Baidu Advertising: What You Need to Know

While Google reigns supreme in almost every country in the world, there remains a few who favor or are forced to use other search engine technologies for their internet browsing. In China, the dominant search engine remains Baidu, holding almost 80% of the market share in 2014, a stat. that remains fairly stable since then.

While many search engines may feel indistinguishable from each other, Baidu is actually significantly different from Google and Bing, the dominant search engines in North America and Europe. This can often lead businesses who want to make headway into China to problems getting known. If you want to make it in China, you have to understand the basics of Baidu. Here are a few tips to help you understand how China’s largest search engine works for advertising, and how to get the most out of it for your business.

1. Pick Your Advertising Strategy
Baidu has multiple advertising options for anyone wanting to advertise, but they generally fall into four categories: Baidu Tuigang, Pay for Placement, ProTheme, and Baidu TV. Baidu Tuigang operates very similarly to Google’s pay-per-click model, with you setting up advertisements connected to certain keywords and your page appearing in an ads section at the top of the page when someone searches those keywords.

One of the major differences between Google and Baidu is “pay for placement” or “P4P” ads. With Baidu, you can actually bid to have your keyword be permanently tagged to the first page of results, a practice Google has long avoided, which can give you considerable power and presence.

2. Understand Keywords
Keywords in China are very different from English for two main reasons: Chinese is a very different language, and the restrictions in China are very different from in North America. As such, keyword research is also very different and relies on understanding the differences in how people search in China and what they are able to search. In some cases, words will be banned or censored, and companies will have their ads disabled as a result. This is why many companies turn to Baidu ad specialists when heading to China: to ensure that their keyword advertising is in compliance and generates results.

3. Hire SEO Specialists with Baidu Experience
You can probably tell by now that Baidu is extremely different from the most popular search engines in the rest of the world, which means learning how to make the perfect ads, get them seen, and see high conversions is extremely difficult. Luckily, there is an entire group who is well-versed in Baidu advertising. This means you can enjoy fantastic results when reaching out to China by hiring the right firm to handle your Baidu advertising. Relying simply on SEO experts who understand Google and Bing will not be enough for success in China. For that, you can benefit extremely well from picking the experts who understand and work with Baidu every day.

If you are looking to head to China, contact Westwin, an experienced firm with the experience and knowledge you need to make your international expansion a success.