Presented at Hero Conf 2018: London (October 23rd 2018)

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Adventures in Baidu PPC
10 Tips for Running Paid Search Campaigns on China’s #1 Search Engine
Rod Richmond | Head of Strategy

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“More than half (55%) of online shoppers in
China bought items from British brands over a
three month period”
*13, Royal Mail, Delivery Matters

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“87% of those surveyed liked to buy British
brands and 76% trusted items not to be
counterfeit”
*13, Royal Mail, Delivery Matters

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The 2nd Internet
Google Facebook Amazon

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Baidu WeChat Alibaba
The 2nd Internet

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1. Understand the huge scope of the market

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Baidu v Google: % Mobile Users
67% 77%
*1
115%

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Baidu v Google: Users
3.5 billion 0.8 billion
*1
23%

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Baidu v Google: Quarterly Ad Revenue (Q2 2018)
$22.57 billion $3.18bn
*2
14%

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Baidu v Google: Ad Revenue Per User (Approx)
$6.45 $3.98
62%

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2. Push Back Your Launch Date

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Baidu Only Accepts Local Clients
Unless you have an office in China, you will need to setup via a 3rd party

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To Set Up On Google Ads We Need
Email
Address
Credit
Card

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To Set Up On Baidu Ads We Need…
Email
Address
Credit Card
(set up fee)
Validated
Website
Company
Registration
Certificate
Government
Website
Proof
Company
Seal/Chop
Bank
Statements

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❑ All prepayments (no invoicing, credit cards etc)
❑ Regular top ups (check international payment times
with your bank)
Payments

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3. Localise Your Experience

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Less than 1.5% of the Chinese population
can read or speak English
*14

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蝌蚪啃腊 (tadpole eats wax)
*10
可口可乐 (tasty and joyful)

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*9

20. @rodppc #heroconf Iceberg by Jolan Soens from the Noun Project
Boat by Mihael Tomic from the Noun Project
translation
a) payments
b) delivery &
returns
c) site speed
d) site
infrastructure

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a) Payments
➢ 870 million users ➢ 600 million users
Chinese digital wallet payments forecasted to be $1.3 trillion in 2018

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b) Delivery & Returns
Not just an accurate arrival date…
“9 in 10 Chinese consumers (91%) were
also more likely to shop with a retailer
that has a clear returns policy.” *13
Royal Mail

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b) Delivery & Returns
Comprehensive FAQs section

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c) Site Speed
“Smartphones are the device of choice as
79% of shoppers make purchases via
phones, compared with just 28% of UK
shoppers” *13
Royal Mail

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Site Speed Test
➢ Directly in Baidu Analytics
➢ Or https://www.webpagetest.org

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Pipedrive Speed Test
➢ 10.7 seconds ➢ 6 seconds

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What Does My Site Cost?
https://whatdoesmysitecost.com

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What Does My Site Cost?

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Skip your website, straight to Tmall…
d) Site Infrastructure

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Skip your website, straight to Tmall…
d) Site Infrastructure

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Skip your website, straight to Tmall…
d) Site Infrastructure

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4. Celebrate New Holidays

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➢ Embrace local holidays i.e. Singles
Day (11th November)
➢ 2017: $25.3bn (up from $18bn in
2016)
➢ 90% of those transactions on mobile
➢ $1bn orders in first five minutes of
2017
➢ Bigger than Black Friday and Cyber
Monday combined

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➢ “sales up 900%”
➢ “sold more tea than its best performing UK store
does in a fortnight” *12
Prepare for “Brexit Bargain Shoppers” *13

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5. Concurrent Analytics

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Baidu Analytics (Tongji) Interface

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➢ Chinese only interface
➢ Discrepancies with Google Analytics Data (js snippet
blocked sometimes: behind the firewall)

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“Yeah I’m gonna need to take a look at those concurrent
Analytics reports…”

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There are some cool features though…

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Baidu Organic Search Keyword Information

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Heatmaps
➢ Like “In Page Analytics”
in old GA UI

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6. Understand the key differences to Google Ads

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No Adgroup Level Budgets
➢ Just campaign level

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Accelerated Delivery
➢ Is the default, not standard delivery

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Average Positions
➢ Not in column view, in a separate report

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Average Positions
➢ 5 ads above search results

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PPC or Organic? A Fun Game.
➢ Not always obvious what is an ad
➢ Quite often images in ads, which perhaps confuses
things

