Hi guys,

This is the third and also the last in the introductory series about “Baidu Chinese Paid Search“. However, we may come back to Baidu in a very near future cause my “slave” Liz already prepared another 10 pages to compare Baidu and Other Search Engines.

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3. Baidu Paid Search Campaign optimization

Inside Baidu:

One thing you’ll notice straight away after logging in is the lack of campaign overview and how everything is in Chinese!
There is currently no option for language selection mind you… If you understand Chinese, however, you’ll notice the page is like a portal with related news, options to go to the account centre, help centre etc.
This shows that from a business stand point, most of Baidu advertisers right now are from main land China.

Baidu Paid Search Account Centre

Oh interesting! There isn’t an overview of your campaigns here either! Instead you get to choose which parts of the account centre you wish to visit. Actually it’d be slightly easier if you simply click at the top menu bar. Only problem? Not all links found at the account centre is found there… only the major links.

(Top Menu Bar: Baidu Marketing Centre/Summary Page, Account Centre Main Page, Manage Keywords, Add Keywords, Campaign Management, Daily Reports, Edit Account Information, Log Out)

While it is hard to get used to at first, it is slightly easier to navigate around if you don’t take into consideration the 2 overview pages with no actual campaign information (compared to a certain search engine whose platform is named after a country in Central America.). Using the drop down menus, you have the option of choosing different type of views (by campaign, keywords etc).

“My gripe is how Baidu does not provide any information for impressions. If the campaign is also measured using CTR as a factor, then you have the hard task of explaining why Baidu doesn’t have that… cos it simply doesn’t!” Liz commented.

One can only guess the rationale behind this lack of information…

This brings me to my fave part of Baidu… the lack of reporting options!

Baidu Paid Search Reporting Function

For someone who is used to Google’s wide range of reports, frustrated with Yahoo’s inflexible reporting system… welcome to the best of the worse!

Reporting

• Daily Report

Date, clicks, cost, cpc, quality index

• Keywords Summary Report

Keyword, clicks, cost, cpc

• Daily Campaign Performance report

Date, campaign, clicks, cost, cpc, quality index

• Daily Keywords Performance report

Date, keyword, clicks, cost, cpc, quality index, avg. position

• Specific Keywords report (to enter keyword)

Date, keyword, clicks, cost, cpc, quality index

• Specific Campaign report (to enter campaign name)

Date, Campaign, clicks, cost, cpc, quality index

Have I already mentioned that we can’t find impressions or ctr information? Guess what? It gets better! There is only one keyword report with avg position information but you have no idea which campaign it belongs to! Don’t bother about ad copy report too… there’s only one ad tied to the keyword…

In any case, for Baidu I swear i hear it telling me loudly and clearly… “just choose to get campaign level information or keyword information! there is no such thing as both! don’t cause me trouble… my main job is get more revenue (gee, sounds familiar) not to churn out useless reports with too much info!” i swear that message is real and true but chandler says i’ve gone nuts… 

- Liz said

So what can i do then if i really need both data? alas manual labour… ”

darn google for promoting laziness… it’s the macdonald’s of search engine. popular, fast and efficient 

- Liz added on.

Please find the reporting interface below:

Baidu Paid Search Keyword Management

As far as i understand, there is no limit to how many keywords you can have in one ad group.
You can set the max cost per click you want to pay per keyword as well.

Liz offered some explanation in case we all get lost looking at a page in Chinese.

From the Top:

• Current number of keywords is 277, each page is showing 20 keywords and you are at page 1 (total 14 pages)

• Drop down menus

• • Campaigns
  • Keywords
  • Keywords to show on page
  • Arrange keywords by
  • Keywords search

• Select keywords view by:

• Keyword bid management detailed overview: keyword, status, min cpc, current bid, etc
• Keyword bid management simplified overview
• Keyword details

Keyword Addition

Again, some of the explanations are:

• You can only add 20 keywords each time
• From the table:
• • Keyword
  • Ad Title
  • URL Destination
  • Ad Description

Keyword information you can get includes: Current position – Enter keyword, Related keywords, Minimum CPC

Baidu Paid Search Ad copy

Well, unfortunately there is nothing much to say about this section because Baidu only allows you to have one ad copy that is tied to keyword.
So there aren’t any options for ad rotations, landing page optimization using the same ad copy etc..

Baidu Paid Search: Set Geographical targeting

The good thing is you can either choose to target the whole of China or zoom into different regions.

Baidu Paid Search: Other campaign management options

Set Daily Budget

Set Campaign Expiry Date

Set Day Part Targeting

Third Party Tracking

The good thing is we can add in tracking parameters at the end of the Destination URLs just like Google/Yahoo.
Many of the third party tracking tools are now double byte enabled so we know which keyword converts, which doesn’t.
However, i don’t think API feed from Baidu is up to expectation since Baidu does not provide much information for reporting.

Well that concludes the introductory series about Baidu Chinese Paid Search. As per usual, any comments, feedbacks are welcome and most appreciated.
You may want to refer back to Baidu Chinese Paid Search Part 2 or Baidu Paid Search Part 1
We will come back soon with comparison between Baidu and other search engines.

