Ok. Here’s a conundrum. You’re looking to enter the China market and start advertising your brand on Baidu. You know that the time is ripe to get your business in front of a whole new audience. Then Baidu, as a media giant, should make it easy to advertise, right? I mean, which company does not want more advertisers?

Unfortunately, this is not true. Despite being a prime channel for advertising in China, Baidu still remains a mystery for western advertisers.

Marketers often struggle to unlock this channel because of the confusing regulations, cultural barriers and other hard to navigate factors like the Baidu interface only being available in Chinese.

We get it! We’ve seen hundreds of businesses struggle with this challenge and give up. China is a lucrative market — but one that needs careful consideration when it comes to targeting your audience and creating creatives that will resonate with them. And that’s exactly why we created AdChina.io.

For the first time ever, you have a platform that makes it possible for founders and marketers like yourself to advertise on Baidu in English. The same Baidu advertising options, but with an easy-to-use English interface and a lot more.

In this post, we’ll share:

• A new way to advertise on Baidu
• A quick overview of advertising on Baidu in English
• How much does it cost
• Other advantages of using AdChina.io 

China currently ranks as the second-largest market for digital advertising worldwide with a spend of $75.33 billion, Baidu advertising makes up 10.4% of it. With Baidu commanding such a significant portion of the Chinese Digital Advertising market, it is imperative that Baidu advertising form a key part of your go-to-market strategy for China. 

So in order to make things easier for you, we have taken away the pains of translation and have made the entire targeting interface for Baidu advertising available to you in English in the AdChina platform. 

Meet the new way of advertising on Baidu in English

We created AdChina.io because we saw a huge problem in the market. Only the biggest brands were able to navigate the challenges of advertising in a radically different market like China. With budgets not being an issue, many top brands set up a local team in China to advertise and grow in the market because the Baidu platform is hard to navigate on your own.

But setting up a local team is not right for everyone, sometimes it just doesn’t make good business sense.

This is where AdChina.io comes in. We provide you with local language and marketing expertise along with a platform similar to Google AdWords. The platform allows you to create your campaigns, set your budgets, add your creatives in a systematic manner all without having to fumble around with Google Translate as you try to localize your ads.

Access the exact same features of native Baidu advertising, at affordable SaaS pricing.

A quick overview of advertising on Baidu in English

Step 1: Create an account

First up, go to dsp.adchina.io and create a free account. 

Step 2: Set up your first campaign

Next, log in to the AdChina.io DSP and click the New Campaign button. Here you’ll have to add 3 main details:

• Campaign channel
• Objective of your campaign
• Name of your campaign

Step 3: Add creatives and choose bidding

The next thing you’ll see is the main ad screen, where you’ll select your audience targeting.

Baidu provides extensive targeting options. In the screenshot above is a sample campaign of a baby clothing brand targeting pregnant women from age 25 to 45 using an iOS device connected to WiFi that live in a Tier 1 or Tier 2 city in China.

Next, add your creatives (and any text in Chinese), and finally handle the payment / bidding for your campaign.

Step 4: Add budget and submit campaign

Finally, you need to add your daily and total budget. And that’s it! Your first campaign is set up. Once your campaign is approved, your Baidu ad will start running.

You can login to your AdChina.io account anytime to see how your campaign is performing.

For a detailed overview of creating a Baidu account, read our post on the step by step guide to Baidu In-Feed ads.

How much does the AdChina.io platform cost

Now that you have a clear idea about how the AdChina.io platform works, let’s talk pricing. AdChina.io has 4 pricing plans based on your ad spend.

Test plan: Great for solopreneurs with a very limited budget

Starter plan: Perfect for startups looking to dip their toes into China

Growth plan: For companies that have identified the opportunity and are serious about growing in China

Scale plan: Recommended for companies that have been selling in China for a while and are not looking to scale further

In terms of the cost of advertising on Baidu, it can range from $1500 to $3000 based on your location. This includes:

• an initial set up fee charged by Baidu
• your advertising top-up
• the AdChina.io service fee indicated above

The average CPC on Baidu starts from $0.5-$1 but varies based on your industry.

Read our post on cost of advertising in China to learn how different channels compare to Douyin costs.

If you have any more questions on how this works, create a free account to learn more.

How does using AdChina.io make your life easier

While we’ve already listed some, there are several other advantages of using a tool like AdChina.io to advertise on Baidu in English.

China advertising + expertise

When using with AdChina.io, you get an easy to use advertising platform in English. But besides that, based on your plan, you also get a native Chinese Baidu ads manager who will manage your account. This involves creating a campaign plan, finding the right keywords etc. So you get the best of both worlds – China expertise without the agency costs. Here’s a in-depth look at how a China advertising platform like AdChina.io helps.

Managing your application process

Getting your business authorised to run ads in China can be a task. Baidu and most other top platforms require a stack of documentation that will enable you to start advertising. With AdChina.io, we share the list of documents you need and manage this application submission process for you saving you a ton a work!

Ad copy translation

Once you have your permit and are ready to advertise. A lot of businesses make the mistake of going with direct translations of the ads they run in the west. AdChina.io provides ad translation services so your ads resonate with the Chinese audience.

Chinese landing page design

When advertising in China, it’s also important to lead your audience to a website they understand. Many businesses use a Chinese landing page for this while makes it easier to collect leads. Our team at AdChina.io can also help design an optimized landing page for your campaign.

Top Chinese channels and reporting in one place

And Finally, one of the top reasons to start your China advertising journey with us, AdChina.io is the only platform that connects to over 10 top media channels in China. Besides advertising on Baidu in English, you can also choose other platforms like WeChat, Weibo, Toutiao, Douyin to run your ads.

No more half baked reports that don’t make sense. Generate your reports for all channels in one place making it easier to share with all stakeholders.

Wrapping up

Advertising on Baidu doesn’t have to be hard. We’ve spent years building the perfect platform that takes out the hassle from running ads in China. Our customers, that range from solopreneurs to enterprises have chosen AdChina.io for this same reason.

Ready to start with running your first Baidu campaign in English? Create a free AdChina.io account and get started today!