As mobile internet continues to surge, feed advertising has become the darling of digital marketing. The push-based model is steadily displacing keyword-driven search marketing, and consumer attention has grown increasingly fragmented. Getting your target audience to actually notice your ad has become one of the central challenges for businesses of all sizes. Under this push-based paradigm, achieving strong ROI is significantly harder than it is with precision keyword marketing. In this post, I’ll walk through what a complete, well-structured feed ad campaign looks like from end to end. Let’s start with a high-level view of the campaign feedback loop: Here’s how each step plays out in practice: I. How to Target the Right Audience
Conduct User Research to Establish a Baseline
Determine Your Goals and KPIs
Create a Competitive Landscape
Choose an Appropriate Feed Ad Type
Craft Your Content
Optimize Your Feed Ad for Best Performance
Monitor and Evaluate Results
Refine and Repeat
How to Target the Right Audience
The first step in creating a successful feed ad campaign is to identify the right audience. This involves conducting user research to establish a baseline understanding of your target market. By understanding their preferences, behaviors, and interests, you can tailor your ads to resonate more effectively with your audience.
Determine Your Goals and KPIs
Once you have identified your target audience, the next step is to determine your goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) for your campaign. These should be specific and measurable so that you can track your progress and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Create a Competitive Landscape
Next, create a comprehensive competitive landscape by analyzing your competitors’ feed ads. This will help you identify gaps in the market and opportunities for differentiation. It also provides insights into what resonates with your audience and what doesn’t.
Choose an Appropriate Feed Ad Type
Depending on your goals and the type of content you want to promote, choose an appropriate feed ad type. For example, if you are promoting a product, a call-to-action-style ad may be more effective. If you are promoting a service, a testimonial-style ad may be more compelling.
Craft Your Content
Once you have chosen your ad type, craft your content carefully. Ensure that it is engaging, informative, and visually appealing. Use relevant keywords and phrases to optimize your ads for search engines and ensure they stand out in the feed.
Optimize Your Feed Ad for Best Performance
Finally, optimize your feed ad for best performance by testing different versions, ad placements, and targeting options. Use analytics tools to measure your ad’s performance and make data-driven decisions to improve its effectiveness.
Monitor and Evaluate Results
Once your campaign starts running, monitor and evaluate its performance regularly. Track metrics such as click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, and cost per click (CPC). Use this information to refine your strategy and make adjustments as needed.
Refine and Repeat
Based on the results of your evaluation, refine and repeat your campaign. Iterate on your approach, experiment with new strategies, and continuously improve your feed ad campaigns to stay ahead of the competition and achieve strong ROI. Before you launch anything, you need a working hypothesis about who your audience is — and that requires user research. The same research data also underpins your copywriting, giving you the raw material to craft messaging that resonates. Let me break down different research methods by user type. Simple methods for gathering user profile data: Basic demographics: Collect from two main sources — aggregating data from users who have already converted, and conducting one-on-one interviews at events or in-person touchpoints. Behavioral characteristics: Analyze user flow and heatmaps on your website. By observing which sections attract the most attention across different traffic sources and browsing environments, you can identify and validate behavioral patterns. Interest characteristics: Draw inferences by cross-referencing the first three data categories and forming hypotheses about your user persona. Once you’ve gathered your user tags and built a working understanding of your users, you can begin constructing audience personas. For each audience type, assign a corresponding targeting strategy. Before any campaign goes live, I ask myself three questions: Who: Which distinct user segments might be interested in this product? Where: What contexts are these users active in, and what behaviors do they exhibit there? Why: Which specific needs does this product address for each segment, and how does it compare to existing alternatives? Using home renovation as an example, I typically divide the audience into three categories:
Homeowners who are considering making major changes to their homes (e.g., remodeling kitchens or bathrooms).
Renovation professionals who specialize in interior design or construction.
