XHS Display Advertising: Banner Ads & Brand Awareness Campaigns on Xiaohongshu
Date Published
Table Of Contents
1. What Is Display Advertising on Xiaohongshu?
2. Why Display-Style Ads Work Differently on XHS
3. XHS Display Ad Formats: Your Core Options
• Splash Screen Ads (Open-Screen/Pop-Up Ads)
• In-Feed Banner Ads (Video Big Card)
1. Targeting Options for Brand Awareness Campaigns
2. Bidding Models: CPM vs. CPC for Brand Awareness
3. Best Practices for XHS Display & Brand Awareness Campaigns
4. Compliance and Content Guidelines
5. Building a Full-Funnel Brand Awareness Strategy on XHS
For international brands looking to break into China's most influential social commerce platform, understanding XHS display advertising is one of the most critical — and most misunderstood — parts of the equation. Xiaohongshu (also called RedNote or Little Red Book) isn't a platform where traditional banner ads simply get pasted into sidebars. It's a highly visual, content-first ecosystem where even paid display placements need to feel native, authentic, and genuinely useful to the audience.
With over 300 million monthly active users, the majority of whom are affluent, educated Chinese women aged 18 to 35, Xiaohongshu offers brands a uniquely high-quality audience for brand awareness campaigns. But the rules of engagement are different here. Splash screen ads, in-feed visual banners, and brand zone placements replace the static banner formats familiar to Western marketers — and knowing how each one works can make the difference between a campaign that resonates and one that gets dismissed.
This guide walks you through every major XHS display ad format, explains how targeting and bidding work for brand awareness goals, and outlines the best practices international brands need to follow to run campaigns that actually build lasting recognition on the platform.
What Is Display Advertising on Xiaohongshu? {#what-is-display-advertising}
Display advertising on Xiaohongshu refers to paid visual placements that prioritize impression-based brand visibility rather than pure click-through performance. Think of it as the XHS equivalent of programmatic display or out-of-home advertising — you're paying to be seen by a large, targeted audience, often at high-impact moments like app launch or content discovery.
All paid ads on XHS are managed through Juguang (聚光), Xiaohongshu's official advertising platform, accessible at ad.xiaohongshu.com. Juguang provides tools for audience targeting, creative management, budget control, and performance analytics. Overseas brands typically work through a verified local partner to access the platform, since company verification and Chinese business documentation are required before campaigns can go live.
It's worth noting that advertising already accounts for a substantial portion of the platform's revenue model. The app thrives on user-generated content, but a significant share of Xiaohongshu's annual revenue comes from ad formats — a clear signal that the platform has matured into a serious commercial channel, not just a lifestyle content hub.
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Why Display-Style Ads Work Differently on XHS {#why-different}
If you're coming from a Western digital marketing background, your instinct might be to replicate the display advertising playbook you've used on Google Display Network or Meta — big visuals, brand logos, punchy headlines. On Xiaohongshu, that instinct will work against you.
The platform's entire design philosophy is built around authentic, peer-generated content. Users come to XHS to discover real product experiences, lifestyle inspiration, and trusted recommendations — not to be sold to. This means even display-oriented formats need to prioritize visual storytelling over hard-sell messaging. Users on XHS value credibility, storytelling, and lifestyle inspiration over overt commercial language, and campaigns that ignore this tend to underperform significantly.
There's also a search behavior dimension that sets XHS apart. The platform recorded nearly 600 million daily search queries in Q4 2024, and over 40% of users actively search for product reviews when considering a purchase. This means a brand awareness campaign on XHS doesn't just create passive impressions — it seeds discovery that users will actively follow up on through search. Display ads and search ads work symbiotically here in a way they rarely do on Western platforms.
More than 50% of the platform's user base is open to discovering products from non-mainstream businesses, which is particularly valuable for international brands making their first foray into the Chinese market.
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XHS Display Ad Formats: Your Core Options {#ad-formats}
Since ramping up commercialization in 2024, Xiaohongshu has diversified its advertising formats significantly. Here's a breakdown of the display-oriented formats most relevant to brand awareness goals.
Splash Screen Ads (Open-Screen / Pop-Up Ads) {#splash-screen}
Splash screen ads — also called open-screen or pop-up ads — are the closest equivalent to a traditional display banner on Xiaohongshu. They appear immediately when users open the Xiaohongshu app, delivering strong exposure at peak attention moments.
Key characteristics of splash screen ads:
• Format: Full-screen static image or animated video (typically 5 seconds)
• Display: Supports full-screen or non-full-screen design
• Landing page flexibility: Multiple landing page types supported, including brand store, topic page, or lead generation form
• Pricing model: Cost-per-time; frequency capped at 3 times per day per user
• Best for: Product launches, major event promotions, brand relaunch campaigns, seasonal moments
Splash ads support both static images and animated videos for strong visual impact. The full-screen format captures prime traffic flow, making it one of the most effective formats for boosting brand awareness and recall. Crucially, under China's Internet Advertising Measures (Article 10), pop-up and open-screen ads must include a clearly visible one-click close button — non-compliance can result in fines of up to CNY 2 million for serious violations, so creative specs must account for this from the start.
