The Complete Guide to WeChat Ads
With approximately 1.09 billion active users and a 99.8% penetration rate across China’s social media industry, WeChat (微信) is China’s most recognised and widely used app. While its primary functions are messaging and payments, WeChat’s super-app ecosystem has expanded to include e-commerce, short-form video, and written content. This has made WeChat into one of the most versatile and effective forms of advertising for brands targeting Chinese consumers. This guide will explain how to run WeChat Ads, best practice, and how AppInChina can help you achieve your campaign goals.
What are WeChat Ads?
WeChat Ads are paid placements served through Tencent’s official advertising platform across the WeChat ecosystem. WeChat Ads are managed through Tencent Ads (腾讯广告), which provides campaign creation, audience targeting, budget management, and performance reporting. All ads go through Tencent’s review process before going live.
Why Should I Advertise on WeChat?
Unlike standalone social media platforms, WeChat functions as an all-in-one super app that integrates messaging, payments, e-commerce, content, and business services into a single ecosystem. Chinese consumers use WeChat not just to communicate, but to read articles, watch videos, shop, pay bills, and interact with brands, often without ever leaving the app.
This integration is what makes WeChat advertising particularly powerful. Ads can be served to users who are already embedded in a purchasing and discovery mindset, and they can be directed to WeChat-native destinations such as Official Account pages, Mini Programs, and live streams, keeping the entire journey within the ecosystem. The combination of reach, targeting precision, and native conversion tools makes WeChat a primary channel for most brands with a serious China marketing strategy.
Where Do WeChat Ads Appear?
WeChat Moments Ads (朋友圈广告)
Moments Ads appear natively within the WeChat Moments feed, the equivalent of a Facebook or Instagram timeline. They closely resemble organic posts from friends and are one of the highest-visibility placements on the platform, particularly effective for brand awareness and product launches. Moments Ads support image, video, and card formats, and can link directly to Mini Programs, Official Account articles, or external landing pages.
WeChat Official Account Ads (公众号广告)
Ads can be placed within articles published on WeChat Official Accounts, appearing at the bottom of or inline within content. Because users are already engaged with editorial content when they encounter these ads, Official Account placements tend to perform well for brands that benefit from a contextual or editorial environment.
WeChat Mini Program Ads (小程序广告)
Ads served within Mini Programs, WeChat’s lightweight in-app applications, reach users while they are actively engaged with a specific service or experience, such as a game, e-commerce store, or booking tool. Mini Program banner and interstitial ads are particularly effective for driving direct conversions.
WeChat Channel Ads (视频号广告)
WeChat Channels (视频号) is WeChat’s short-form video platform, comparable to Douyin. Channel Ads appear within the video feed and support in-stream video formats. With Tencent’s continued investment in Channels as a growth area, this placement is increasingly relevant for brands looking to reach users through video content.
WeChat Search Ads (搜一搜广告)
WeChat’s built-in search function (搜一搜) allows users to search for content, accounts, and Mini Programs within the app. Search Ads appear alongside organic results and are effective for capturing high-intent users who are actively looking for a product, brand, or service.
WeChat Live Ads (直播广告)
Live commerce is a major part of China’s e-commerce landscape, and WeChat Live allows brands and merchants to sell products directly through live streams. Ads can be used to drive traffic to live streams, and in-stream placements are available during broadcasts.
How to Run WeChat Ads
Do I Need a WeChat Official Account or Service Account?
This depends on what you want your ads to do. For standard ad placements through the Tencent Ads platform, such as Moments Ads or search ads, you do not need to link a WeChat Official Account or Service Account. However, if you want to direct ad traffic into the WeChat ecosystem, for example, to an Official Account menu, a Mini Program page, or a customer service chat, you will need to set up an Official Account or Service Account before your campaign goes live. To learn more about WeChat Official and Service account setup, read our full guide.
WeChat advertising is managed through Tencent’s official advertising platform. The setup process involves several verification steps that overseas companies need to plan for carefully.
1. Create an Account
Visit ad.qq.com and register using a WeChat ID and Chinese phone number.
It is strongly recommended to use a Chinese phone number and a China-registered WeChat account, as foreign phone numbers and WeChat IDs can cause verification issues further down the process.
2. Complete Company Verification
Company verification on the Tencent Ads platform can only be completed using a Chinese business entity that holds a Chinese business license (营业执照) . Overseas companies cannot complete this step independently and must work through a licensed local agency or operating partner, such as AppInChina, who can register and manage the account on their behalf.
3. Verify the Contact Person
The platform requires verification of a contact person, who should ideally be the legal representative (法人代表) of the company. For overseas brands working through a local partner, the partner’s legal representative typically fulfils this role.
4. Top Up the Account Balance
WeChat Ads operates on a prepaid model. Before any campaign can go live, the account balance must be topped up through the platform. Minimum top-up amounts and payment methods vary; overseas companies working through a local partner will typically handle this through their partner arrangement.
5. Complete Industry Verification
Depending on the type of product or service being advertised, Tencent requires industry-specific certification before ads in that category can be approved. Regulated categories, including healthcare, financial services, education, and food, require corresponding licences and qualifications to be submitted and approved before campaign creation.