DIY enthusiasts who want to undertake minor renovations at home. Understanding these distinct audience groups leads to very different campaign strategies. For instance, high-income “quality seekers” tend to have stable careers and aspire to a home that signals their status — they’re detail-oriented about materials and value human-centered design because they’re often managing multi-generational households. “First-time buyer” segments, on the other hand, skew younger, are heavy internet users, care about smart home features, but are extremely price-sensitive. Segmenting your audience properly and running targeted campaigns for each group is one of the most reliable ways to lift overall ROI.
How to Maximize Impressions Within Your Target Audience To maximize impressions within your target audience, you must first understand the unique characteristics of each segment. High-income “quality seekers”, for example, are likely to be interested in luxury items and high-end appliances. They may be more likely to purchase items from brands such as Samsung or Bosch, which offer innovative technology and superior quality. Therefore, it is essential to highlight these products in your marketing campaigns, using visually appealing images and descriptions that showcase their superior features and benefits. On the other hand, “first-time buyers” are typically young and tech-savvy individuals who are constantly seeking out new products and services. They are also highly sensitive to pricing and will only consider purchasing an item if it meets their budget requirements. To appeal to this segment, you should focus on showcasing the latest trends and innovations in the industry, as well as offering competitive pricing and attractive deals. You can also create user-friendly websites that make it easy for them to find the products they are looking for and make a purchase. In addition to understanding the unique characteristics of each audience segment, it is also important to tailor your messaging and content to fit their needs and preferences. For example, if you are targeting a specific demographic, such as millennials, you should focus on creating content that speaks directly to their interests and values. This could include social media posts, email newsletters, or even interactive online quizzes that allow them to engage with your brand in a meaningful way. By understanding and catering to each audience segment’s unique needs, preferences, and behaviors, you can effectively increase your chances of reaching and engaging with your target audience. This not only helps you boost your visibility and reach but also ensures that your marketing efforts are more effective and efficient. A common challenge in feed advertising is the issue of over-segmentation, where targeting criteria are so narrow that the account barely delivers any impressions. However, since targeting is a critical factor for campaign performance, it cannot be easily relaxed. So, how can one increase their reach within a defined target audience? The answer lies in identifying the key variables that actually drive impressions. Consider an example: Ad A has a 1% click-through rate (CTR) and a bid of \(0.5. On the other hand, Ad B has a 3% CTR and a bid of \)0.4. From a superficial perspective, Ad A’s advertiser appears to be paying more. But from the platform’s perspective, Ad B generates \(12 per 1,000 impressions, while Ad A only generates \)5. If you were the platform, how would you allocate traffic? This scenario highlights three factors that drive impressions: bid, CTR, and account stability. Bids are constrained by target CPA, so you’re always trying to bid as low as possible. Account stability is a natural outcome of a mature campaign and involves too many uncontrollable variables. That leaves CTR as the primary controllable lever for winning more impressions. If your CTR significantly outperforms the platform average, the platform will reward you with more distribution because your creative clearly resonates with users, and that’s good for user experience too. What Makes a Creative That Actually Grabs Your Audience?
Write Copy from the User’s Point of View When I first started running campaigns, I didn’t know what to write, so I’d pile on every product feature I could think of. I assumed users would see what I saw—that they’d understand the product as well as I did and immediately grasp the benefits. Writing from the assumption that customers are already familiar with you is a trap that leads to self-indulgent copy that speaks to no one. The reality is that users know nothing about your product and couldn’t care less about your feature list. The only reason someone will pay for your product is that it helps them accomplish a specific job or solve a specific problem. Your ad headline needs to tell users clearly what outcome the product delivers for them — what task it helps them complete. Customers only care about the job they’re trying to get done. Even knowing this, it’s still easy to write copy that misses the mark — because there’s often a wide gap between product features and genuine user needs. Lead only with features and the user has no purchase motivation. Promise users everything they want and they’ll instinctively disbelieve you. This changed for me when I came across a copywriting framework called the “Copy Ladder,” which maps the chain from product benefit to user job to deeper user value. Since then, before writing any ad copy, I run through the full chain: the concrete benefit the product delivers → the job that benefit helps complete → the user value that job reflects. Here’s the framework: For example:
Concrete Benefit: The product solves a common problem for consumers.
