What is Baidu
Baidu is the most popular search engine in China, comparable to Google in western countries.
And a Major Provider of Internet Based Services
Like it's western counterpart, Baidu offers services that goes beyond pure content search. The nearly 60 services offered range from information such as Encyclopedia, Government Information Search, Patent Search to entertainment like a gaming platform (Baidu Games), social network (Baidu Space), discussion (Baidu Tieba) and commercial like the eCommerce platform (Baidu Youa), travel booking service (Qunar). It also includes technology and data services as the smartphone operating system Baidu Yi and the web analytics tools Baidu Tongji and Baidu Zhanzhang.
Baidu for Professional & Commercial Use
Major Services
Search Engine
Users, especially businesses, can create their own content and target specific niche groups through the platform. Businesses can post on a range of topics and utilize the platform to engage with other users. This is what makes it so popular for many social media marketers in China.
Optimising your web content for Baidu can help develop an organic presence in China without resorting to paid advertising. It can be very useful for businesses to achieve good brand awareness in China, despite little presence on Chinese social media platforms. It can also be a powerful tool for collecting feedback from Chinese internet users and gain data insights.
Paid Search
Most like Google and bing, Baidu shows up to 4 paid results in its search feed. The difference to it's western counterparts is what these paid search results may contain. Baidu offers a variety of options, lasting from simple text ads (like in google) to interactive and media-rich appearance that looks more like a display add we know from websites. As Chinese customers are very focused on brands they are familiar with and trust, Baidu offers various (paid) options for brand protection. This can go as far as preventing competitors to bid on keywords including your brand name.
Baidu In-Feed Ads
On its mobile page and its popular discussion and communication platform Tieba, Baidu offers in-feed ads that appear as native ads in the users feed. Since most Chinese access the web through mobile devices, this kind of advertising has become increasingly popular. It offers a great opportunity to reach new audiences, increase brand or product awareness and retargeting users.
Baidu Tieba
Baidu Tieba is the largest discussion and communication platform in China. Tieba is a keyword-based discussion forum where users can search for information through a search bar. This forum hosts discussion on nearly every topic imaginable, making it another platform for businesses getting started with social media marketing in China. Users create individual “Tiebas” for each distinct topic with a dedicated moderator for each “Tieba.”
If you had to compare it to something in the West it would likely be most comparable to other open forum platforms such as Reddit with “Tiebas” acting like subreddits. Forums can be popular for social media marketing in China, but given their open nature, things can get nasty very quickly if users feel like you’re abusing the platform for advertising purposes.
Baidu Zhanzhang (Webmaster Tools)
Comparable to the google web master tools, Baidu Zhanzhang offers a set of tools to get your website registered and indexed within Baidu (which is required to properly appear in user searches). You can register your domain, upload your site map and configure the indexing frequency for the Baidu spider. In addition, Baidu will scan your page for broken links and potential security flaws.
Baidu Tongji (Web Analytics)
Baidu Tongji is the Chinese counterpart to Google Analytics. Much like it's western cousin, it offers detailed tracking information for your website. As most Google services are blocked in China, Baidu Tongji is the tool to use if you offer a Chinese version of your web site and do not have a enterprise tracking suite in use. Unfortunately, the user interface is (currently) only available in Chinese (simplified).
Advertising Strategy on Baidu
When to Use Baidu
When it comes down to channel selection and budget attribution, it's important to consider the typical search behaviour of Chinese users. While in western countries Google is the one stop shop for any kind of web search, the Chinese are heading to different platforms depending on their purpose. Due to the dominance of a hand full of ecommerce platforms such as Taobao, Tmall and JD.com, specific product searches mainly happens there. Social media is preferred for general inspiration and knowing about similar or related topics and products. However, in early stages of a purchase journey, search engines are very popular to looking for product reviews, tests, style guides and rather general information.
Keeping that in mind, PPC advertising on Baidu is important to improve brand and product recognition and to boost reach. If you already have a well known brand or very specific products to sell, you may consider other platforms first.