Baidu advertising reigns supreme in the world of search engine marketing in China, and Western companies are increasingly looking at ways to market their services to Chinese market. Using Baidu advertising for the travel industry is an excellent way to tap into the market in China, as it allows companies to use the biggest search engine in the country.

What is Baidu?

Baidu, established in 2000, is now one of the world’s leading internet companies. Baidu is more than just a search engine and is focused on using technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a way of allowing companies to advertise, target and market their services to audiences.

Baidu is a multi-layered advertising solution, helping companies that want to break into the Chinese market reach Chinese audiences with their marketing strategies.

Chinese tourists provide a welcome boost

Chinese tourism has significantly changed in the last few decades, and the volume of Chinese travellers taking trips internationally has grown drastically. It’s worth pointing out that the global share of outbound travel for China was 1% in 2005 and is estimated to be one-fifth of world travel by 2023.

This rapid growth is down to a number of factors, one of which is closely linked to the changes in society that China has experienced over the past decade.

By 2021, it’s expected that 100 million Chinese citizens will have travelled abroad. If these estimates become reality, then outgoing Chinese tourism would be equivalent to 40% of the total outbound tourism of Asia and the Pacific.

How can Baidu advertising help companies target Chinese tourists?

With an increase in Chinese tourists travelling across the world year on year, there are more opportunities for companies to target and attract audiences to their products and services, and using Baidu advertising strategies and products  that will have the greatest impact is vital when trying to tap into the Chinese market.

Baidu PPC advertising

Baidu PPC (Pay Per Click) Advertising is a result-driven channel that companies can target Chinese audiences. Baidu PPC is an effective solution with instant results, and provides a way for you to get more quality traffic to your website from Chinese tourists. This will also enhance visitor numbers, increase the amount of people asking more information and converting enquiries into sales. Baidu PPC is an essential marketing channel to target Chinese audiences, and should be one of the many methods you choose for your own marketing strategy.

Baidu PPC advertising also offer a range of advanced ad formats to make your ads more attractive, such as images, site links, forms, navigations etc.

Baidu Brand Zone

If you have built your brand awareness and reputation in China, Baidu Brand Zone will be a great advertising product for you to attract more Chinese tourists.

Baidu Brand Zone is a premium advertising product from which you will gain significant benefits – high recognition as an official website with premium display to show superiority.

It is CPT (Cost Per Time) paying model. Companies can bid for your brand keywords and the Brand Zone ads will be triggered by brand keywords only. It gives you the opportunity to dominate the search results page (occupy 2/3 of the search result page to capture audience attention) with information about your brand, including logo, description, links, images, videos, social links, forms etc. You can tailor make the most suitable ad format for your products. This will help to build brand trust with your audience, shorten message delivering path and increase conversion rate.

Compared to traditional Baidu PPC advertising, Baidu Brand Zone offers a staggeringly high conversion rate. The average click-through rates on Brand Zone are reported to be anywhere between 50%-80%, and AC Nielsen believe using the Brand Zone provides a 78% increase in purchase intent (source: China Internet Watch).

A segmented market will help Western companies

The future of the travel market in China is set to become more segmented, which means that travel habits will be even more diverse. This means that there will be distinctions between different types of travellers, so the key is to ensure that any marketing strategies that use Baidu are adapted and tailored to specific markets, and aimed at particular audiences.

This segmentation means that companies will be able to focus on specific areas for their marketing strategies, and by utilising the advertising products offered by Baidu, they will be able to tap into the Chinese tourist market.

By effectively tailoring your strategies to target different travellers, you will be able to produce a more personalised and individual advertising campaign that will lead to a successful uptake of your service by Chinese tourists.

How can companies maximise on the success of using Baidu?

It’s important to realise that the challenges on Baidu are far different compared to Western search engines. This means that what works well on Western search engines may not work as well on Baidu, so it is vital to tailor your strategies.

To ensure that your marketing strategy hits the right notes when it comes to targeting a Chinese audience, we can help.

We are a specialist Baidu marketing agency, and we can help you to ensure that your marketing strategies for the travel industry reach the widest possible audience by using methods that will ensure your services get noticed by Chinese tourists.

To find out about the Baidu advertising services we offer, and to maximise your impact in the Chinese market, contact us today.