Discover Zalo Ads - A Guide to Running Effective Zalo Ads

What is Zalo Ads?

Zalo Ads is the official advertising platform developed by Zalo, allowing businesses and advertisers to reach over 70 million users in Vietnam through a diverse ecosystem such as Zalo Official Account (OA), Zalo Chat, Zalo Feed, and other related services. Unlike other social media advertising platforms like Facebook or Google, Zalo Ads focuses on local users with the ability to directly interact via messages and notifications, delivering high efficiency in building customer relationships.

With advantages such as a large user base, precise customer targeting, and optimized campaign management tools, Zalo Ads has become an ideal solution for businesses looking to optimize advertising costs while ensuring high conversion rates. You can start by creating a Zalo Official Account and accessing Zalo Ads to launch a campaign that aligns with your business goals.

What Are the Benefits of Zalo Ads?

Using Zalo Ads brings many benefits to businesses:

• Reach a wide target audience: With a large number of users, Zalo makes it easy for you to reach potential customers.

• Precise targeting: Zalo Ads provides targeting tools based on age, gender, location, and interests, helping you optimize the effectiveness of your campaign.

• Cost-effective: Compared to other platforms, advertising on Zalo can save costs while maintaining high performance.

• Direct interaction with customers: Through Zalo, businesses can chat directly with customers, strengthening relationships and providing timely support.

Learn more about Zalo-based marketing methods at: Optimize Your Online Sales with Zalo Marketing

Popular Zalo Advertising Formats

Zalo Ads offers a variety of advertising formats to help businesses easily choose the ones that fit their campaign objectives. Below are the popular types of ads:

• Zalo Official Account (OA) Ads: This format helps increase followers for your business's Zalo OA. Once customers follow, you can send bulk messages, promotional programs, or product announcements to maintain engagement and strengthen relationships.

• Post Ads: If you frequently post content such as news, tips, or product promotion articles on your Zalo OA, this is the option that helps increase the reach and interaction with your posts.

• Product Ads: With this format, your products will be displayed directly in the "Product List" or "Store" section of the Zalo app. This makes it easy for customers to view product details and make purchases quickly.

• Website Ads: This type of ad is suitable when you want to increase traffic to your website or sales landing page. When users click on the ad, they will be redirected to the destination page you set up.

• Video Ads: This format helps businesses capture attention through short, dynamic videos that directly convey brand messages and enhance brand recall among users.

Each of the above ad types has its own strengths and is suitable for different objectives, such as increasing followers, driving website traffic, or boosting sales. Understanding and choosing the right format will help you optimize your advertising campaign and achieve the desired results.

Factors Affecting Zalo Ad Distribution

The performance of ads on Zalo Ads depends on several key factors. Understanding these factors will help you optimize your campaign to achieve the best results:

• Ad content quality: The ad content must be engaging, concise, and focused on customer benefits. Images or videos must be clear and effectively convey the main message. High-quality content helps increase interaction rates and reduce ad costs.

• Budget and bid amount: Zalo Ads operates on a bidding mechanism, so your budget and bid amount affect the frequency of your ad display. The higher the bid, the greater the chance your ad will appear to your target audience.

• Target audience: Setting the right target audience based on age, gender, geographic area, and interests helps your ad reach those most likely to interact and convert. Misidentifying the customer segment can reduce campaign efficiency.

• Ad display time: Choosing the appropriate display time is also an important factor. For example, ads for promotional programs should run during peak hours or special occasions to increase reach and conversion rates.

• Display frequency: Ads that appear too frequently may annoy users, while appearing too infrequently may cause potential customers to miss important information. Adjusting the frequency appropriately helps you achieve good results without overwhelming viewers.

• Interaction and feedback: Ads that receive many positive interactions (such as link clicks, messages, or shares) are prioritized for distribution by the algorithm, while ads that receive complaints or reports may have reduced display frequency.

How to Create and Set Up a Zalo Ads Account

To start running ads on Zalo, follow these steps to create a Zalo Ads account easily:

1. Create a Zalo Official Account (OA)

   • Visit oa.zalo.me and click the "Create Official Account" button.
   • Choose the type of account that fits your goals (Business, Community, or Content).
   • Fill in the required information, such as account name, business description, and profile picture, to complete registration.

