VKontakte in 2022. Fresh advertising tools for promoting businesses in the Russian market.

The start of 2022 appears to be a favorable period for VKontakte social network to attract fresh users and advertisers. This is largely attributed not just to the withdrawal of foreign services from the market, leading to a migration of the Russian audience to local social platforms, but also due to VK developers’ continual improvement of their product over the years. As a result, VKontakte has become one of the most appealing social networks for a diverse group of individuals, including bloggers, advertisers, and regular users. The platform has added numerous features that set it apart from its competitors and has become one of the most potent advertising tools in Russia, particularly with the blocking of foreign platforms. QB Agency specialists have compiled a comprehensive overview of VKontakte’s 2022 updates to explore the opportunities the social network offers for successful promotion in the Russian market.

Starting with the statistics

VKontakte’s analytical report for Q1 of 2022 was released on April 28th, with the following information presented by the platform’s experts. Year after year, the network has only fortified its position as one of the largest social media platforms in Russia, with 73.4 million monthly active users and 47.2 million daily users. Furthermore, in March 2022, the audience grew by 2.4% (100.4 million users per month), while the number of newly registered users surged by 63% compared to the previous year. These figures are accompanied by a rise in content production and authors on VKontakte. In March alone, over 27 million authors published more than 468 million new posts and comments, significantly higher than any other Russian resource. These achievements were partly due to a special program for opinion leaders.

VKontakte developers implemented a significant blogger support program at the start of 2022, coinciding with an influx of new authors on the platform. They initiated special campaigns to facilitate better collaboration with opinion leaders, beginning with the complete deactivation of the commission for monetization tools for unique content on the social network. As a result, authors using the VK Donut function earned 67 million rubles in Q1 of 2022, a 25% increase from the previous quarter. Additionally, the number of communities using the same function rose by 1.6 times compared to the prior year, and the number of subscribers transferring funds through the platform increased twofold.

VKontakte developers then experimented with various algorithms to expand the reach and engage with a less active audience. As a result, they increased the share of recommended content on the social network’s main page’s news feed, resulting in a 68% increase in new communities, a 25% rise in subscriptions to new communities from the news feed, and a 16% increase in overall feed views. However, the VKontakte team did not halt their efforts and continued to upgrade their tools.

During the second quarter of 2022, VKontakte’s video content monetization service, VK Video, experienced significant growth. The number of public groups using the tool increased by 4.5% in March, resulting in over 6,000 groups earning from their video content. This increase in monetization also led to an 80% rise in video content published on the platform. In response, VKontakte simplified the process for enabling monetization via VK Video, removing the questionnaire and streamlining the process to a single click.

Moving into the third quarter of 2022, VKontakte announced new testing of a partner program for authors of unique content, including the addition of new formats such as stories and clips. The new formula for calculating community monetization will be gradually introduced to allow for feedback from test participants.

These developments highlight VKontakte’s effectiveness in influencer marketing, as the platform continues to expand its monetization tools for authors. Furthermore, the service allows for integration with other advertising tools.

Opportunities to Promote Mini-Apps and Games through VK Advertising

Most marketers agree that myTarget and VKontakte are among the most effective tools for promoting products on the Russian market. These advertising platforms aim to reach a wide audience while targeting specific products to interested consumers through advanced social and demographic settings, as well as retargeting functions. In 2022, the developers of both services have combined their most effective algorithms into a single VK Advertising tool.

During the initial beta version of the platform, which was announced in April 2022, advertisers have access to promoting mobile mini-applications and games available on VKontakte. In March, the number of mini-applications increased by 43% compared to the same period in 2021, reaching 42,000. Furthermore, the monthly audience for these applications grew by 8.4% for the year, with 41.8 million active users in the first quarter of 2022. This increase in audience has also led to a rise in monetization for VK Mini Apps, with in-app advertising revenue growing by 89% overall in the first quarter of 2022.

The VK Advertising platform offers two targeted actions for promoting within VK Mini Apps: the number of app installations or events inside it. Advertisers can choose the more favorable direction, and the platform provides automatic control of the advertising rate. The campaign budget can be managed using two strategies: maximum or minimum price. Furthermore, VK Advertising tools automatically adapt advertising content for each available placement format on various sites.

This new feature of VKontakte is relevant for several reasons. Firstly, VK Mini Apps are popular among the audience, as evidenced by developer statistics. Secondly, advertising in applications and games is a well-established promotional tool in other marketplaces, such as AppStore and GooglePlay.

However, for advertisers who are not yet ready to launch promotions using this scheme, VKontakte developers have prepared improved versions of traditional tools for the social network.

the Main Changes of VKontakte 2022. New Rules

Specialists who work on VKontakte know that promoting through ads on the social network requires adherence to a set of rules. These rules involve content moderation by developers, which applies to both text and creative elements. At the beginning of this year, these rules underwent some changes aimed at making VKontakte advertising more informative, useful, and of higher quality for users.

One of the main changes involves new requirements for the text of advertising messages. The text content must adhere to the following criteria:

• Occupy no more than 20% of the creative
• Only contain capital letters at the beginning of sentences, excluding the campaign slogan
• Do not use Emojis, even in ads that were published before the rule’s adoption (they need to be edited).

The rules for advertising on VKontakte have undergone significant changes in 2022. Firstly, new requirements have been implemented for the text content of ads to ensure they are useful and informative to users. The text must not exceed 20% of the creative, and capital letters can only be used at the beginning of sentences, excluding the campaign slogan. The use of emojis is also now prohibited, even for ads published before the rule was adopted.

Secondly, since April 2022, only the first 48 characters of advertising text are shown in the news feed, and users must click “View all” to see the rest. Advertisers must consider this new format when creating their ads.

Thirdly, the targeting settings have become more automated for keywords, with recommended phrases on the ad subject and frequency of requests shown, saving time when setting up a campaign.

Finally, updates have been made for video content, particularly for vertical videos, which businesses can now use to create reviews, challenges, and videos showcasing their work. Video statistics in the advertising account have also been updated, providing information about the number and duration of views in different time intervals to help advertisers understand their audience’s interests and create effective promotional content.

In addition, VKontakte has introduced new features to boost eCommerce. The “On the Counter” application now automatically creates product cards by using images from communities or other social networks. Additionally, a “Call” button can be added to product cards in the VKontakte store, enabling buyers to contact sellers quickly via phone. These updates have resulted in increased contacts for businesses and purchases within the network. According to developer statistics, more than 600,000 entrepreneurs utilized this tool and started expanding their commercial activities on VKontakte in March 2022.

The developers of VKontakte are not stopping there, but instead are actively working on launching new programs and developing key areas of their platform, as announced at the beginning of the second quarter of this year.

General Conclusion

The first half of 2022 witnessed VKontakte and its additional services undergo significant updates to accommodate the influx of new users. In order to retain the audience and make them regular, the platform’s developers had to make substantial functional changes and additions. These include launching support programs for authors and opinion leaders, automating advertising tools, and introducing technical functions to develop sales within the service. As a result, VKontakte has become one of the most popular platforms for ordinary users, advertisers, bloggers, and entrepreneurs in Russia.

However, promoting on VKontakte still requires a structural approach and understanding of all aspects of the service, user behavior, and analytical data. To find the most effective solution for your business, entrust the task to QB Agency specialists.