3.61 Million Views & Nothing To Show For It — A Glimpse Into China’s Fake Social Media Scene.

How One Company Was Scammed 40,000 RMB

A Common First Step Into The Chinese Market

After 3 years of technical development, a young entrepreneur in Shenzhen felt ready to test the waters. His brand, Eefit, were going to launch their first product campaign. By using Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) they hoped to break into the market, generate hype, and presumably learn afterwards their next move based on the data.

Eefit approached Bee Group Media and found the perfect KOL to help them launch.

Zhang Yuxi YuHan, a Chinese KOL Microblogger on Weibo

Zhang Yuxi YuHan. A Chinese Weibo fashion microblogger with a 3.8 million following. After agreeing to work with her she created a vlog post featuring their product. The results?

An example of the vlog before it was taken down.

“3.61M views, 943 forwards, and 1261 comments, and over 3k likes”

An engagement of roughly 0.13% with just under 50% of the comments declaring that they had ordered the product.

Eefit had spent 40,000 RMB ($5,647 USD) and these comments indicated they had sold 617 units. Giving them a rough CPC of 65RMB.

However after looking closer at their sales they actually found the sales after her promotion were lower than the day before.

Backend data showing the sales made before and after the promotion.

Prior to the promotion Eefit had made 91 sales yet afterwards had only made 48. Despite 500+ people claiming in the comments they had “bought” the product advertised. So what happened?

Not All KOLs Are Created Equal

It was clear at this point that Zhang YuHan had been using bot/fake views to lure unsuspecting brands to use her services.

A conversation with a company offering fake/bot comments or views.

The above conversation shows how Zhang YuHan could have easily faked her results. The company shown above offers 3M views, 1000 reviews, 3000 likes, and 800 forwards for only 3500 RMB.

When Will the KOL Bubble Burst?

It’s common knowledge that fake followers and traffic are rife in China.

A phone farm creating fake views on articles and videos.

Phone farms, virtual instances, and malware can all drive views to a destination. Reviews, comments, shares…whatever vanity metric you need can be inflated.

If you’re wishing to drive KPIs that really matter, such as conversions, you’re going to have to more careful who you choose to operate with.

Yet this is an issue that has been occurring in China for years. This KOL gold rush isn’t new as brands still seem intent on throwing money at this branch of marketing.

Somehow it’s still seen as the most “authentic” and effective way to create sales and buzz.

Where’s The Accountability?

Currently Zhang Yuxi YuHan’s account has been suspended. Whether further action will be taken remains to be seen, but these platforms definitely have their fair share of fault. With the lack of proper engagement tools it can be hard to tell which Influencers are the real deal until its too late.

In the West this issue was solved by smarter analytics, tracking, and this vertical becoming more mature. Facebook & Twitter have been accused of inflating their statistics in the past but with the help of external tools it has become much easier to determine which Influencers are genuine.

Now with Influencer marketing being tied into strategies properly, as opposed to flashy standalone campaigns, these types of campaigns are becoming much better managed. I can’t understate how important this is because you need to quantify your ROI if you’re aiming to have any kind of success.

So if you’re thinking of bringing your product to China just be careful about who you choose to go with. You could easily blow your budget and have nothing to show for it except a cautionary tale.

If this can happen to a local company within China it can most certainly happen to those of you looking to gain access to the Chinese market from abroad.

Source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/KGTjLIxqNt6k46COg-OtAQ

Additional Content: “Marketing China (WeChat Group).