6. Complete Content Verification
Beyond industry category, the specific content of your ads may trigger additional documentation requirements. This includes claims made in ad copy, product imagery, and any promotional offers. Content that references regulated claims, such as health benefits or investment returns, will require supporting documentation. Below is a translated table of Tencent’s official guidance:
| Asset Type | Core Verification Value | Instructions & Example |
| Website | Used to verify the online identity of a company or brand. Suitable for advertisers with an independent website. | Enter the full homepage URL of the official company website. Example: https://e.qq.com |
| Offline Store Page | Used to verify that you have a physical business location and local service capability. Suitable for advertisers with offline stores. | Provide a store page link from major local service platforms (e.g., Dianping, Meituan). The link must display store address and related info. Example: https://www.dianping.com/shop/XXXXX |
| Online E-commerce Store | Used to verify your store identity on major e-commerce platforms. Suitable for promoting the entire store or products within it. | Enter your store homepage link (supports Taobao, Tmall, Pinduoduo, WeChat Stores, etc.; JD store links are not supported). Example: https://xxx.tmall.com |
| Self-media Platform | Used to verify your official content account identity. Suitable for promoting content on platforms like Douyin, Weibo, Bilibili. | Provide a specific content URL (must be accessible via desktop browser). Only supports self-media, short drama, novels, and influencer-related advertising industries. |
| WeChat Official Account | Used to verify your official content account identity. Suitable for promoting WeChat Official Account content. | Enter a single article link from your WeChat Official Account. Example: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/XXXXX |
| Mobile App | Used to verify ownership of an app product. Suitable for promoting app downloads or engagement. | Provide the app detail page link from iOS or Android app stores. Example: https://apps.apple.com/cn/app/微信/XXXXX |
| WeChat Mini Program | Used to verify the identity of a WeChat Mini Program you operate. | Upload the Mini Program QR code image. Not supported for comprehensive or vertical e-commerce platform advertisers. |
| WeChat Mini Game | Used to verify the identity of a WeChat Mini Game you operate. | Upload the Mini Game QR code image. Only supported for advertisers in the gaming industry. |
7. Create and Launch Your Campaign
Once verification steps are complete, campaigns can be built within the platform. This includes selecting your ad format and placement, defining your target audience, setting your budget and bidding strategy, uploading creative assets, and submitting for review. Tencent reviews all ads before they go live.
What Is Best Practice for WeChat Ads?
Target Precisely
WeChat’s advertising platform offers detailed audience targeting based on demographics, location, interests, device, and behavioural data drawn from across Tencent’s ecosystem. Broad targeting wastes budget; most brands perform better by defining a clear audience profile and using WeChat’s data to reach them accurately.
Use WeChat Index (微信)
Any successful ad campaign (be it on WeChat or not) starts with a sufficient amount of research to provide the campaign with direction, keywords, and strategy. Luckily, as the WeChat ecosystem has grown over the past decade, so have the research tools. The most widely used tool to research keywords and queries in WeChat is the WeChat Index (微信指数). The WeChat Index is a keyword and query tool that tracks search volume over a certain time period.
This shows that in the past 30 days, Nike has been searched for over 17,000,000 times through WeChat. In the menu, you can also toggle the period of time that you would like to see results for. 83.26% of Nike’s traffic over the past 30 days has come from WeChat Channels (微信视频号). From this, we can calculate that over 14,000,000 of the 17,000,000 traffic that Nike has gained in the past 30 days has come from WeChat Channels. In this case, if your business was also involved in clothing or shoes, short-form videos that are localised for WeChat Channels would be your first target in terms of content creation.
Use the Ecosystem
Ads that link to external websites often underperform compared to ads that keep users within the WeChat ecosystem. Where possible, direct traffic to a Mini Program, Official Account article, or WeChat Live stream rather than an external landing page. This reduces friction and leverages WeChat’s native conversion tools.
Create Quality Content
WeChat users are accustomed to high-quality, locally relevant content. Moments Ads that look and feel like organic posts from friends perform significantly better than ads that are visibly promotional. Copy should be written natively in Simplified Chinese, direct translations of English ad copy rarely resonate with Chinese consumers.
Compliance
As with all advertising targeting users in China, WeChat Ads must comply with the Advertising Law of the People’s Republic of China and the Administrative Measures for Internet Advertising.
Key requirements include:
- Labelling. Article 14 of the Advertising Law and Article 9 of the Internet Advertising Measures require that all ads are clearly identifiable as advertisements and distinguishable from organic content.
- Prohibited claims. Article 9 of the Advertising Law prohibits superlatives such as “best,” “highest level,” or “national level” in any ad copy or creative. Article 28 prohibits false or misleading content broadly, including unverifiable statistics and implied efficacy claims.
- Restricted categories. Articles 15–27 of the Advertising Law and Article 7 of the Internet Advertising Measures require that ads for pharmaceuticals, medical devices, health food, and pesticides receive regulatory approval before publication. Healthcare ads cannot include cure rates or patient testimonials; education ads cannot guarantee exam results or qualifications.
- Ad formats. Article 10 of the Internet Advertising Measures requires pop-up and open-screen ads to include a clearly visible one-click close button.
Non-compliance can result in fines of up to CNY 2 million for serious or repeated violations.
How Can AppInChina Help?
Overseas companies cannot complete the Tencent Ads company verification process independently; a Chinese business entity is required. AppInChina provides the local operating structure that overseas brands need to run WeChat Ads, along with end-to-end campaign management.
AppInChina can help by:
- Registering an account and completing company verification on the Tencent Ads platform on your behalf
- Providing a free compliance assessment to confirm whether your ad content and creative materials align with Chinese advertising law and Tencent’s platform policies
- Localising campaign creation, including Simplified Chinese copywriting, creative production, and audience strategy
- Managing campaigns across WeChat Moments, Official Account, Mini Program, Channels, and Live placements
- Guiding companies on how WeChat Ads fit within a broader China digital marketing strategy
Contact us to get started with your WeChat advertising campaign.