This format is particularly well-suited to conveying a brand story, promoting a festival partnership, or building awareness around a product launch.
In-Feed Banner Ads (Video Big Card) {#in-feed-banner}
In-feed ads are Xiaohongshu's native advertising format, blending seamlessly into the Explore page alongside organic user-generated content. They're often called "native ads" because of how naturally they sit within the feed. From a display advertising perspective, the most visually impactful version is the Video Big Card format — essentially a large-format banner card that uses video or rich imagery to promote a brand.
You can use in-feed ads in two ways: through standard post-format feeds (image or video) or via the big video card, which functions similarly to a display banner. Both variations use a CPM buying model and are capped at a frequency of three times daily per user.
In-feed ads allow precise targeting, enabling brands to reach only relevant users based on demographics, interests, and behavioral signals. They're highly versatile — supporting images, videos, and text — making them suitable for a wide range of brand awareness and conversion objectives.
Brand Zone Ads {#brand-zone}
Brand Zone (品牌专区) is one of Xiaohongshu's more premium display options and arguably its most powerful long-term brand-building tool. When a user searches for your brand name or a related category keyword, the Brand Zone activates a dedicated branded space — essentially a mini brand homepage within the search results — that showcases your products, content, official account, and curated posts.
When launching a major promotion or new product, brands can create a dedicated brand zone to integrate all content and drive user engagement, helping boost brand visibility and foster long-term loyalty. The custom topic content on the search page can direct traffic to the topic page, search results page, and brand zone simultaneously — multiplying impressions across touchpoints.
Brand Zone is considered a more premium, longer-cycle investment. It's less about one-off campaign moments and more about building a persistent, authoritative brand presence that users encounter whenever they search your category. Combined with a splash screen campaign, it creates a powerful awareness-to-discovery funnel.
Topic Page Banner Ads {#topic-banner}
Xiaohongshu's topic ads (hashtag campaigns) allow brands to create or sponsor content topics that aggregate user posts under a branded hashtag. The advanced version of this format includes custom banners, topic videos, and a curated topic list. These custom topic pages are often shown on the regular topics page through banners and videos, and they also appear on search results pages where impression volumes are highest.
Topic page banners are particularly effective for campaign-driven brand awareness — think seasonal launches, collaborations, or community challenges where you want users to actively participate and generate content around your brand.
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Targeting Options for Brand Awareness Campaigns {#targeting}
One of Xiaohongshu's strongest advantages over traditional display advertising is its targeting precision. XHS display placements can be targeted using:
• Demographics: Age, gender, and geographic location
• Interest-based targeting: Ads shown based on user preferences and browsing behavior across the platform
• Keyword targeting: Particularly powerful for brand zone and search-adjacent placements, reaching high-intent users at the point of discovery
• Behavioral and device data: Retargeting based on past interactions with your brand account or content
For brand awareness campaigns specifically, interest-based and demographic targeting tends to drive the most efficient reach. You're not necessarily targeting users who already know you — you're reaching the right new audiences at scale. Xiaohongshu's audience skews toward affluent, educated consumers with disposable income, which creates strong efficiency for premium brands even at higher CPM levels.
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Bidding Models: CPM vs. CPC for Brand Awareness {#bidding}
Xiaohongshu's advertising platform supports three primary bidding models: CPC (Cost-Per-Click), CPM (Cost-Per-Impression), and CPA (Cost-Per-Action). For display-style brand awareness campaigns, CPM is typically the most appropriate model.
• CPM (Cost-Per-Impression): Ideal for building brand awareness through high-impression campaigns. You pay for reach, not clicks.
• CPC (Cost-Per-Click): Better suited for driving traffic to brand or product pages once awareness has been established.
• CPA (Cost-Per-Action): Most relevant for lower-funnel conversion campaigns.
On CPM benchmarks, Xiaohongshu rates typically fall between ¥40–100 RMB ($5.60–$14.00 USD) on average — sitting competitively between WeChat Moments (¥50–150 RMB) and Douyin (¥30–80 RMB). For beauty and luxury sectors, CPMs can reach ¥80–120 RMB, while fashion and lifestyle categories average ¥50–80 RMB.
One important seasonality consideration: CPM rates spike by 40–70% during major shopping festivals like 618 (June), Double 11 (November), and Chinese New Year. Planning your brand awareness campaigns in the windows surrounding — rather than during — these peak periods can significantly improve cost efficiency.
Compared to platforms like WeChat and Douyin, advertising on Xiaohongshu currently offers substantially lower costs overall, positioning it as a high-efficiency channel with excellent cost-effectiveness for brands entering the Chinese market.
