When you’re seeking to build your Western brand in China’s exciting, lucrative market, Baidu is a core channel to master.

Think of Baidu as China’s answer to Google, in a country of over 1.4 billion citizens where 1.11 billion are online. The market is vast, and Baidu is by far the most dominant platform, holding around 65% of the market. So if you’re looking to develop a better Baidu PPC campaign, what do you need to know?

In this blog, we’ll run through the top tips you need to become confident at leveraging Baidu PPC as part of your Chinese digital marketing strategy.

Free download – No email required

Mastering Chinese Business Culture: A Practical Guide for Success

1. Take the time to master Baidu

Yes, Baidu is broadly comparable to Google in terms of market dominance; however, it is functionally different in many ways. Baidu has different rules, Chinese internet users exhibit different behaviours, and marketers face challenges that range from cultural nuances to language difficulties.

Because China is so vast, local context matters for the performance of your Baidu PPC ad campaigns. However, remember that when we talk about ‘local’, we can still be referring to millions of potential customers.

Take the time to deeply understand Baidu’s ecosystem, regulations, language requirements (hint: it’s all in simplified Chinese!) and the differences with Chinese UX. You cannot simply copy and paste a Google Ads campaign and expect it to work.

2. Get to grips with Baidu keyword research

Good keyword research lies at the heart of every successful PPC campaign. It helps to know that Baidu users use more localised and long-tail searches than with Google, so factor these trends into your keyword research.

Use the Baidu keyword planner tool to help identify keywords, and factor in linguistic and cultural factors when assessing search intent. This kind of nuance can be challenging, so many brands work with digital marketers who have native Chinese language skills.

Top tip: Invest in professional keyword research. Direct translation from English simply won’t pick up regional searches, slang or nuance. Factor these in, and you’ll have a far better CTR.

3. Think about landing page optimisation

Setting up a well-optimised Baidu PPC campaign is only half of the picture. You also need to optimise your own landing pages for the Baidu algorithm and understand what the search engine values. For example:

• Carefully localise content rather than simply translating it from your English website
• Remember that Chinese users invariably use their smartphones to search the net, so optimise your landing pages for mobile search…And make them fast!
• Know that Baidu prefers websites with ICP licenses or local hosting, mainly because they are faster and quicker to load. Check speeds carefully.
• Incorporate trust elements such as clear contact information, quality marks and certifications/affiliations. A WeChat QR code can be a useful addition, for example. These all build the authority ranking of your site.

4. Choose your ad formats

Baidu offers a range of different advertising formats that go beyond Google. For example, you can choose site links, callouts, image extensions and brand zones to build trust and those all-important CTRs. Each of these ad extensions can help to make your campaign more visible and credible. For example, you can improve navigation by building site links into product categories, or showcase your most important products with visual image extensions.

Top tip: A strong Brand Zone campaign is a great route to authority-building if you’re an established Western brand entering the Chinese market; however, it’s important to test different formats to see which performs best in your particular market.

5. See what the competition is doing

Because Baidu SERPs are very competitive, it’s well worth seeing what your competitors are doing and deciding whether you can learn anything from them! Analyse their word choices, designs, ad extension usage and keywords as part of your own tactical planning.

6. Use smart tactics to get ahead

Baidu works best for brands that really seek to understand how it works. With this in mind, use all of the tools and techniques at your disposal. Here are three:

• Work on negative keyword lists, so your budget isn’t drained by irrelevant searches
• Use geo-targeting features to map your campaign against city-level demographics. For example, if you have a luxury brand, you might want to use geo-targeting to capture traffic from tier 1 cities. Use demographic filters carefully, too, with your target audience in mind.
• Schedule your ads to run in target cities at peak times, such as commuter hours, when high-income earners are likely to be scrolling on the Metro!

7. Test and refine

This tip is definitely one that Western marketers will be familiar with! Whenever you run a Baidu campaign, review the metrics carefully and use strategies like A/B testing to see which landing pages and ad copy versions are working for you.

8. Align your SEO activity

Baidu values on-site SEO such as quality, relevant content and thorough metadata, so work on your organic visibility by aligning your Baidu SEO plan with your PPC advertising campaign. Ideally, integrate these elements of your Chinese digital marketing plan so they make sense holistically.

If you can build your Baidu SEO over time, it will save you money in the long term, as you can rely less on paid advertising and more on quality organic search.

9. Get professional help

Work with a Chinese digital marketing agency, and you can save yourself time and money with your Baidu campaign development! At Market Me China, we work with Western brands that are keen to grow and succeed in the Chinese market and who want to amplify and accelerate their results with expert help.

Our team of native-speaking Chinese digital marketing professionals works flexibly with our clients to deliver the strategic advice, hands-on digital marketing, flexible resourcing, and analysis that they need. We can augment your marketing team with targeted expertise or take on your brand’s marketing entirely for businesses that prefer the results of an outsourced model.

Please contact us in the first instance for a no-obligation chat about your needs, and we will be delighted to assist!

（Image source: Designed by Graphiqastock / Freepik)