Tencent Ads vs WeChat Ads: How to Grow WeChat Followers with Tencent Advertising

WeChat Ads are the ad placements inside WeChat: Moments, Official Accounts and Mini Programs, Channels and WeChat Search. Tencent Ads, or Tencent Advertising, is the wider platform that sells them, together with placements in Tencent News, Tencent Video, QQ, QQ Browser and Tencent’s ad network. You choose the placements when you set up each campaign.

Key takeaways

• WeChat Ads are the WeChat placements of Tencent Ads, bought from the same advertiser account as Tencent’s other placements.
• To grow an Official Account, promote the account itself with a follower growth goal, or promote your best articles.
• To grow a Channels account, promote videos that hook viewers in the first three seconds and end with an invitation to follow.
• Target by region, age, gender and interests, and exclude the users who already converted.
• Start with a test budget, compare creatives and audiences, then put more money on what converts.

Tencent Ads vs WeChat Ads: what is the difference?

The difference is one of scope. WeChat Ads cover WeChat only, while Tencent Ads covers WeChat and the rest of Tencent’s apps. Tencent’s Marketing API lists them all as placement sets (Tencent Marketing API placements).

Criteria	WeChat Ads	Tencent Ads
What it is	The ad placements inside WeChat	Tencent’s advertising platform, which sells WeChat placements and others
Where ads appear	Moments, Official Accounts and Mini Programs, Channels, WeChat Search	WeChat placements, plus Tencent News, Tencent Video, QQ, QQ Browser, Tencent’s app store and ad network
How you buy	With a Tencent Ads advertiser account	In the Tencent Ads campaign management platform
Best for	Reaching WeChat users and growing an Official Account or Channels account	Reaching Tencent’s audience beyond WeChat

For a brand that wants WeChat followers, the question is therefore not which platform to choose, but which placements and goals to set in Tencent Ads. Our Tencent Advertising app profile explains how to register an advertiser account. If you would rather have the campaigns run for you, a WeChat agency that builds for foreign brands can set them up.

Why use Tencent Ads to grow WeChat followers?

In the WeChat ecosystem, the in-depth articles of Official Accounts and the videos of WeChat Channels complement each other. Yet many operators struggle to gain followers and readers. Tencent Ads’ targeting helps break through: it drives followers to Official Accounts and gives Channels content more exposure.

Organic traffic in WeChat mostly spreads through people’s own contacts, so its reach is limited. Many wonder why ads are needed when WeChat is already a social network: the answer is precision and reach beyond your circle. Backed by Tencent’s user data, Tencent Ads targets the users most likely to be interested, whether they are potential readers of an Official Account or potential followers of a Channels account, with criteria such as age and region, which avoids wasted impressions.

Tencent Ads also connects directly with WeChat. A click on an ad can lead straight to the follow page of an Official Account, to an article or to a Channels homepage, and this short path reduces drop-off. It is the main reason why these ads suit WeChat growth better than ads on other platforms.

How to grow a WeChat Official Account with Tencent Ads

An Official Account needs targeted followers and more readers for its articles. Tencent Ads offers two approaches for these needs, both easy to run and to control: promote the account itself, or promote its articles.

Promote the account to win targeted followers

This approach invites users to follow the WeChat Official Account directly from the ad. It suits new accounts in their cold start and older accounts whose growth has stalled. The keys are precise targeting and attractive creatives.

Step 1: create the campaign

Log in to the Tencent Ads campaign management platform (投放管理平台) and create an ad. In the marketing content step, choose the follower growth goal (加粉互动), then select WeChat Official Account (微信公众号) as the promoted product and bind your account. Name the campaign with the account, the industry and the date, for example “Beauty Official Account, follower growth, 20251114”, so that its data is easy to track later.

Step 2: target the people most likely to follow you

Targeting decides the quality of your followers. Tencent Ads offers detailed options, and these settings matter most:

• Basic targeting: choose the regions that match the account’s audience. A local lifestyle account targets its city and the surrounding areas, while a national content account can cover the main urban clusters. Match age and gender with your product and content: a mother and baby account, for example, targets women aged 25 to 35.
• Exclusion targeting: exclude the users who already converted (排除已转化用户), so that the budget does not go to people who already follow you.

Step 3: creatives that promise a clear benefit

Creatives are what makes people click. Combine an image and a text. Choose a clear, striking image, such as a career progression chart for a workplace account or an appetizing dish for a food account. Then state the benefit of following in the copy, such as “Follow to get 100 presentation templates” or “One home-cooked dish a day, easy even for beginners”.

Once the ads run, compare the click-through rate of each creative in the platform’s creative data, keep the ones that get clicks, replace the others, and keep improving.