2. Log in to Zalo Ads

   • Once you have a Zalo Official Account, go to ads.zalo.me and log in using your personal Zalo account or your Zalo OA account.
   • Here, you will see the ad management interface with tools to create ad campaigns.

3. Deposit money into your ad account

   • Before running ads, you need to deposit money into your Zalo Ads account to ensure your campaign runs continuously.
   • Choose a suitable payment method, such as local bank cards, e-wallets, or other transfer options.

4. Create an ad campaign

   • Click on the "Create New Campaign" button and choose the ad type, such as post ads, website ads, or product ads.
   • Set parameters such as target audience (age, gender, location), daily budget, and ad duration.
   • Upload the ad content, including images, titles, and descriptions, ensuring they comply with Zalo's image size and quality guidelines.

5. Review and launch your ad

   • After completing the steps, click "Save and Submit for Review". The ad will be reviewed by the Zalo team before it officially goes live.
   • If approved, you can monitor performance and optimize the campaign in the ad management section.

Zalo Ads Guide for Effective Campaigns

To run Zalo Ads effectively and achieve the desired results, you need to cover all steps, from content preparation and campaign optimization to tracking and performance analysis. Below is a detailed guide to help you optimize each stage of your ad campaign:

Define Your Advertising Goals Clearly

Before starting, set specific goals such as:

• Increase website traffic
• Attract more Zalo Official Account followers
• Boost online sales
• Promote special promotions or events

The more detailed your goals, the easier it is to measure campaign performance and optimize ads.

Create Engaging Ad Content

Ad content is the key factor determining the success of your campaign. Pay attention to the following factors:

• Captivating headlines: Use strong call-to-action phrases like “Get 50% Off Now”, “Free Shipping” to impress customers.
• High-quality images or videos: Images should be sharp and meet the size requirements (1024x533px for horizontal images and 500x500px for square images). Videos should be concise (15-30 seconds) and directly convey the main message.
• Detailed descriptions: Clearly outline the benefits customers will receive. Example: "Get a 100K discount voucher for your first purchase via Zalo OA."

Investing in both visuals and text will increase CTR (Click-Through Rate) and conversion rates.

Set Accurate Target Audiences

One of the strengths of Zalo Ads is its detailed audience targeting capabilities. You should leverage these options to enhance ad effectiveness:

• Age and gender: Identify the customer group with the highest purchasing potential (e.g., women aged 25-35 if you sell cosmetics).
• Geographic location: Choose suitable ad locations if you operate in a specific region.
• Interests and behavior: If you know your target audience is interested in topics such as fashion, technology, or healthcare, add these to display ads to the right potential customers.

Avoid setting a target audience that is too broad, as this can reduce effectiveness and increase unnecessary advertising costs.

Set a Reasonable Budget and Ad Time

• Daily budget: Set a budget that matches your business size. You can start from as low as 100,000 VND/day to monitor performance, then gradually increase as the campaign performs well.
• Ad time: Choose time slots when your target audience is most active. Common time slots are 11 AM - 1 PM or 7 PM - 9 PM, when users tend to browse Zalo more.
• Campaign duration: Run ads for a sufficiently long period (at least 5-7 days) to collect accurate performance data.

Track and Optimize the Campaign

A common mistake is neglecting ad tracking after launch. You should regularly check key metrics such as:

• CTR (Click-Through Rate): If the CTR is low, consider adjusting the headline or images.
• Cost per conversion: Monitor whether the cost per click or order exceeds your budget.
• Engagement rate: Does the ad receive a lot of attention, comments, or messages from customers?

If the campaign is not performing well, try:

• Changing the target audience: Narrow or broaden the customer range based on results.
• Optimizing images and messaging: Run A/B testing for different versions of the ad to choose the best option.

Leverage the Remarketing Feature

Zalo Ads provides a remarketing feature that allows you to show ads to customers who have previously interacted with your OA or website. This is an effective way to "remind" customers to complete purchases or participate in promotions. Example: If a customer viewed a product but didn’t buy, you can run ads reminding them about special discounts or free shipping to encourage purchases.