Job Improvement: The product provides an easier or more effective way to accomplish a task.
Deep User Value: The product enhances the quality of life or productivity. One of our product’s selling points was “free design consultation.” What result does that deliver? One answer: “You can see what your renovation would look like without spending anything.” What goal does seeing that outcome serve? “Make your home more beautiful through design.” And why does making the home more beautiful matter so deeply to this user? Because their underlying value is: “After working this hard, I deserve to live somewhere worth coming home to.” Here’s a real ad copy example: this was a national WeChat Moments campaign with a CTR of 1.3% — slightly above the platform average — but a registration conversion rate of 50%, more than double most other channels. Here’s why the copy worked: “Improve your living environment” — the job the user is trying to get done (aligned with user need) “You don’t have to spend a fortune” — acknowledges that price has been a barrier to completing that job (pain point) “Claim your free 0-cost design consultation” — the solution that removes that barrier (the cure) “Create a designed-feeling home for less” — speaks directly to the goal of making home more beautiful (the ultimate outcome they want)
Choose Selling Points That Communicate Value Instantly Now that we’ve covered how to write copy that resonates, let’s talk about how to select the right selling point for feed ads. The feed environment is very different from traditional display advertising — the canvas is small, competing for attention against a flood of other content. If a user can’t see the value of your ad at a glance, they’ll scroll past. Choosing the right selling point is therefore critical. I evaluate selling points along two dimensions: time investment (how long it takes the user to get a result from this feature) and expected value (how meaningful the benefit ultimately is to the user). The KISS Principle: Even a complete stranger should get it in 3 seconds. In the crowded, noisy world of feed advertising, users’ attention is spread thin across an overwhelming volume of content. Your ad creative needs to communicate its core message immediately. Pick the single most valuable selling point and present it with maximum simplicity so users understand your product’s core value proposition within three seconds. For image creative design, I follow four rules: KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid. The user should immediately understand what product or service you’re offering. Light backgrounds first: Light backgrounds create contrast that makes your product stand out more effectively. Clean typography: Text should cover no more than one-third of the image; white space around your copy makes it easier to read and ensures the message lands fast. Visual clarity: Use high-quality, sharp imagery; limit yourself to three colors; avoid centering everything, which can create a stiff, lifeless feel. Outstanding advertising isn’t about novelty or cleverness for its own sake. Great ads simplify, clarify, and dramatize — they leave a lasting impression in the consumer’s mind. Chase narrative complexity and you risk obscuring your message entirely.— Bill Bernbach Feed platforms allow you to set specific time windows for each campaign, but most advertisers simply run the same creative 24⁄7. This approach can leave significant performance on the table, as users are in very different mindsets and contexts throughout the day. By designing creative that speaks to those different moments and adjusting your landing page content accordingly, you can meaningfully lift CTR. Additionally, users will sense that the advertiser understands them, which builds goodwill. I noticed that EF Education uses this approach in every campaign they’ve served me: Commute hours: 6:00–9:00 AM and 5:00–7:00 PM Work hours: 9:00 AM–6:00 PM Evening hours: 7:00 PM–midnight
Systematically Capture Learnings and Keep Optimizing To optimize your campaigns, it is important to systematically capture learnings and continually improve. This includes analyzing data from previous campaigns to identify areas of success and failure, as well as tracking metrics such as click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates. By continuously refining your creative and landing pages, you can increase the effectiveness of your campaigns and ultimately drive more conversions. The review phase is primarily about A/B testing: tag and file away both your top-performing audience segments and your best-performing creatives. High-quality creative templates reduce back-and-forth with your design team; validated high-intent audience segments can be recycled into future campaigns to cut down on the trial-and-error costs of getting started fresh each time. Here’s a promotion workflow SOP that I’ve refined over time: III. How to Turn Visitors into Conversions Once your carefully crafted creative has brought potential users to your landing page, the real challenge begins. Feed advertising users are habitual skimmers. They won’t linger on a single page for long. GA data consistently shows average session durations of 15–20 seconds. Whether your landing page can communicate effectively within that 20-second window is everything. Before diving into landing page specifics, though, it’s worth being clear on something foundational: why do businesses need a dedicated landing page at all, and what is its core mission?
