asia). Mobile internet users are an important market – one which you can target with specific campaigns that are shown depending upon device. With 98.8million smartphone shipments in 2015 Q1 alone, you would be accessing a large potential market that is constantly growing (source: News Cred).

The more targeted your adverts, the better. 78% of Chinese consumers are more likely to click a mobile ad featuring content that is relevant to them, with 77% saying relevant content is the most important factor in mobile advertising (source: Price Waterhouse Cooper).

How can I use targeted advertising?

Targeted advertising allows you to engage with the right people at the right time. You could use interest and purchasing history to find the people who might want your luxury goods. Targeted Chinese advertising allows you to easily connect with these people – important, as 40% of Chinese luxury consumers bought a luxury item within a one day period of wanting it (source: Red Luxury). If you can get the right message in front of these people, you could see significant rewards.

Another market that targeted advertising allows you to tap into is the rising number of rural internet users. The impressive number of people online in China is still growing, mostly fuelled by young people in rural areas. Online shopping is popular among the less-urbanised areas of China. One town, Luxi (population 57,000), has transformed in the past three years from having one express delivery office handling ten packages daily to five handling 100 every day (source: Economist). Targeted advertising allows you to connect with a new market, one that is becoming increasingly internet-savvy and willing to spend.

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