Beyond Messaging: The Power of Viber Advertising Features Explained

Viber Roman Kozłowski 11 min January 15, 2025

When considering advertising platforms, Viber might not immediately come to mind. However, with its impressive base of over one billion users and an array of native ad formats, it’s a channel that’s worth serious consideration.

Viber does an excellent job of integrating promotional messaging into its user experience, aligning with the look and feel of the app’s content. This subtle approach makes your marketing campaigns feel organic rather than intrusive.

By minimizing disruption and leveraging the platform’s credibility, Viber ads can improve click-through rates, helping you achieve superior campaign outcomes. Additionally, its global reach allows you to connect with audiences across multiple countries through a single app, driving brand awareness and boosting overall performance.

Curious about how the Viber messaging app and its advertising ecosystem can amplify your marketing efforts? Great, let’s dive deeper into the features that make it an exciting choice for smart marketers!

What is Viber Advertising and how does it work?

These days, businesses like yours have countless options for promoting their products and services. However, not every single marketing campaign is going to be successful. The most crucial thing here is to reach your target audience where they are. What’s more, you need to do so in the most direct and impactful way possible.

To put it another way, the power of marketing communication often depends on its delivery channel and context. A poorly chosen medium can dilute even the most well-crafted content. On the other hand, the right platform can significantly amplify its impact.

This is where Rakuten Viber, or simply Viber, excels. With a highly engaged audience of 260 MAU (million active monthly users) and non-intrusive, native ad placements, Viber offers a unique opportunity for you to neatly integrate your campaigns into customer conversations.

Viber is an ideal choice for brands looking to make meaningful connections without disrupting the user experience.

Why advertise using Viber for Business?

Research consistently shows that higher user engagement often leads to increased advertisement effectiveness. Viber for Business capitalizes on this connection by allowing you to smoothly integrate your messaging into an already engaging user experience.

To improve your advertising outcomes, it’s crucial to align your campaigns with moments when users are naturally engaged – like when they’re interacting with others on Viber. This alignment improves the likelihood of capturing attention and driving meaningful results.

💡 While Viber has a global user base, it’s particularly popular in certain countries, creating a built-in targeting advantage. This geographic specificity allows you to focus your marketing efforts where they’ll have the most impact, giving you an edge in key markets.

Understanding Viber’s pricing models

When evaluating the cost of advertising on Viber, several factors come into play, such as the placement and the specifics of your approach to paid advertising campaigns.

Viber offers two primary pricing models, namely cost-per-click and cost-per-impression. Your choice between these models determines how you’ll be billed. Generally, more specific targeting options come with higher costs, but they often deliver greater efficiency by reaching the right audience with precision.

For a detailed cost estimate, it’s essential to work with an official Viber advertising partner. Given the dynamic nature of factors like audience size, targeting criteria, and ad types, obtaining an accurate quote requires expert input tailored to your campaign goals.

Key Viber Advertising solutions for businesses – Messages you can’t miss

The Viber application offers a variety of ad types, providing you with ample opportunities to engage potential customers and boost brand awareness.

No matter which advertising tool you choose, Viber gives you access to a number of targeting parameters. These include demographics such as age and gender, geolocation, timing, and even the phone’s operating system, ensuring your campaigns reach the right audience at the right time.

Viber ad targeting parameters including demographics, geolocation, timing, and operating system

The chats list and the calls list

Advertising within the chats list and the calls list offers you prime visibility by placing promotions directly among users’ personal conversations and call logs. This strategic positioning gives your brand unmatched exposure without being overly intrusive, as users naturally navigate to these sections to connect with their contacts.

With these options, your ad appears alongside regular user conversations or calls. It consists of three different elements.

  • Headline: Typically your brand name.
  • Avatar: A 50-by-50 pixel image, often your brand logo.
  • Text: Two concise lines conveying your message.

Each ad is clearly marked as such and includes a compelling CTA button. When users click anywhere on the ad, they are directed to a destination of your choice, such as your website or the relevant app store page, facilitating immediate engagement with your brand.

Two examples of Viber ads on chats lists

💡 To set up these ads, navigate to your Google Ads account, select the Google Display Network, choose Mobile App, and then select Rakuten Viber Messenger as your destination.

The post-call screen

Leveraging the post-call screen ad placement allows you to engage users immediately after a call, capitalizing on their increased attention. This very specific timing ensures your communication reaches the user when they’re most receptive, enhancing the effectiveness of your marketing actions. Here’s the ad layout and specifications.

  • Banner ad: A visually rich display containing a short piece of text and an image linked to a URL, allowing you to track user interactions.
  • Video ad: A 300-by-250 pixel video that plays automatically with sound off by default, providing an engaging experience.

💡 According to Viber, the average CTR for post-call advertisements is approximately 0.8 percent, indicating a solid engagement level.

The user profile tab

Advertising within the user profile tab gives you a unique opportunity to engage users in a personalized setting. While this section may receive less traffic compared to the chats or calls tabs, it remains a valuable space where users manage their personal information, access stickers, and adjust settings.

Here’s some more information on the ad layout and appearance.

  • Native integration: Ads in the user profile tab are designed to blend seamlessly with the app’s interface, resembling the format of ads in the chats and calls lists. This native presentation ensures that promotions are cohesive with the user experience, maintaining engagement without causing disruption.
  • Components: Typically, these ads include a headline, such as your brand name, a 50-by-50 pixel avatar image, such as your brand logo, and two lines of descriptive text. A clear CTA button encourages user interaction, directing them to your website or a specific app store page.
Viber ads user profile screen

Placing advertisements in the user profile tab has plenty of benefits. The most important ones out of the bunch include targeted engagement, non-intrusiveness, and complementary exposure.

