Any business that wants to make its mark in China needs to take full advantage of the advertising clout of Baidu. It is the top-most search engine platform in the country, and almost three out of five Chinese internet users access it daily and often multiple times a day to get the news, search for information, look for products, and more.
Baidu has become so ubiquitous to online users that you might as well as not exist for them if your brand doesn’t show up on the search engine. And that is why you need Baidu advertising (adstochina.westwin.com/baidu-advertising) to get your products and services out there before people who are likely to buy and use them. Here are a few points to keep in mind before advertising on Baidu:
Baidu can help you increase your online visibility
The Baidu search engine processes millions of search queries daily. So, when you advertise on Baidu and take care to use high-ranking and trending keywords and keyword phrases and create eye-catching advertisements, your brand will stand a better chance of showing up in many of the search engine results. That will ensure that more people will notice and become aware of your products and services.
With repeated search engine advertising promotions, your online visibility will go up, and more and more people will be likely to click on your advertisements. Some of them could convert to customers, boost your online sales, and even help increase the public awareness of your brand by unsolicited word-of-mouth advertising.
Baidu allows you to do segmented marketing
Segmented marketing is crucial for saving valuable resources as well as reaching the specific people with the interest and income to purchase your products and services. These people are your target audience, and they may be only a small percentage of the over 60 million Chinese netizens who use Baidu every day. However, it will be the most effective advertising to them and even more so if you segment them by interests, professions, incomes, spending habits, location, genders, ages, and other such parameters. You can tailor your advertising campaigns to suit these different segments and get better ROI.
Baidu can help you save on advertising expenses
Search engine marketing can be expensive abroad, but it is less so comparatively in China. Not only will you find it more cost-effective to advertise on Baidu, but you can also expect to get more web traffic to your website. Internet users in western countries have become more or less inured to advertisements in search engine results. They may ignore or overlook them while doing online searches.
Similar advertising fatigue has not yet occurred in China. The online users here will look at and even click on advertisements if they find them to be sufficiently appealing. They will also be more open to trying out your products and services if these are useful and attractive. So, the chances are higher that you will acquire new customer, and you play your cards right, they might even turn out to be long-term ones.
Baidu offers advertising in English
Lack of language fluency is one of the main issues affecting foreign companies that want to do business in China. Many of these companies may also not have the budget to hire competent Mandarin or Cantonese speakers to assist them with their advertising campaigns on the Chinese search engines and social media platforms. And trying to make do with online translation software is not a good idea as they may not be wholly reliable, and the risks of mistranslations are high.
You might end up making an unfortunate faux pas that will reflect poorly on your brand. You could even face a public backlash and lose customers as a result. To make it easier for companies to get around such language issues, Baidu has introduced an English version of its search engine. You can now advertise in English and reach out specifically to the English-speaking segment on the Chinese internet. If you make your advertisements eye-catching and attractive enough, you could also get the non-English speakers interested in trying out your products and services.
With careful planning, Baidu advertising can be immensely beneficial to the long-term success of your brand.