Baidu, in other words, in the Google of China. A leading search engine and the world’s 4th ranked website by Alexa, Baidu brings with it a plethora of opportunities for digital marketers and brands who want to exhibit their products and services to the Chinese audience. Text, image, and video searches made by online browsers can be put to good use through Baidu advertising, or more specifically, the pay per click (Baidu PPC) program. When people browse for specific information, products, or services on the search engine, Baidu displays a set of organic results, as well as paid ads that typically make it to the top or bottom of the search engine result page. Baidu PPC (adstochina.westwin.com/Baidu-PPC) allows your ads to be displayed among these, provided you have bid for those keywords as part of your campaign. As more browsers click your ads, customer engagement, lead generation and conversions improve.

Benefits of adding Baidu PPC to your digital marketing efforts

Your digital marketing strategy for Chinese audiences can include many social or web search engine media, as well as the multiple advertising options they provide. However, Baidu PPC is a must-have on the list because it offers many benefits. Here are four important ones and how they give an edge to your marketing efforts.

# 1 – A wide reach

The prowess of Baidu is evident from all of the following. It is the largest search engine in China and the largest website in Asia. It is also the largest Chinese search engine in the world, with a penetration rate of 95%, covering over 135 countries in the world. It receives billions of queries every day and is used by not just people in China, but also Chinese netizens around the world. So, imagine the impact a simple ad on this platform would bring to your business. Not only does it improve visibility, but every time your ad pops up for the keywords searched, your brand recall goes up.

# 2 – Charged only for clicks

The beauty or the biggest advantage of pay per click or PPC ads on Baidu is that your account gets charged only when a customer clicks on the ad link. There is no cost for display or impressions. Because most customers who click on your ads are people with genuine interest, this model makes for a better option and gives you better returns in the long run.

# 3 – Use of targeted keywords

Imagine placing an ad for your product or service in the newspaper or magazine. Or putting up a display hoarding or running a minute-long advertisement on the television. All of these would cost eat up a considerable portion of your marketing budget, but not necessarily give you the returns you want simply because they do not reach the intended audience. You have very little control over who such ads get delivered to and can only hope for a small percentage of these folks to be prospects who are actually interested in your product or service. Baidu PPC ads are very different in this regard. Built around search keywords or search queries, these ads get delivered only to those people who specifically look up for the given keywords on the Baidu website. This improves the chances for your product or service ads being delivered to the right audience.

# 4 – Can be customized

Yet another plus with advertising on digital media is that your campaigns can be customized to your organization’s needs. The time, the placement, the duration of the ads, the maximum cap on budgets – all of these can be customized when you place a digital ad, including Baidu PPC. There is also a great deal of flexibility with such ads. If you are unsure of what strategy will work and would like to do an A/B testing with Baidu ads, that is possible too. You can spread your budgets across different ads and see which one gives you better results. You can always stop running the non-performing ones, and up the money on ads that give you better traction.