  • Targeted engagement: Users visiting their profile are often in an attentive mindset, making this a good moment to introduce your brand.
  • Non-intrusiveness: The native design of these ads ensures that your message is presented organically, reducing the likelihood of user annoyance and increasing the chance of positive engagement.
  • Complementary exposure: While this placement may not generate the same volume of impressions as the more frequented tabs, it serves as a supplementary touchpoint, reinforcing your brand’s presence within the app.

The explore tab

Advertising within the explore tab gives you an opportunity to connect with users who are actively seeking new content and services. This section serves as a hub for discovering brands, chatbots, communities, and the latest updates, making it an ideal spot for your advertising efforts. Here’s more on this tab’s ad formats and their appearance.

  • Native integration: Ads in the explore tab are embedded alongside recommended news, curated chatbots, communities, and other Viber updates. This native placement ensures that your promotions align with the user’s browsing experience, enhancing engagement without causing disruption.
  • Visual elements: Depending on your campaign objectives, you can utilize image or video formats to capture attention. The flexibility in ad design increases their efficiency through compelling visuals or engaging multimedia content.
Example Viber ad in explore tab

Just like in the case of the user profile tab, placing paid advertisements in the explore tab has its own set of benefits, including high user intent, enhanced exposure, and diverse ad formats.

  • High user intent: Users visiting the explore tab are in discovery mode, open to engaging with new brands and content. This intent increases the likelihood of interaction with your ad, leading to better results in terms of user engagement and conversion.
  • Enhanced exposure: Showing up in the explore tab positions your brand alongside app’s curated content, lending credibility and attracting user interest. This association can significantly increase your brand awareness and perception.
  • Diverse ad formats: The explore tab supports both image and video ads, allowing you to choose the type that best suits your marketing objectives and creative strategy.

Stickers

Stickers are an essential part of how people use Rakuten Viber. Reportedly, nearly 30 percent of all app users engage with static or animated stickers daily, with over one billion of them being sent each month. Safe to say, they’re a fan favorite.

Infographic showing Viber sticker use statistic

Their widespread popularity hasn’t gone unnoticed by brands. In Southeast Asia, where Viber enjoys significant user engagement, the fast-food chain Jollibee launched a sticker pack that was downloaded an impressive five million times shortly after its release.

This type of advertising on Viber offers a highly creative way to increase brand visibility within the app by leveraging a medium users already love.

Stickers provide a unique opportunity to establish and maintain connections with customers, enhancing your business messaging and creating a more personal touch. In essence, they turn users into brand ambassadors, helping you achieve your marketing and advertising goals organically.

💡 Think of branded sticker packs as digital freebies. By creating a downloadable pack, your brand can weave itself into users’ private conversations, boosting exposure, fostering stronger relationships, and reaching a wider audience.

To sum up, available on both mobile and desktop devices, Rakuten Viber provides innovative marketing tools to complement traditional marketing tactics with user-generated content, making it a powerful addition to any campaign.

How to create an effective Viber marketing strategy?

The messenger’s unique ecosystem offers several compelling advantages for marketing. However, to take full advantage of the potential of Viber business and ensure a strong return on your advertising investment, it’s essential you follow a set of proven best practices.

Define your objectives

The first step in crafting a successful Viber marketing strategy is to clearly define your objectives. Ask yourself what you want to achieve. Is it increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, boosting sales, or maybe engaging with a specific audience segment?

Having a well-defined goal helps shape the direction of your efforts and ensures your actions are aligned for maximum campaign performance. Remember that the clearer your objectives, the better your chances of success.

Choose the most suitable ad type

Viber offers a variety of display ad options, from native placements to stickers and branded content. Selecting the right ad type is crucial for achieving your goals.

For example, if you’re focusing on awareness, banner ads in the chat screen might be effective. On the other hand, promotional stickers can foster user interaction. So, match the ad type to your campaign objectives. That way, you will find it easier to create a strong and positive connection between your message and the user experience you’re providing your target audience with.

Spend time on your ads’ creative design

Your ads’ creative design heavily affects your campaign’s success. With that in mind, use eye-catching visuals and compelling messaging to capture users’ attention. 

Consider combining images and videos to create a dynamic and engaging experience. Focus on clear, concise communication that reflects your brand’s personality and encourages users to take action. 

Analyze and optimize 

Once your campaign is live, use analytics to monitor performance metrics, such as engagement rates, click-through rates, and conversions. Regularly review these insights to identify what’s working and where adjustments are needed.

Whether it’s tweaking targeting parameters, refining creatives, or testing new ad types, continuous optimization ensures your campaign remains effective and delivers the best possible results.

Four steps for creating an effective Viber marketing strategy

Run Viber ads to increase your sales and customer engagement

While the Rakuten Viber app might not be your sole interactive and digital marketing solution, it’s an incredibly effective way to connect with the right audience through various ad formats. Viber’s unique features make it a compelling platform for advertising campaigns, offering marketing tools that go well beyond the capabilities of more traditional channels like SMS marketing.

With functionalities like instant messaging, voice calling, and diverse advert placement options, Viber allows you to expand your advertising strategies and reach broader audiences. Its native approach to promotional messaging ensures that ads blend in nicely with the user experience, making them less likely to be perceived as intrusive.

This combination of features creates the perfect environment for running impactful marketing campaigns. With Viber, your marketing communication has the potential to reach and engage hundreds or even thousands of users daily, helping you drive sales and get people to engage with the brand.