A Tencent ads checklist covers the steps to complete before launching campaigns on Tencent’s advertising platform, which places ads across WeChat, QQ, Tencent Video, Tencent News and partner apps: confirm legal and licensing requirements, verify the account, set up WeChat Official Account and mini program assets, install tracking, define targeting, prepare compliant Chinese creative and set budget rules. Missing any of these usually delays approval or wastes the first weeks of spend.
Before anything else: are you allowed to advertise?
Advertising in mainland China is regulated, and Tencent applies those rules strictly. Foreign companies often advertise through a local entity or an authorised agency partner. Many industries need specific licences, such as healthcare, education, finance and food. Ad content must comply with China’s Advertising Law, which restricts superlatives such as “best” or “number one” and requires that claims can be supported.
Check these points with a local legal adviser or agency before planning. If your business cannot meet the requirements, no amount of creative or targeting work will get campaigns approved.
- Confirm the legal entity that will advertise and its business licence
- Identify industry-specific qualifications required for your category
- Check whether your landing page domain needs ICP registration for hosting in China
- Review restricted words and claims under the Advertising Law
Account setup and verification
Tencent’s advertising platform (Tencent Ads, often accessed through the e.qq.com interface) requires company verification with business licence details and contact information. Agency accounts can manage several advertisers. Complete verification fully; incomplete qualifications are a common reason for review delays.
Decide early whether you will work directly or through an authorised agency. Agencies often handle qualification submissions, payment in Chinese yuan and communication with Tencent’s review team, which can save time for foreign advertisers.
How should WeChat assets be prepared?
Many Tencent campaigns drive traffic to WeChat assets rather than external websites. A WeChat Official Account lets you publish articles and build followers. A WeChat mini program provides an app-like experience inside WeChat for shopping, booking or services. WeChat Channels supports short video and live streaming.
Set these up before ads launch. Ads that send users to an Official Account can drive follows; ads to a mini program can drive sales directly inside WeChat. Each path requires the asset to be registered, verified and linked to the ad account.
WeChat asset checklist
- Official Account registered and verified as a service or subscription account
- Mini program built, tested and linked to the ad account, if used
- WeChat Pay set up for transactions inside the mini program
- Customer service response plan for messages after ad clicks
Is tracking set up correctly?
Tencent offers conversion tracking for websites, apps, mini programs and lead forms. For websites, install Tencent’s tracking code and define conversion events. For apps, integrate through supported measurement partners or Tencent’s own SDK. For mini programs, conversion data can be connected through WeChat’s data tools.
Test each conversion before launch. A campaign optimising for a conversion that never fires will spend without learning. Also record conversions in your own systems, such as a CRM or ecommerce backend, so you can check platform numbers.
- Tracking installed on landing pages, app or mini program
- Conversion events defined: form submission, purchase, follow, registration
- Test conversions verified in the platform
- UTM or equivalent parameters for your own analytics
Which targeting options should you start with?
Tencent’s targeting includes geography, age, gender, interests, behaviours, device and custom audiences. Custom audiences can be built from customer data and from people who engaged with your WeChat content. Lookalike audiences extend reach from your best customers.
For a new account, start with a small number of clear audiences. Geography matters a lot in China, because purchasing power and behaviour vary widely between tier one cities like Shanghai and Shenzhen and smaller cities. Test separate ad groups for city tiers if your product suits several.
What should creative and copy include?
All ad copy must be in Simplified Chinese, written or reviewed by a native speaker familiar with marketing language in China. Machine translation often produces stiff or incorrect phrasing that reduces performance and can trigger review issues.
Prepare formats for the placements you plan to use: Moments ads in WeChat’s social feed, Official Account article ads, mini program ads, video placements on Tencent Video and Channels. Follow the size and length specifications shown in the ad interface, since they differ by placement.
Creative checklist
- Native Simplified Chinese copy, reviewed for Advertising Law compliance
- No unverifiable superlatives or medical claims
- Images and video sized for each placement
- Landing page or mini program that matches the ad’s promise
Budget and bidding rules
Tencent supports bidding models such as optimised cost per action (oCPA), where you set a target cost for a conversion and the system adjusts bids. Many campaigns begin with oCPM or oCPA after an initial learning period. Like other platforms, Tencent’s algorithms need enough conversions to learn, and frequent changes restart learning.
Set a daily budget that allows several conversions per day at your target cost. As an illustrative example, if your target cost per lead is 80 yuan, a starting daily budget of around 800 to 1,600 yuan per ad group gives the system room to find conversions. Review results after several days rather than adjusting hourly.
- Choose an optimisation goal that matches business value
- Set targets close to realistic costs, not aspirational ones
- Keep the account balance topped up to avoid pauses
- Limit major changes to once every few days
What happens at review and after launch?
All ads go through Tencent’s review. Rejections usually cite a specific rule: restricted wording, missing qualifications, mismatched landing pages or image issues. Fix the exact point and resubmit. Submitting ads a few days before the planned start reduces pressure.
In the first two weeks, monitor cost per conversion, click-through rate and placement performance. Check messages and comments on WeChat assets daily, because ad-driven users often ask questions there, and slow replies lose leads.
Plan for platform differences
Tencent’s interface, policies and placements change regularly, and some features differ between account types. Keep your checklist dated, and review it with your agency or Tencent contact before each major campaign, especially before peak shopping periods.
Keep records of every submission
Store copies of approved and rejected ads with the review notes. Patterns in rejections show which wording to avoid in future campaigns.
Where to start this week
Confirm with a local adviser which legal entity, licences and qualifications your campaigns need, and whether your landing pages need ICP registration. Then verify the ad account, set up or check your WeChat Official Account and test one conversion event end to end. Prepare one set of native Chinese ads reviewed for restricted words, and submit them early so review does not delay the launch.
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