What Is the Landing Page’s True Mission? When a user clicks through from an ad creative to your landing page, what role is the page supposed to play? Think of it like two strangers meeting for the first time. They become friends because conversation builds trust over time. A landing page has exactly the same mission: to build a bridge of trust between your product’s selling points and the user’s underlying needs. Landing pages generally fall into two types — brand awareness pages and lead generation pages — and each has a very different job to do. Brand Awareness Page: Introduce your brand to a completely unfamiliar user — who you are, what you offer, and what problem you solve. Provide rich navigation so users can explore as much of your product story as possible. When your sales or CRM team follows up later, these warmed-up users will be far easier to convert. Key metrics: user navigation path and engagement rate. Lead Generation Page: More common in high-consideration, high-ticket categories like home renovation, where no one is going to make a purchase on first contact. Here, the goal shifts: make a compelling promise that your product can solve a specific problem, then capture the user’s contact information so sales or CRM teams can follow up and close. Key metric: lead capture conversion rate. Whether you’re seeking registration or event sign-ups, the underlying motivation of your users is to receive something valuable in return. When crafting your landing page, it’s essential to ensure that before introducing any conversion element—a form, a phone number field, a sign-up button—you have made it clear to the user what value they will receive. Never push for a conversion until you have explained the benefit. To design a highly converting lead generation page, follow these steps:
Anchor your page around a clear positioning statement: describe the goal your product helps the user achieve, and use product attributes as supporting evidence to build credibility. Finally, give the user a reason to care about that goal right now—elevating their motivation to act. Here’s the conversion logic I use for lead generation pages: Screen 1: Who we are and what value we offer (solve the first impression problem) Screen 2: Highlight the unique benefits of using our product and how it can solve their problem. Use testimonials and case studies to reinforce these points. Screen 3: Show potential customers how easy it is to sign up and what they can expect from us. Use a clear call-to-action (CTA) button to encourage them to take action. Screen 4: Provide an incentive for signing up, such as a discount code or free trial. This will increase the likelihood of conversion. Screen 5: Thank the user for their interest and provide them with contact information so they can easily reach out if they have any questions or concerns. By following these steps, you can create a high-converting lead generation page that effectively communicates the value your product offers and motivates users to take action. What specific value our services deliver (give the user a reason to buy) Screen 3: Why they should believe we can actually deliver those benefits (resolve the trust barrier) Screen 4: Why they should act now (close the deal — the final nudge) Here’s a lead generation page template built around this framework: “Zero-cost home design — leave the complexity to the experts” After launch, this page achieved a 0.98% conversion rate within its feed ad placements.
Four Things to Watch Out For Relevance: Does your landing page actually deliver on what the ad promised? Focus: Pick one job your product solves for the user and explain it thoroughly. Don’t try to cover everything. Avoid talking to yourself: Lead with what the product does for the user, not with product attributes for their own sake. Whitespace: Don’t cram too much onto a single screen. Let users scroll naturally rather than bombarding them with information. IV. You’ve Spent the Budget — How Do You Know If It Worked? The real sleepless nights start after the money goes out. During peak renovation season these past few months, I found myself waking up at 3 AM to check ad accounts before I could fall back asleep. Here are the key data analysis methods I rely on:
Track Conversion Rate Trends Once you’ve deployed your GA goal tracking on the registration button, you can monitor the daily conversion rate trend at a glance. Any unusual movement triggers a post-mortem. In the chart above, you can see a clear downward trend beginning in late February. When I see this, I use the analysis template below to diagnose whether the drop is caused by a decline in landing page conversion rate specifically, or by a deterioration in overall traffic quality.
