Insights · Channels
Which channels matter in Vietnam
There is no best channel. There is a channel that fits how your customers decide.
Short answer
Channel choice in Vietnam should start from how your category is bought, not from which platform is growing fastest. Low-price, impulse-led categories are discovered in social and video feeds and bought inside marketplaces. Considered, higher-value purchases need channels that catch demand at the moment someone is actively looking, and a way to stay in contact across a longer decision. Most brands need both, so the real question is the split.
What is genuinely different here
Four things a team arriving from another market tends to get wrong on the first pass.
Discovery often starts inside a marketplace
For many consumer categories the journey begins on Shopee, Lazada or TikTok Shop rather than on a search engine. A plan structured around search intent can be well built and still aimed at the wrong step.
Video-led discovery is mainstream
Short video and live selling are ordinary purchase paths here, not experiments. They behave like discovery channels, which means they get undercredited by last-click reporting.
Zalo is infrastructure, not a side channel
It is where a large share of conversation and repeat contact happens. Treating it as one more broadcast channel misses what it is actually good for.
The close often happens in chat
Which means the channel that started the conversation records a click and nothing else. Channels that close on a website will always look stronger until this is connected.
Three questions that shorten the list
Does the customer know what they want before seeing an ad?
If yes, capture demand where they search. If no, the product has to reach them, and discovery channels carry the weight.
How long is the decision?
A one-minute purchase and a three-week consideration need different channel mixes, and the second needs something that holds contact in between.
Where does the purchase complete?
Website, marketplace, chat thread or physical store. That answer determines what is measurable, and anything unmeasured will look weaker than it is.
Common questions
Is Facebook still the main channel in Vietnam?
It remains one of the largest by reach for many categories, though rising costs and competition have widened the gap between a well-run account and an average one. The more useful question is what role it plays in your particular buying journey rather than whether it still works in general.
Should we advertise on Zalo?
Consider it if your selling completes in conversation or if repeat contact matters for your category, because that is where messaging happens in Vietnam. It works poorly as another broadcast channel. The practical precondition is having someone answering messages during the hours customers actually write.
How should we split budget across channels?
Start from where the purchase completes and work backwards, rather than splitting by platform popularity. Then fix attribution before optimising the split, because a split optimised on last-click data will steadily move money away from whatever starts the journey.
Does MWY buy media?
No. MWY runs no campaigns, produces no content, and takes no commission from any platform or agency. The work is helping choose the mix against how your category is bought, getting measurement right first, and reading results back each month.
Deciding where the budget should go?
The Audit examines measurement first, because a channel decision taken on wrong data is wrong in a very reasonable-looking way. The first thirty minutes are free.