Use Dynamic Ads

Dynamic ads automatically display products or content relevant to user search behavior. This makes the campaign more personalized, increases conversion rates, and lowers costs per purchase.

Manage Customer Feedback

Interacting with customers via messages or comments on ads is crucial. Respond to questions and feedback promptly to build trust. Don’t ignore negative comments; instead, handle them tactfully to improve your brand image.

To run Zalo Ads effectively, you need to combine several factors, from creating engaging content and selecting the right target audience to continuously optimizing the campaign. By applying the steps above and regularly updating strategies based on trends, you will improve ad performance and achieve your business goals sustainably.

Comparison of Zalo Ads and Facebook Ads

Although both Zalo Ads and Facebook Ads are popular advertising platforms in Vietnam, each has its strengths and limitations, depending on the goals and strategies of the campaign. Below is a detailed comparison to help you choose the best option for your business:

Criteria	Zalo Ads	Facebook Ads
User Audience	Focuses on local Vietnamese users, with around 70 million active accounts. Primarily aged 18-45.	Global coverage, suitable for both young and middle-aged users aged 16-50+.
Ad Formats	OA post ads, product ads, video ads, website ads. Direct message ads through Zalo OA.	Image ads, video ads, Stories, Messenger Ads, Lead Form Ads. Various ad formats for different objectives.
Targeting Capability	Targets based on age, gender, location, and interests. More limited compared to Facebook Ads.	Detailed targeting such as shopping habits, device usage, personal events. Offers deeper and more diverse audience targeting.
Advertising Costs	Lower costs, suitable for small and medium businesses. Minimum budget from 100,000 VND/day. CPC ranges from 500-2,000 VND depending on the campaign.	Higher costs, especially for large conversion campaigns. CPC averages from 3,000-10,000 VND or higher depending on the goal.
Direct Interaction Capability	Direct interaction through Zalo OA messages, enabling quick order closures. No need to switch to another platform to chat with customers.	Messenger Ads allow direct messaging with customers but may also lead to other types of interactions like comments or views without responses.
Remarketing Support	Mainly supports remarketing to audiences who interacted with OA or visited the website with a tracking code. Limited compared to other platforms.	Offers detailed and diverse remarketing options, such as people who interacted with the page, watched videos, or downloaded apps but didn’t complete actions.
Campaign Optimization	Optimization system is simple, requiring advertisers to manually adjust campaign parameters. Mostly based on manual testing.	Strong AI tools that automatically optimize images, text, and audience targeting based on user behavior. Saves effort and improves campaign performance quickly.

Should You Choose Zalo Ads or Facebook Ads?

• If your business focuses on the Vietnamese market and wants to build direct interaction with customers to close sales quickly, Zalo Ads is a suitable choice.
• If you aim to promote your brand more widely, target more complex customer segments, or expand to international markets, Facebook Ads offers more flexible solutions.

Choosing between Zalo Ads and Facebook Ads depends on your budget, business goals, and target audience. If you have enough resources, you can also combine both to diversify your advertising channels, increase brand presence, and optimize conversion effectiveness.

Conclusion

Both Zalo Ads and Facebook Ads are powerful advertising tools that help businesses reach target customers and grow sales. However, choosing the right platform depends on your specific strategy and objectives:

• If your business targets local Vietnamese customers, especially if you need direct interaction via messaging to close sales quickly, Zalo Ads is an optimal solution with reasonable costs and a user-friendly ecosystem for Vietnamese users.
• If you want to promote your brand more broadly, build global awareness, or need detailed remarketing tools and deep targeting capabilities, Facebook Ads will bring you more advantages.

For businesses with enough budget and who want to diversify advertising channels, combining both Zalo Ads and Facebook Ads will help you expand your reach, enhance brand presence, and optimize your digital marketing performance.

Finally, remember that continuous monitoring and optimization is the key to success for any ad campaign, regardless of the platform you use. Utilizing performance reports and making flexible adjustments will help you achieve your business goals sustainably and effectively.