What You Need to Know About Advertising on Baidu in English

In North America, Google is the search engine of choice, garnering 3.5 billion searches per day! In mainland China, Google is banned, so the Chinese people use Baidu as their search engine of choice. And though there are other search engine companies in China, Baidu is by far the country’s largest internet company. Nearly 90 percent of internet searches performed in China are done via Baidu. That equates to billions of searches per month! That means advertising on Baidu in English is an important marketing objective.

In order for English-speaking businesses to be visible on Baidu, it’s important to understand the setup process for advertising on Baidu in English. At Westwin, our marketing solutions will help get your brand noticed in the Chinese market.

Baidu Advertising Compared to Google Adwords

If you know Google Adwords, Baidu Pay Per Click (PPC) will be fairly easy to understand. Like Google Adwords, Advertising on Baidu in English via Baidu PPC allows businesses to increase their B2B conversion rates. However, studies show that Baidu has, on average, a lower cost per click than Google when using similar search terms. Popular B2B search terms are approximately 25 – 40 percent of the cost of the same keywords in Google.

If you’re planning to do advertising on Baidu in English, you must first set up a Baidu account. It’s a little more complicated than Google Adwords, which only requires an e-mail address and company website. Our specialists will help guide you to set up and plan your account, manage your campaigns, and provide analytics and reports.

Things to Know Before Creating a Baidu Ad Account

When considering advertising on Baidu in English, there are a few things to know beforehand:

1. Prepare Your Business License or Registration Certificate – Before anything, it’s important to first get a business license or registration certificate.

2. Provide Proof That Your Company is Publicly Listed on a Government Website – Baidu will check for a business record for every applicant. Take a screenshot of a government page where your business information publicly appears (this happens after you have registered your business with the local government)

3. Provide a Screenshot of a Passport of One of the Company’s Representatives – The representative must be one of the individuals who appears on the government website. If more than one is listed, make sure to provide the passport of the first name listed.

4. Authorization letter signed by The Company Representative – The authorization letter must be signed by the first person listed on the government website and who’s passport screenshot was provided. The signature must be the exact same as on the passport

5. Provide a Copy of Your Most Recent Monthly Bank Statement – Bank statement must include the full business name and a few recent transactions. Must also have the representative’s signature too.

Create a Baidu Website in Chinese (Before Translating to English)

If you’re looking to do advertising on Baidu in English, you must understand that Chinese is the primary language of Baidu users. Your English website must be translated into simplified Mandarin Chinese, to gain the Chinese consumers’ trust. If your Baidu ads are pointing to an English website, there’s a good chance your bounce rate will be high, as the majority of your potential customers won’t be able to read your website. At Westwin, we can help your company localize its website to be more effective and, therefore, more appealing to the Chinese consumer.

As China’s largest internet company, businesses looking to grow would benefit from advertising on Baidu in English to market their products and services. Baidu has the highest market share across both desktop and mobile platforms, making it a very effective way to advertise. Contact Westwin and find out how we can help leverage your business in the Chinese market.