A/B Test Landing Pages Using GA Experiments I also conduct regular A/B tests on my landing pages using Google Analytics (GA) experiments. This helps me understand which elements of my landing page are driving conversions and which aren’t. By comparing two different versions of my landing page, I can identify what changes made a significant difference in conversion rates.
Analyze User Journey Data To gain a deeper understanding of user behavior, I analyze user journey data. This includes tracking the time spent on each page, the bounce rate, and the average session duration. These metrics help me identify areas where users may be struggling or where there might be opportunities for improvement.
Use Heat Maps to Identify Pain Points Heat maps are a powerful tool for identifying pain points on my website. By analyzing how users interact with my site, I can identify areas where users are spending too much time or where they are dropping off quickly. This information can help me make improvements to my site design and navigation to improve user experience.
Use Conversion Rate Monitoring Tools Finally, I use conversion rate monitoring tools such as Optimizely and Hotjar to track user engagement and conversions across multiple channels. These tools provide valuable insights into user behavior and allow me to make data-driven decisions about how to improve my marketing campaigns and website performance. A single channel’s conversion rate running below expectations is a common and recurring problem. But simply swapping out the page every time conversion dips is not a rigorous approach. The better method: run the new page concept and the existing page head-to-head with a 50⁄50 traffic split. After a full week of continuous testing, the data will clearly show which version performs better for that channel. GA’s Experiments feature makes this straightforward to implement. Heatmap monitoring can be an invaluable tool in understanding user behavior on your website. It allows you to identify hotspots on your pages, such as areas where users frequently click or scroll, and pinpoint where they spend the most time. This information can help you optimize your design and layout, making it more intuitive and engaging for users. By analyzing heatmap data, you can gain insights into how users navigate your site and what factors influence their decision-making process. For example, if you notice that users tend to spend more time on certain sections of your website, you may want to invest in improving those areas. Similarly, if you discover that certain colors or fonts are causing confusion, you can adjust them accordingly to make your site more visually appealing and easy to use. In addition to providing valuable feedback on user experience, heatmaps can also help you identify areas where content is lacking or confusing. By examining how users interact with different elements of your site, you can identify gaps in your content and create more engaging and informative content to improve user engagement. Overall, heatmap monitoring is a powerful tool for understanding user behavior and optimizing your website. By leveraging this data, you can gain insights into how users interact with your site and make informed decisions about how to improve their experience. 在流量驱动的关键时刻，页面转化率的提升至关重要。每次提升0.5%的转化率，就能直接转化为数以万计的节省下来的媒体支出。我使用Ptengine进行热力图分析。例如，在一个页面上，我发现有61%的用户在第一眼看到页面时就已经流失了44个百分点，只留下了17%。这是否意味着引入的转换模块过早，引发了用户的抵触？用户花费最多时间的部分是英雄图像和设计案例研究。我们应该将这部分内容移至页面顶部吗？通过对热力图数据形成假设并进行测试，你可以不断迭代你的页面，以实现更好的性能。
最后的思考 The full loop — from building your initial audience persona hypothesis, to gathering performance data, to refining and correcting that hypothesis — is a continuously self-improving feedback cycle. The longer you run campaigns, the sharper your read on your target audience becomes. You evolve from someone executing instructions to someone holding one of the company’s most valuable strategic assets: validated, data-backed knowledge of exactly who buys and why. That knowledge saves your company real money every time you run a campaign, and it makes you very difficult to replace. Source: Nuanshi Network. Author: Gu Weisheng — Home renovation campaign optimizer; post-90s, based in Beijing. Interested in exchanging notes with others in the digital marketing space. WeChat Official Account: feiyue2333.