This is the second part in the series about “Baidu Chinese Paid Search“. In this post, we will cover Campaign set up.

2. Baidu Paid Search Campaign set up:

First thing, there is no option for setting up your own account using foreign credit cards (meaning credit cards that are not registered in China)

The only payment method for Baidu is PrePay via bank transfer if you are an overseas client/agency. There is, however, no minimum amount (as far as i know) you should transfer though. You can transfer as much/little as you like. Yet, the rule of thumb is depending on the level of spend, you will receive very different level of services.

Secondly, for Baidu and Yahoo in China, it may take up to 4 weeks from fund transfer to verification and activation from search engines’ end so be prepared and settle the financial stuff way in advance if you are tight in time line.

This is just to show you how lagging behind Baidu and Yahoo are compared to Google (One Platform to rule them all no matter how many territories, ad formats, currencies etc… )

“The staff are able to converse in simple English. since there are SEM terms used by people who are used to google-speak so there could be instances of misunderstandings.” Liz advised.

Liz also said “While trying, I would think it is not a huge problem compared to account creation and the lead time for campaign to be activated.”

Baidu PPC Campaign Creation:

Once fund transfer have been confirmed by Baidu, advertisers can utilize their help in terms of ad copy creation and keyword analysis.
Advertiser/agency should try to make it as clear to Baidu staff as possible of what they expect:

• Target demographics of the campaign
• Main products
• Unique selling points
• Landing pages

These information will help Baidu’s staff to understand better the products and be able to come back with relevant keywords/ad copies.

The other option would be to utilize what you already have from other Search Marketing campaign (like from Google/Yahoo).
I would recommend to use at least the same set of keywords from Google and expand more.
As for ad copy, the character limit is bigger for Baidu so you can mention more promotions etc…
“For those who may be starting a campaign from scratch, it might prove to be rather challenging and it might take a longer while to have the issues sorted out.” Liz commented.

It is fortunate if you already have a campaign structure in mind and convey that to Baidu because the way they structure the campaign may not be ideal. Also, for Baidu, advertisers can have multiple campaigns in one account. Yet they don’t have multiple ad groups in one campaign but rather just keywords and 1 ad copy. This actually will force advertisers to change their account structure quite a bit from Google/Yahoo to Baidu.

On a separated note, “I have not experienced asking Baidu for help in translating keywords or ads to Chinese so I do not know how competent they are in this aspect or if they are willing to do so. It will not be surprising if their level of service is tied to the budget you have, which also explains my frustrations when they weren’t able to offer much help with ads and keywords.”
Liz said.
(Who doesn’t provide the level of service based on the spend! Yet Baidu is slightly more aggressive in that aspect ) ~ from Chandler

Below is the screen shot of Baidu Paid Search Summary Page

On this page we can see:

Left column:

• Account Centre Summary
• Amount spent
• Current Account Balance
• Estimated days budget will last
• Change in rankings (Yesterday)
• Daily Budget/Geographic targeting
• Button : Enter Account Centre main page

• Business Center

Right Column

• News Centre (based on main keyword)
• Main Keywords Trend
• Business Discussion
• Learning Centre

Next is Baidu Account Centre Main Page

From the Top:

• Account login pages: http://jingjia.baidu.com or http://www2.baidu.com

• “Your account was activated on DDYYYY, the total amount in account is ￥ $ RMB，the amount spent to date is ￥ $ RMB。Remaining budget is ￥ $ 元。

Left Column:

• Latest Baidu News/Updates

Contact Baidu

• Enter Business Centre

Right Column:

• Keywords Management
• Manage Keywords
• Add Keywords
• Keyword Information
• Set Geographical targeting & Daily Budget
• Campaign Planning: Day Part targeting, Campaign Expiry

• Financial Management: Transaction History,Daily Reports

• Account Settings: Edit Account Information, Change Password

Baidu Paid Search Ad copy:

The ads are tied to the keywords which also means, there are no options for rotating ads or landing page testings.
This is really frustrating since testing multiple ad copies/landing pages are two very basic PPC techniques.

Baidu Paid Search Keywords:

“In the Chinese language context, unlike English, keywords that are mid-long tailed in nature are not common nor effective. It has to do with the surfing habits of Chinese netizens who prefer using generic terms.” Liz’s insights

This in turn affects the number of keywords and their variations you may have.

As mentioned earlier, generic keywords are more popular in Baidu. Considering the large number of businesses/companies in China, it is hardly surprising if you have more than a thousand advertisers bidding on the same keyword you have chosen. So what happens? You pay more! It is not surprising to have to pay a CPC of more than US$5.00 for these keywords.

Of course, this is not Baidu-centric and in fact is happening across all different search engines especially in highly competitive markets.

But taking into account the smaller keywords list and higher CPC, it is a important factor to remember and take note of.

This concludes today’s post about Campaign Set up with Baidu Paid Search Program. Tomorrow we will share about campaign optimization.

Cheers,
Chandler
P.S: You may want to read Baidu Chinese Paid Search Part 3