Promote your articles to gain readers and followers

If the account has strong articles, promote them directly. A click on the ad opens the article: readership grows, and readers who like the content may follow the account.

The setup is similar to the follower campaign, with article promotion as the goal and the article’s cover image and summary as the creative. Choose high-value articles, such as practical guides or analyses of hot topics, which are more likely to turn readers into followers.

Then watch two figures: article readership and follow conversion rate. As an example of a benchmark, a follow conversion rate above 5% shows that the content matches the audience and that the budget can grow.

How to grow a WeChat Channels account with Tencent Ads

With short videos and sharing between friends, WeChat Channels has become a major source of traffic growth. Yet good videos often go unnoticed with organic reach alone. Promoting Channels videos with Tencent Ads puts them in front of potential viewers, increases their exposure and invites viewers to follow the account: more views bring more followers, and more followers bring more views.

Promote your best videos

Educational content, life tips, stories or product demonstrations: any video that is useful and memorable can be amplified with ads. The ad must reach the right viewers, hold their attention and give them a reason to follow.

In the campaign management platform, choose the follower growth goal (加粉互动) and select your Channels account (视频号账号) as the promoted product. Pick the goal that fits the video: follower growth to gain views and followers, or traffic to a Mini Program or a private conversation when the video presents a product. The video must already be published on your Channels account and comply with the platform’s rules.

Target the audience of the video

• Basic targeting: align region, age and gender with the video. Campus videos, for example, target 18 to 22-year-olds in university areas.
• Lookalike targeting: if the account already has some followers, upload your follower data so that ads reach people who resemble them.

Video creatives: hook in three seconds, invite to follow at the end

• The first three seconds decide the click: open on a pain point or a question, such as “Breakfast in three minutes, no more rushing” for a food video, or “From 5k to 20k a month: the three things I got right” for a career video.
• Keep the middle clear and fast, without filler.
• End with an invitation to follow, spoken (“If this helped, follow us for more practical tips”) and shown with a highlighted Follow button under the video.

Landing page: shorten the path to the Follow button

By default, a video ad leads to the Channels homepage or to the video page. Prefer the video page with a one-click follow: viewers click the ad, watch the video, then tap Follow at the bottom of the page without another step, which limits drop-off.

Schedule and budget: control the cost per follower

Schedule the ads when your audience is active: for example, weekdays from 12:00 to 13:30 and from 18:00 to 22:00 for career videos, and weekends from 9:00 to 11:00 and from 15:00 to 17:00 for parenting videos.

Increase the budget step by step. Start with a test of 300 to 500 yuan a day and watch three indicators: video completion rate, follow conversion rate and cost per follower. When the completion rate passes 60% and the cost per follower stays within your target, for example under 3 yuan, raise the budget gradually, for example to 1,000 to 2,000 yuan a day.

Review the data and iterate

After launch, analyze the Channels promotion data in the campaign management platform:

1. Creative data: compare the click-through rate of each video and keep the ones above your benchmark, for example 5%.
2. Audience data: compare the follow conversion rate of each targeting combination and drop the ones that convert poorly. If women aged 25 to 30 with an interest in beauty convert best, for example, put more budget on that audience.
3. Time slots: compare the spending pace and the conversions of each time slot, and shift the budget to the slots that convert.

Tips to make every ad budget count

Poor results usually come from campaigns that are launched and then left alone. Three habits improve the return:

1. Test small to find the best combination. Give a new campaign a test budget, for example 500 to 1,000 yuan a day, and compare targeting and creatives. Run two creatives at the same time, one on the benefit of following and one on the value of the content, keep the combination with the best click-through and conversion, then increase the budget.
2. Follow the indicators that matter. For an Official Account, watch the cost per follower, which is the total spend divided by the number of new followers. For Channels, watch the video completion rate and the follow conversion rate. When an indicator keeps getting worse, change the targeting or the creatives.
3. Connect your WeChat accounts. Link your Official Account and your Channels account, embed Channels videos in your articles, and point Channels viewers to your Official Account. Traffic bought for one account then benefits the other.

Conclusion: Ads Are a Tool, Content Is the Foundation

Tencent Ads amplifies, it does not fix. If your articles are weak and your Channels videos bring no value, the followers you pay for will not stay. Good content first, then precise ads: that is how follower growth turns into reading and, later, into repeat purchases.

Start with one campaign, a test budget and two creatives, and review the data every week. For the organic side, our 9 ways to gain followers on your WeChat Official Account complete this guide. If you want support, our WeChat agency can plan and run the campaigns with you.

Frequently Asked Questions