While social media dominates attention, Baidu captures demand. With 67% of China’s mobile search traffic, it connects foreign brands to high-intent buyers, bypassing awareness-building for direct conversions. Its China-optimised tools (OCPC, Jimuyu) solve critical pain points: finding customers actively searching for solutions. For market entry, Baidu remains the unmatched efficiency play.
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Category
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SkyWise Digital Editor
Baidu
10 mins
Jul 2025
While every brand is chasing attention on social media, the most valuable customers in China aren’t scrolling—they’re searching.
For a foreign brand entering China, the critical challenge isn’t just getting noticed; it’s finding buyers with clear intent and a budget, fast. Social platforms excel at awareness but force you through a long, uncertain nurturing journey.
Baidu is the shortcut.
With 67% of China’s mobile search traffic, Baidu connects you directly to professionals and businesses actively looking for solutions like yours. This 2025 Playbook isn’t about chasing trends—it’s a practical guide to deploying Baidu as your most efficient demand-capture engine, turning search queries into qualified leads from day one.
1. Market Share: Maintaining the Top Position Amid Turbulence
Social media may capture users’ leisure time, but it cannot replace the instinct to “seek answers when they have questions” — and this remains Baidu’s core strength. While social platforms have diverted some user attention, Baidu’s dominance in the search engine space remains unshakable.
User Base:
Despite partial user diversion by various Chinese social media platforms, Baidu still boasts over 600 million monthly active users. It reaches the vast majority of Chinese users with strong intent to search for information – precisely the “target audience” that foreign enterprises most need to reach.
According to StatCounter data, Baidu currently holds approximately 50.71% of China’s overall search engine market share, with its mobile search share reaching as high as 67.41%.
2. Well-Established Commercialisation System: 20 Years of Experience Addressing Pain Points for Foreign Businesses Entering China
Compared to Baidu’s peak period in the past, its market share has indeed declined. However, as one of China’s most mature and longest-operating internet advertising platforms, Baidu’s commercialisation system remains more foreign-business-friendly, with its core advantages lying in maturity and compliance.
Common Advertising Pain Points for Foreign Businesses Entering China
When advertising on newer internet media platforms, overseas companies often encounter the following challenges:
Industry qualifications required for account setup are issued in China, something foreign companies typically cannot provide.
Account registration materials often require personal documents from the company’s legal representative (e.g., passports) – standard practice for Chinese businesses, but often uncomfortable for Western executives.
Some mainstream platforms restrict foreign companies in industries like real estate or medical devices from opening ad accounts, not due to high risk, but because of a lack of experience managing sector-specific risks for international advertisers.
With over 20 years of experience serving foreign clients, Baidu understands these complexities. Whether it’s offering alternative solutions for industry-specific qualifications or adapting processes to cross-cultural business needs, it provides mature and reliable options.
While emerging platforms may offer short-term advantages in ad costs or traffic pricing during their early commercialisation stages, their policies for foreign advertisers are often inconsistent and unpredictable, posing greater risks for businesses looking to enter China.
3. User Profile: Business Users with Clearer Needs
Baidu directly reaches users with defined needs, many of whom are in active decision-making phases. On social media, users might impulsively buy a lipstick after seeing an ad, but no one casually watching short videos suddenly decides to “import a production line.”
Differences in User Behaviour
Social media users are primarily in leisure or entertainment mode, making them more receptive to ads for personal or consumer goods. However, they show significantly lower engagement with B2B procurement or decision-making content.
Moreover, social media platforms struggle to clearly differentiate between professional and personal identities (e.g., a procurement officer might consume both entertainment and industrial content on Douyin).
In contrast, Baidu users are actively searching, explicitly expressing intent. Their focus and purchase readiness for relevant products or services far exceed the passive exposure of social media ads. As a result, decision-making timelines are shorter, leading to faster advertising conversion cycles.
Data Support
Baidu Marketing Research Institute (June 2024):
Identified 31.7 million business users through dual verification of search behaviour and corporate data.QuestMobile TRUTH Database (April 2024):
34% of Baidu App’s commercial search users held enterprise certification (based on a sample of 210 million monthly active users).
4. Value for Overseas Brands
For overseas companies newly entering the Chinese market with low brand awareness, there’s no need to rely on the lengthy process of “cultivating user interest.” Instead, they can directly use Baidu to reach potential customers who are actively searching for similar products — quickly transitioning from an “unknown brand” to being discovered by users in need.
By leveraging Chinese keywords to precisely match the specific needs of target users (such as model numbers, functions, or purchase channels), Baidu is especially suitable for:
Technical and specialized products (e.g., industrial equipment, medical instruments)
Categories with clear usage scenarios (e.g., “cross-border logistics delivery time”)
This approach ensures efficient targeting of high-intent users, accelerating both market entry and conversion for overseas brands.