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PPC or Organic? A Fun Game.
➢ If link includes “baidu.php” rather than “/linkurl”,
it’s a PPC ad

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One match type per adgroup
➢ Can’t mix your match types
➢ Wouldn’t necessarily recommend this as best
practice, however if you do have this in Google
Ads…

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Quality Score
➢ Separate mobile
and desktop quality
scores
➢ Less insight than in
Google Ads (ad
relevance, LP
relevance,
historical CTR% etc

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Account Credibility Score
➢ No
correlation to
Quality Score
➢ V1 to V3
➢ Cheaper CPCs
with V3
➢ Need this to
show ads at
top of the
page

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Baidu Ads Editor

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Bonus: BETA Interface
➢ We all love an interface change

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7. Forget What You Know About Match Types

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Match Types
1. Broad
2. BMM
3. Phrase
4. Exact (lol)
1. Broad
2. Phrase (Core)
3. Phrase (Synonym)
4. Phrase (Exact)
5. Exact

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8. Ad Content Policy Changes Are Erratic

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Ad Policy Changes Regularly

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Ad Policy
➢ Offshoot from 2016 Baidu ads scandal
➢ Tighter regulations enforced, but no specific
industries listed in their ad policies
➢ Taken on a case by case basis
➢ Turnaround time is long, better to roll out new ads
in meantime
➢ Check daily to begin with as can be approved &
quickly disapproved

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9. CPCs Can Be Much Cheaper

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Up to 85% cheaper…

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Cheaper clicks, but can you convert them?
Rethink your sales funnel…

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“If you click on an advert, what is your preferred method to contact the website if you
have a question about the product or service?”

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Baidu Chat Tool “Qiao”
➢ Free To Use
➢ Easy To Set Up
➢ Alternative to Intercom,
Drift etc
➢ https://qiao.baidu.com

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10. Learn All The Different Ad Types

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Standard Text Ads
➢ Headline 1: 30
➢ Headline 2: 30
➢ Headline 3: 30
➢ Description 1: 90
➢ Description 2: 90
➢ Path: 15 x 2
➢ Total: 300
➢ Headline: 50
➢ Description Line 1: 80
➢ Description Line 2: 80
➢ Total: 210

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“Xunke” Lead Gen Ad Format
➢ Like message extensions in
Google Ads
➢ Mobile and Desktop
➢ Roughly translated
“Looking For Business”
➢ http://xunke.baidu.com

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Shantou
➢ A bit like image, review
and price extensions
rolled into one
standalone product
➢ Rich ad formats
➢ Need a Baidu Ads account
first
➢ Link to your product
feed, like Shopping ads

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❑Localise
❑Extend your launch date
❑Treat as a new platform
❑Watch out for Google
Action Points Checklist

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➢ Google held 30% market
share in 2010 on exit
➢ Baidu shares dropped 8% on
announcement they might
return
➢ Blacklisting certain
websites, terms & topics
If Google enters the China Market…

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Thank You!
rod@cleandigital.co.uk

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Credits
1) https://expandedramblings.com/index.php/by-the-numbers-a-gigantic-list-of-google-stats-and-facts/
2) https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/31/baidu-earnings-q2-2018.html
2) https://www.nanjingmarketinggroup.com/blog/Google-can-win-big-in-China
3) https://www.ft.com/content/6b3e3704-fa2e-11e6-9516-2d969e0d3b65
4) https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/31/baidu-earnings-q2-2018.html
5) https://komarketing.com/blog/four-unique-points-of-baidu-paid-search-ads-management
6) http://ir.baidu.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=188488&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2361151
7) https://www.scmp.com/tech/china-tech/article/2158050/google-could-give-baidu-serious-run-its-money-china
8) https://qz.com/1351130/baidu-wants-google-to-know-the-competition-in-china-is-going-to-be-tougher-than-ever
9) https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2018/10/11/the-importance-having-chinese-version-your-brand-it-s-much-more-just-
name
10) https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2018/10/16/why-choosing-chinese-name-your-western-brand-will-increase-sales-
china-0
11) https://medium.com/@yicaichina/china-has-worlds-largest-online-population-with-1-32-bln-mobile-internet-
subscribers-e665e890302
12) https://www.digitaldoughnut.com/articles/2018/october/the-shopping-day-bigger-than-black-friday
13) https://www.drapersonline.com/news/more-than-half-of-chinese-online-shoppers-buy-british/7027351.article
14) https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/maps-and-graphics/mapped-english-speaking-countries/