作者 | April
Edit | Chen Weixian
Design | Brother Die
The local short drama makes people get started, but I didn't expect foreign friends to fall too......
Open TikTok, one minute to watch the heroine counterattack to the peak of life, two minutes to watch love, work, marriage and even divorce and other ups and downs of life, three minutes to make people feel cool from beginning to end...... These high-energy short dramas, which are highly similar to the content of domestic bosses and heroines, are conquering the hearts of foreign netizens:
最典型的例子就是前段时间火遍 TikTok 的短剧 ——《The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband》（我的亿万富豪老公的双面人生）。
Its plot is almost the same as the classic domestic boss novel "After the flash marriage, Mr. Fu's vest can't be hidden", which tells the story of a young woman who is forced to go on a blind date, but accidentally has a flash marriage with the local powerful Fu family.
Although each episode is less than 2 minutes long, the simple content has countless TikTok netizens "begging for updates", and has set a record of nearly 400 million views (including paid views) when it is necessary to pay/watch ads, and the App ReelShort behind it has made a lot of money.
Why are these skits so successful overseas? Has the short drama really become a new outlet? What role does TikTok play in the overseas of skits? Today we're going to talk about it.
01
短剧出海热播，TikTok 成掘金地
What is certain is that "short dramas going overseas" is becoming a new craze.
Combined with Sensor Tower's data, it is not difficult to find that in the past year, the short drama industry (local drama + translated drama) has shown explosive growth on a global scale: as of the end of February this year, more than 40 short drama apps have tested the waters of overseas markets:
From March 2023 to February 2024, the monthly downloads of overseas short drama apps have increased from less than 1 million in a single month to more than 10 million in a single month, with a cumulative total of 55 million times. The revenue from overseas short drama app in-app purchases reached $170 million.
However, the above data will obviously not be evenly distributed among all APP, and the operating agency has learned that on the track of short dramas going overseas, the head effect is also very significant:
ReelShort, ShortTV, and DramaBox accounted for nearly 80% of the growth of the short drama app, and coincidentally, the operating agency found that they all regarded TikTok as a "key place" for their own growth, and increased their investment and tasted the sweetness.
For example, FlexTV's hit drama "Mr. Williams! Madame Is Dying earns more than $2 million a week through targeted advertising on platforms like TikTok;
Another example is ReelShort's hit short drama "Fated to My Forbidden Alpha", which received 32 million views and nearly 150,000 likes and interactions on TikTok, and 1.9 million app downloads during its launch in July last year......
Why is TikTok able to create such a fierce spark with these "skit apps"? The operation agency believes that TikTok is inseparable from the high compatibility with the skit itself.
First and foremost, TikTok users are highly willing to pay, with TikTok skits paying 18% higher than non-TikTok skit users. This means that by reaching the same number of users, the conversion efficiency and data of skit manufacturers on TikTok will be better.
Secondly, TikTok uses a vertical full-screen audio video format, which allows users to quickly enter an immersive viewing atmosphere in the first few seconds of swiping into the short drama, thereby increasing the completion rate of the short drama. In the long run, this advantage can also help manufacturers improve user stickiness and increase the possibility of monetization.
Comparison of the left landscape screen and the right vertical screen
Moreover, as the world's leading short video entertainment platform, TikTok has a richer and more diverse "original content" that is popular with users, which can give strong support to manufacturers from the source of the creation of short dramas.
On the other hand, TikTok also has a large number of highly active users, who are willing to like, comment, and repost their favorite videos.
Therefore, combining the above advantages, it is not difficult to understand why the top short drama manufacturers have chosen TikTok as the strongest partner for overseas nuggets.
After all, when it comes to launching overseas markets that determine growth, whoever chooses the right position first will be able to take the lead.
02
There are thousands of short dramas, and the launch determines half the success
If it is said that the selection of positions is to "seize the opportunity" and gain a first-mover advantage; Then the delivery process is to "do a good job" and obtain long-term benefits.
Short drama manufacturers want to create popular short dramas, extend the life cycle of short dramas, and improve the paid conversion rate of short dramas, which are inseparable from scientific delivery methods and efficient delivery strategies.
The following operation agency will be carried out in detail from three aspects: delivery link, delivery materials and delivery rhythm.
1) Select multiple delivery links
In order to allow the content of short dramas to reach a wider audience, improve conversion efficiency and accelerate monetization, TikTok for Business provides two types of effective "delivery links" for manufacturers according to whether enterprises have their own platforms/applications:
First, vendors with their own short drama platforms/applications can choose APP Promotion (APP direct investment) or Web to App (W2A) delivery links, that is, by placing ads on TikTok, guiding users to jump to external short drama platforms for paid drama viewing.
So the question is, what is the difference between APP Promotion (APP Direct Investment) and Web to App (W2A) in this model?