5. Baidu’s Commercial Tool System: Similar to Google, but Better Tailored to the Chinese Market
I. Baidu Search Promotion (Phoenix Nest System): Keyword Targeting for Precise Demand
As Baidu’s core commercial tool, Search Promotion (operated through its backend system “Phoenix Nest”) is the primary platform for foreign enterprises to reach Chinese users via keyword targeting.
Advertisers can bid on Chinese keywords (e.g., “imported equipment supplier” or “overseas brand agent”). When users search for related terms, ads are accurately displayed on the search results page. The platform supports various pricing models, including cost-per-click (CPC) and optimised cost-per-conversion (OCPC).
II. Baidu Feed Ads Platform: Reaching Potential Customers Through Content
Leveraging Baidu’s content ecosystem, including the Baidu App and Haokan Video, feed ads are seamlessly integrated into users’ browsing experiences as “native content.” This makes them an essential tool for engaging potential customers through content-driven discovery.
III. Baidu Marketing Platform (Unified Management Backend)
This unified backend integrates all major advertising functions, including search promotion and feed ads, serving as the core entry point for advertisers to manage budgets, creatives, and performance data.
It supports batch creation of ad campaigns, real-time monitoring of delivery metrics (impressions, clicks, conversions), and dynamic adjustment of bidding strategies. The platform also includes user profile analysis tools to help optimise targeting logic.
IV. Supporting Features: Key Efficiency Boosters
In addition to core tools, Baidu offers a range of supporting features that lower operational barriers for foreign enterprises:
OCPC (Smart Bidding Strategy):
Built into both search promotion and feed ads, this algorithm-driven feature automatically optimises bids to help advertisers control conversion costs (e.g., “cost per valid inquiry”), eliminating the need for manual keyword bid adjustments.Jimuyu (Smart Landing Page Tool):
Seamlessly integrated with the ad platform, Jimuyu provides free, templated website-building services to generate landing pages with form functionality quickly, no standalone website is required. It addresses common challenges such as “lack of a Chinese website” or “slow loading speeds from overseas servers.”Baidu Analytics:
Links ad delivery data with user behaviour tracking to capture full-funnel performance (from ad click → landing page view → form submission). It fully complies with China’s data privacy laws (e.g., the Personal Information Protection Law), avoiding the compatibility issues often encountered with overseas tools like Google Analytics.
6. User Guide to Baidu OCPC Functionality
Baidu OCPC (Optimised Cost Per Click) is designed to optimise bidding through intelligent adjustments based on CPC, helping advertisers control conversion costs while increasing total conversions. While its bidding strategies may not be as varied as Google Smart Bidding, Baidu OCPC places stronger emphasis on conversion optimisation, the most crucial metric for business advertisers.
Launched in the second half of 2018, Baidu OCPC has gone through over seven years of development. Its algorithms have matured significantly, and usability barriers have been greatly reduced. As of March 2022, Baidu phased out Target CPA and Enhanced Mode’s Stage 1 & Stage 2, streamlining operations and improving ease of use. This means that even advertisers with modest budgets can now effectively lower their cost-per-conversion.
For international enterprises, Baidu OCPC offers accessible and performance-driven functionality. The system automatically:
Analyses historical conversion data patterns
Adjusts bids in real time for high-intent search queries
Prioritises traffic sources with a proven track record of conversions
(1) Choosing a Landing Page and Tracking Tool
Enterprises should select the appropriate landing page, either an official website or a self-built page (using Jimuyu), based on campaign objectives and the actual condition of their website. A detailed comparison is as follows:
| Selection Criteria | Official Website | Self-Built Page (Jimuyu) |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese Website Readiness | Suitable for companies with a content-rich, fully functional, and fast-loading Chinese site. Can host more brand information and integrate with existing CRM systems. | Suitable for companies without a fully developed Chinese site, saving time and manpower. |
| Site Loading Speed | May be slow due to overseas servers (over 5 seconds) | Fast loading speed (typically under 1 second) |
| Ad Tracking | Requires use of local tools like Baidu Analytics (Google Analytics is poorly adapted in China) and manual code installation. | Data is stored within the platform and can be viewed directly (conversion cost, user form submissions, etc.), offering easier tracking. |
| Campaign Objectives | Suitable for brand awareness campaigns | Suitable for lead generation via form submissions |
Both the official website and self-built landing pages have their own advantages for advertising. Enterprises can choose based on their specific needs, or use a combination of both.
(2) Methods for Using OCPC Functionality
For overseas advertisers, we recommend two of the simplest and most effective approaches:
Using an Official Website as the Landing Page
As previously mentioned, Google Analytics often faces compatibility issues in China. If advertisers still wish to use their official website for ad delivery and performance tracking, it’s recommended to adopt local Chinese tracking tools, with Baidu Analytics being the preferred choice for most users.
