"Acquire Once, Activate Long-term Potential," Private Domain Traffic Helps Maternal and Infant Brands Grow! Under the dual influence of consumption upgrades and the pandemic, private domain traffic, which emphasizes "acquire once, retain for life," has gained more attention. In an era where traditional traffic dividends have peaked, brands are discussing how to build trust-based transactions and achieve long-term growth based on the practical need for traffic growth. Private domain traffic, which has risen in response to this trend, has become a powerful breakthrough in the "battle for growth." -01- Under the Traffic Crisis, How Can Brands Change Their Thinking? Private domain traffic is not a new concept. As early as 2018, with the gradual disappearance of internet-driven traffic dividends, brands began to realize that simply investing in public domain traffic was becoming less cost-effective. Instead, accumulating users in their own hands and turning them into private domain traffic seemed more valuable for brands. The role of private domain traffic is not limited to one-step transactions; through data integration and in-depth communication with users, private domain traffic operations have evolved from simply managing "traffic" to deeply managing "people." In today's high traffic costs, one-time monetization of traffic can no longer meet brands' growth needs. Through continued operations after acquiring traffic, brands can gain more conversions. Moreover, deep operations can even enable brands to use one group of "people" to find another group of "people." During the pandemic, offline traffic, which was locked down, is now being integrated with online traffic through digital means, becoming an indispensable incremental part of brands' private domain traffic pools. The integration of online and offline has enabled brand data to be connected, injecting growth vitality into private domain traffic. In this context, the maternal and infant industry, which has numerous offline stores and sales staff, was the first to sense the opportunity. Many leading maternal and infant brands have already achieved significant growth. -02- Why Has Private Domain Traffic Become the Strategic Focus of the Maternal and Infant Industry? The maternal and infant industry is the one that most needs to operate "people." Due to the special nature of infant products, mothers are always very cautious. How to make parents more aware of and trust a brand, and further improve user private domain operations, has become a necessity for maternal and infant brands to maintain growth. 1. Maternal and infant consumers are increasingly online-oriented The advent of the mobile internet era has meant that new mothers are no longer limited to offline channels for information and products. According to the "Tencent 2019 Maternal and Infant Industry Audience Insights," 60% of mothers are influenced by official account articles, 46% share and exchange parenting information in WeChat groups, and 55% have purchased maternal and infant products due to recommendations in such groups. Especially for the younger generation of post-90s parents, their decisions are more influenced by online social interactions. With these trends, brands' reach and marketing must also move online. At the same time, brand reputation is a key factor in their considerations. For maternal and infant brands, occupying users' minds and turning them into brand "fans" not only brings stable traffic but also leverages word-of-mouth to gain a continuous stream of additional traffic. 2. The maternal and infant industry increasingly values online growth platforms During the pandemic, many maternal and infant brands faced difficulties due to a significant decline in offline business. Therefore, finding new transaction venues and customer acquisition channels is particularly important for these brands. Offline store traffic is ultimately limited by geographical reach. For brands, fully leveraging the social nature of the maternal and infant population has become a new breakthrough for growth. With the support of digital platforms like mini-program e-commerce, maternal and infant enterprises have created their own social transaction spaces. Enterprise WeChat sales staff can continue to provide services and communication even when stores are closed. This not only maximizes the efficiency of stores and sales staff but also moves the continuous operation of offline traffic online, unlocking more value from offline traffic. -03- Connecting the Full Digital Chain: Maternal and Infant Private Domain Traffic Needs to "Come Alive" At this point, the importance of private domain traffic to the maternal and infant industry is clear. However, how to use new tools to bring potential users from public domains into private domains and then activate their long-term value remains a greater challenge for brands. 1. Connect the full-chain operations of maternal and infant private domains Although the base of public domain traffic is large, in the maternal and infant industry, the probability of users being attracted by ads alone and making a purchase is extremely low. Most purchases are driven by social interactions. According to the "2019 Maternal and Infant Industry Audience Insights," official account articles rank first among channels influencing maternal and infant purchasing decisions, followed by WeChat groups and sharing within maternal and infant groups. From this, it's clear that the WeChat ecosystem covers the main social platforms for maternal and infant audiences, and most transactions are completed after deep content operations through official account follower acquisition and private domain communities. For example, mother communities can share daily parenting knowledge, interspersed with soft product promotions, live-streaming sales, and other promotional activities. Through continuous interaction and deepening brand information within the private domain, user purchase conversions are achieved. Even after a purchase, the transaction is not over. Achieving full lifecycle user operations is the next goal for maternal and infant brands. With Tencent Ads' capabilities, maternal and infant brands can attract users from public domains through official account follow-ups, lead collection, sample distribution, and sales staff additions, then bring them into private domains for operations—all within the WeChat ecosystem. Additionally, integrating the enterprise's membership system with WeChat enables unified operations across the group, with all user information visible at a glance, making subsequent private domain operations more efficient. Furthermore, since user conversion cycles vary by product type, low-decision products like snacks and clothing require quick decisions, while products like infant formula typically need longer conversion cycles. Previously, the ROI of brand advertising was judged by short-term effects after placement, but this often led brands to overlook long-term user conversion, resulting in potential customer loss. Tencent Ads has upgraded its data capabilities and continuously innovated more granular measurement models to further optimize long-term marketing funnels. Once users enter the private domain traffic pool, Tencent's ecosystem has corresponding operational methods for each stage—from brand awareness, to ordering, to repurchase—allowing brands to engage users at every point throughout the lifecycle, increasing opportunities for deep connections. 2. The Future Value of Maternal and Infant Private Domains Beyond deeply mining full lifecycle user operations, many maternal and infant brands are also actively exploring innovative expansion across the entire product range. The maternal and infant population's lifecycle is often active during a child's 0-3 years, but through private domain channels like mother communities, brands can continue communicating with users even after the child turns 3. Through refined operations, brands can establish longer-term connections with customers. At the same time, brands can gain more direct feedback, allowing them to further optimize product line and marketing decisions based on demand, and find more growth opportunities. -04- Summary While brands lament that consumers change too quickly and enterprise growth is too slow, they should realize that re-activating brand power and re-establishing effective communication and deep connections with consumers is something that consumer goods industries, represented by the maternal and infant industry, must do. Building a private domain traffic pool has become a major topic that must be addressed to achieve sustained growth. We see that more and more innovative consumer brands, such as Genki Forest and Zhong Xue Gao, have built brand moats through strong relationships with users, which in turn continuously nourish brand growth. Now, more brands are seeing these "winning hearts" rapid growth models and are beginning to focus on user mind management to unleash the powerful potential of private domain traffic. In the digital age, establishing communication with consumers is no longer as complex as in the past. Enterprises must start by re-understanding their users to complete self-iteration. By using new technologies and operational approaches to build communication bridges and trust relationships with consumers, brands can go further in the future.