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Best Practices for XHS Display & Brand Awareness Campaigns {#best-practices}
Running display ads on Xiaohongshu requires a different creative philosophy than most Western platforms. Here are the principles that consistently drive stronger performance:
• Lead with lifestyle, not product specs. XHS users respond to aspirational, context-rich visuals — show your product in use within a relatable lifestyle context rather than leading with features.
• Match the platform's visual aesthetic. Xiaohongshu thrives on aesthetics. Use bright tones, clean layouts, and a 4:5 image ratio for covers. High-resolution visuals are non-negotiable.
• Avoid overtly commercial language. Content that feels like a hard sell performs poorly. Create ads that feel like native user posts — the platform's own research confirms users engage more authentically with content that doesn't disrupt their browsing experience.
• Align creative with campaign moments. Use splash screen ads for big launches; in-feed for sustained awareness; brand zone for long-term category ownership.
• Test and optimize regularly. Start with a smaller budget (¥10,000–20,000 RMB), optimize creatives every 2–3 weeks, then reinvest in top performers.
• Combine paid display with organic content. Paid ads increase visibility, but organic content builds trust. Establish compelling organic content before layering display campaigns on top.
• Integrate KOL and KOC content. Large KOLs build awareness; micro-creators (KOCs) convert through trust. Boosting KOL content through in-feed placements is one of the most efficient awareness strategies on the platform.
For industry-specific strategies tailored to verticals like beauty, fashion, F&B, and more, explore AllXHS's Industry-Specific Xiaohongshu Marketing Strategies.
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Compliance and Content Guidelines {#compliance}
Xiaohongshu enforces strict advertising content standards that international brands must understand before launching campaigns. Key compliance points include:
• No superlatives or unverifiable claims. Content must not use language like "the best" or "#1" unless claims are fully verifiable.
• No misleading promises or clickbait. False product claims or exaggerated outcomes are grounds for post removal.
• Mandatory close button on pop-up and open-screen ads. Under Chinese internet advertising law, splash ads must include a clearly visible one-click close option.
• Sponsored content labeling. Paid placements through Juguang are automatically labeled as ads, maintaining platform transparency.
• Industry-specific certifications. Regulated categories (health, beauty, food, financial services) require additional documentation before ad approval.
Violations of content guidelines can result in post removal, account suspension, or permanent bans. Working with a partner who understands both the platform's policies and China's broader advertising regulations is strongly recommended for international brands.
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Building a Full-Funnel Brand Awareness Strategy on XHS {#full-funnel}
The most effective brand awareness campaigns on Xiaohongshu don't rely on a single ad format in isolation. Xiaohongshu itself frames the ideal advertising approach as the KFS model — combining KOL content (达人内容), Feed Ads (信息流), and Search Ads (搜索广告) to move users across the full consumer journey from discovery to purchase.
For display-led brand awareness campaigns, a layered approach works best:
1. Launch with splash screen ads — Create a high-impact first impression during a product launch or campaign moment. These ads generate rapid awareness among your target demographic.
2. Sustain with in-feed banner ads — Keep your brand visible in the discovery feed between campaign peaks. Use CPM bidding to maximize reach across relevant audience segments.
3. Anchor with brand zone — Ensure that any user who searches your brand name or category encounters a curated, authoritative brand presence. This is where awareness converts into consideration.
4. Amplify with KOL/KOC content — Pair your paid display placements with boosted influencer content so that your brand appears both in premium ad slots and in the organic content stream that users trust most.
Brands like Sézane and BY FAR have successfully leveraged Xiaohongshu's community-driven approach to build sustainable brand awareness and customer loyalty in China. The common thread is a commitment to authenticity — treating XHS not as a billboard but as a content ecosystem where every paid placement needs to add genuine value to the user's experience.
For deeper strategic support, AllXHS's Expert Xiaohongshu Marketing Service offers hands-on guidance for brands at every stage of their XHS journey — from first campaign setup to full-scale brand building.
Final Thoughts {#final-thoughts}
XHS display advertising is not a direct translation of Western banner ad strategies — and that's precisely what makes it such a powerful opportunity for brands willing to understand the platform on its own terms. Splash screen ads, in-feed banners, brand zone placements, and topic page ads each serve a distinct role in a well-structured brand awareness campaign. When combined with precise audience targeting, a CPM-focused bidding strategy, and content that genuinely resonates with Xiaohongshu's lifestyle-first community, display advertising on XHS can deliver brand awareness results that compound over time — far beyond the lifespan of any individual campaign.
The brands that succeed here are those that approach XHS as a long-term brand-building ecosystem rather than a short-term ad channel. Start with strong organic content, layer in display placements at key campaign moments, build your brand zone as a permanent discovery asset, and optimize continuously based on performance data. That's the XHS display advertising playbook that works.
For free resources, tools, and templates to help you get started, visit AllXHS's Free Xiaohongshu Resources.
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