After installing the corresponding tracking code on the official website via Baidu Analytics, advertisers can monitor relevant site data directly within the platform. (A comparison with Google Analytics is provided at the end.)
Once the setup is complete, advertisers can create the corresponding OCPC campaign in their ad account, allowing them to seamlessly leverage this functionality to reduce advertising conversion costs.
Creating Simplified Pages with Self-Built Website Tools
If a self-built website (e.g., via Jimu Fish) is used as the landing page, the process is even more straightforward, advertisers can proceed directly to create an OCPC ad campaign.
Since Baidu’s self-built website tools retain all data within the platform, they offer a natural advantage in optimising for conversions. This enables advertisers to achieve lower conversion costs in a shorter timeframe.
7. Baidu vs. Google: Similar Yet Distinct — Baidu as the Superior “Gateway to China”
While both Baidu and Google centre their business models around search, expanding into multiple domains, their core functions and media positioning are largely analogous. Each serves as a vital platform for businesses aiming to reach target audiences. However, key differences make them far from interchangeable, especially when targeting the Chinese market.
Baidu’s Brand Zone and Jimuyu (its self-built website tool) are unique commercial products with no direct equivalents on Google. Furthermore, Baidu’s ecosystem is more closely aligned with the needs of the Chinese market. For example:
Baidu OCPC parallels Google Smart Bidding but is optimised for local conversion behaviour
Baidu Analytics resembles Google Analytics but is built for full compliance with China’s data regulations
This localised adaptation makes Baidu a more effective springboard for entering the Chinese market, offering:
Regulatory readiness – Pre-configured to comply with China’s data privacy laws
Localised toolkits – Tailored to Chinese user behaviour and search intent
Frictionless integration – With domestic payment systems, logistics platforms, and user expectations
Detailed Comparison: Baidu Analytics vs. Google Analytics
| Function Module | Core Feature Description | Purpose | Compared to Google Analytics |
|---|---|---|---|
| Traffic Source Analysis | Accurately tracks traffic share, clicks, and visit depth from Baidu-owned channels (search ads, feed ads, etc.); also supports analysis of non-Baidu sources (official website, other platforms), distinguishing between “organic search,” “direct visits,” and “external links.” | Evaluate the effectiveness of Baidu advertising in conjunction with other channels to optimise full-funnel marketing strategy. | Similar to Google Analytics’ “Acquisition” module, focusing on traffic attribution. |
| User Behavior Analysis | Records full user journey on the official site (page view paths, session duration, bounce rate, button clicks, etc.); supports heatmaps to visually show where users click most frequently. | Identify conversion bottlenecks on the site (e.g., high bounce rates on certain pages) and optimise UX (e.g., adjust button placement, simplify forms). | A combination of Hotjar heatmaps and Google Analytics’ “Behaviour” reports. |
| Conversion Tracking & Goal Management | Allows custom definition of conversion goals (e.g., successful purchase, form submission, phone call, app download); automatically calculates conversion volume and rate. Supports funnel analysis to track drop-offs in steps like “visit → browse → order.” | Quantify actual conversions from Baidu ads (beyond just clicks), and provide data for OCPC smart bidding optimisation. | Similar to Google Ads’ “Conversion Tracking”, but with deeper focus on on-site behaviour. |
| Deep Integration with Baidu Ecosystem | Seamlessly connects with Baidu Ads backend (search ads, feed ads), auto-syncs ad plan and keyword conversion data; supports Baidu promotion URL parameters for precise tracking by keyword/creative. | Enables full-funnel ROI tracking from keyword → traffic → conversion directly within Baidu Analytics for more effective campaign optimisation. | Similar to Google Analytics’ integration with Google Ads, but tailored for Baidu’s ecosystem. |
| Cross-Device & Multi-Platform Analysis | Distinguishes user visits by device (PC, mobile, tablet); supports user ID tracking to unify behaviors across devices. | Aligns with the mobile-first habits of Chinese users and enables optimisation of mobile site experience (e.g., form simplification). | Similar to Google Analytics’ “Device” and “Cross-Device” reports. |
| Data Security & Compliance | Complies with Chinese data security regulations (e.g., Personal Information Protection Law); data is stored and processed locally. Supports data masking to protect user privacy. | Ensures compliance with Chinese laws, minimising operational risk for overseas companies advertising in China. | Similar to GDPR-compliant tools, but designed specifically for China’s regulatory framework. |
Conclusion
For overseas enterprises seeking to enter China, Baidu’s value has never been about competing with social media for traffic. Rather, it lies in precisely connecting with users who are actively searching for your products or services. There is no lengthy wait to “cultivate interest” — only the efficient matching of demand and supply.
This is the core reason Baidu remains the first springboard for foreign businesses entering China.
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