Baidu PPC vs. Google Adwords: 5 Key Differences

Baidu PPC is Baidu’s search advertising platform. PPC experts that are already familiar with AdWords should find Baidu PPC fairly easy to understand, as they have many things in common, such as:

1. The rankings of your ads are mostly determined by the bidding prices and the quality scores;
2. They both follow a "campaign - ad group - keywords + ads" account structure;
3. They both support various keyword match types such as broad match, phrase match, exact match and negative match.

However, they are still different in many ways. In this post, I will summarize 5 crucial differences you should know about Baidu search advertising before dipping your toe in the water.

1. Account Application and Verification

Opening a Google Adwords account is simple. You just need an email address and a website.

By contrast, it can really take some efforts to sign up for a Baidu PPC account. Baidu needs several items from you to make sure you are a legitimate business and will not use their advertising platform for illegal activities.

The required items include:

1. Your business license in English or another language;
2. A screenshot of the homepage of your website;
3. A government web page where your business registration information is listed;
4. A recent bank account statement

We have a blog post explaining how to open a Baidu PPC account in more details. I highly recommend you read it if you have not applied for a Baidu PPC account before.

2. Number of Websites/Domains Per Account

Although discouraging doing so, Google has no policy against using one AdWords account for multiple sites.

But for Baidu PPC advertising, Baidu has made it clear that each Baidu PPC account can only have one promoted domain name.

3. Payment Method and Costs

Google Adwords has two billing options, namely automatic payments and manual payments.

Automatic payments allow you to pay after your ads run, either 30 days after your last automatic charge or when you reach a preset amount, whichever comes first.

On the other hand, manual payments require you to prepay Adwords and charges will be deducted from the prepaid amount.

In contrast with Adwords, Baidu only takes manual payments via wire transfer for foreign companies.

You need to make a minimum payment of 5000 RMB or the equivalent in another currency to Baidu when you open a new Baidu advertising account. Future deposits can be in any amount though.

4. Location Targeting

As a Chinese search marketing platform, Baidu PPC supports all provinces and major cities of China, including China Mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macaw.

Its overseas geo-targeting capacity is quite limited though, with only Japan and Other Countries.

5. Advertising Campaign Tracking

Google Analytics works in China but is not the best option for Baidu PPC.

Luckily Baidu has its own web traffic tracking and analysis tool called Baidu Analytics. Every Baidu PPC account has a linked one by default.

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The above are the 5 key differences between Baidu PPC and Google Adwords. Adwords experts can use this post as a guide to quickly familiarize themselves with Baidu PPC. Newbies can also learn some interesting facts about Baidu PPC such as how to sign up for Baidu PPC.

To teach is to learn, and to discuss is to ace. If you have any questions or recommendations, I'm more than eager to hear from you. Just leave a comment below or email us directly!