We learned that "APP Direct Investment" is more suitable for beginner advertisers who have just entered the market, and its advantages are not only low in terms of operation threshold, but also stable in terms of volume effect.
Advanced advertisers, on the other hand, can choose to add a landing page to the "Web to App" - guiding users to jump to the "landing page" and then enter the "skit app". For advertisers, although this method needs to increase the production of landing pages, on the one hand, it can provide users with a smoother experience and increase conversion rates by omitting the repertoire search after jumping out. On the other hand, it will also achieve more timely data backhaul, and have more signal and behavioral funnel data monitoring, which will help advertisers to carry out diversified exploration and testing and timely optimization adjustments.
Second, for some content providers who have not developed a short drama APP for the time being, only short drama content can also quickly enter the game through the TikTok enterprise account - upload their own short drama content on the TikTok enterprise account, set the paid chapters and viewing prices at the same time, and then through the paid content promotion (Paid Content Promotion), you can reach and guide users to unlock and watch directly.
Did you find it? In this mode, users can "discover short dramas→", "become interested in short dramas→ "want to watch more episodes", → "pay directly" on the site without jumping.
A smoother consumer experience does bring better results – official data shows that this link has a 125% higher content completion rate, an 83% increase in engagement, and a 74% increase in sharing than other links!
Of course, it's worth noting that the above two models are not an either/or relationship.
The operation agency found that in order to improve the efficiency of promotion impulse, many manufacturers with short drama platforms will also choose to open enterprise accounts on TikTok, and through this 1+1>2 high-quality combination model, they can achieve a longer revenue period and higher profits.
2) Produce high-quality delivery materials
A successful launch is destined to be a dual blessing of channels and content. After determining the delivery link, the manufacturer also needs to produce explosive launch materials.
In this regard, TikTok for Business has proposed a set of "golden production formulas" that are suitable for most placements based on past data and experience: attract stay + resonate + leave suspense → high completion rate of popular advertising materials.
Don't worry, in order to reduce the difficulty of creating popular materials, TikTok for Business will also launch a "drama testing tool" that can be used for script screening and optimize the delivery strategy of finished dramas at the end of June.
If the manufacturer is in the script screening stage, the "Drama Testing Tool" can directly generate short videos from the scripts in the manufacturer's hands and simulate the market performance of the products for different groups of people. Analyze the plot by feeding back data performance to the manufacturer, improve the efficiency of the script creation stage and the possibility of the emergence of popular models;
For the finished drama that is about to enter the launch stage, the "Drama Testing Tool" can directly generate relevant delivery materials for simulation testing based on the uploaded videos, so that before the official launch, merchants can adjust the material delivery strategy and improve the delivery efficiency based on the data performance and optimization suggestions in the testing stage.
3) Grasp the appropriate delivery rhythm
After determining the delivery channels and popular materials, if you want to achieve twice the result with half the effort, you can't do without the appropriate delivery rhythm.
If the life cycle of a short drama is divided into three stages: the test period, the big push period, and the life extension period, how should it be carried out step by step? Generally, the test period of the repertoire is 3-7 days before the big push, and at this time, it is recommended that you can conduct a material race, find popular materials, and accumulate at least 7 or more pieces to ensure the efficient promotion of the big push period.
During the big push period, manufacturers can leverage the traffic of the list by chasing the investment in large quantities, and the consumption of manufacturers during this period is often proportional to the revenue, and the consumption increases, and the revenue also increases. The operating agency has also observed that if the delivery plan is doubled, the revenue may increase by 1.5 times.
Finally, when the short drama launch enters the continuation period (the data has declined for a week), in order to expand the marginal benefits of the popular model, the manufacturer can also grab the volume by discounting, changing the country/region, etc., and turn the short drama into advertising space to get more additional income, so that a complete and efficient launch can be finally completed.
03
epilogue
In fact, in the past two years, the shouting of short dramas going to sea has been not small, and from a macro perspective, the overall situation of short dramas going overseas does present a blue ocean scene.
But what about from a micro perspective?
At the 2nd Short Drama Ecology Conference in 2024, Gao Feng, CEO of Journey Entertainment, a high-quality producer in the United States, mentioned an important keyword - cost.
In the past 7 months, the overseas short drama market has exploded, and the production cost of short dramas has increased from $60,000 to $180,000-250,000 amid fierce competition. Not to mention that a large budget should be set aside for the dissemination and promotion of short dramas, and some industry insiders revealed that at present, it costs $200,000 to make a short drama, and at least $1.5 million to $2 million can be paid back.
It can be seen that there are indeed more opportunities in the blue ocean market, but it does not mean that you can enter rashly, and short drama manufacturers need to do their homework if they want to get a piece of the pie.
If you want to know more about the strategy of short dramas going overseas and the one-stop support of TikTok for Business platform for short dramas going overseas, click "Read the original article" now to fight a "battle of preparation".
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