4 Ways to Promote Your Business Using PPC Ads in China

If you want fast, on-point results in advertising, PPC (pay-per-click) is the best option.

Of course, we still love working on organic searches and strategies. But if you want to elevate your online marketing in China, you need to invest in these options.

You need to understand that what works in the US or Europe doesn’t work in China. It’s a different playground here. It’s a battlefield. It’s a cutthroat competition full of opportunities and challenges.

Digital advertisements have reached $40.42 billion in 2016 with a 30% increase from 2015. Ads will likely reach more than $80 billion by 2020. The figures are enormous considerations if you want to be an aggressive marketer.

You need to work with a team who knows exactly where to put your money and the kind of advertising to do. So, below we’ve listed five options you can choose from based on audience and impact.

#1 Baidu Tiguang

Baidu is the Google of China with 70% share in the search engine market. If you want to get more exposure, Baidu should always be an integral part of your PPC strategies. Why? It’s because of the audience it could reach.

There are rules to follow in every platform. A Baidu PPC specialist knows precisely the right Chinese Character keyword searches. Bidding on prices of keywords is crucial. Sometimes they fluctuate, so monitoring them helps. But here’s the caveat, setting up an account isn’t as easy like setting up Google Adwords. Business requirements and a hefty starting ads budget should be set aside.

#2 Sina Weibo FenSi Tong

Another platform that you may want to take a look is China’s microblogging site, Sina Weibo. It’s akin to Twitter because of the similarity of the features and how Chinese netizens use it. If you want to have a more targeted approach, it can be beneficial.

You can target a specific audience by interests, age, locations, and keywords. It supports banner ads, interactive ads, and sponsored posts. Plus, out of all the platforms, foreign-owned companies can set up an account a lot easier.

Sina requires companies to go through the registration process and pay $1000 per user.

#3 Sogou

Sogou is a subsidiary company of Sohu, and it’s compared to Yahoo when it comes to the market share. Baidu remains the king of the search engine and even in PPC ads. When it comes to bidding, Sogou and Baidu have the same methods.

Expect that the searches and display traffic volume are fewer with fewer competitions. Like in the west, marketers still rely on Google Ads. Same as marketers in China where Baidu PPC are effective and produces more results.

If you want to explore it with a minimal budget, CPC (cost-per-click) is cheaper than Tiguang.

#4 WeChat

If you want to enjoy the perks of launching PPC ads as a foreign-owned company, you need to register legally. PPC account set up will always require business permits and documents. For WeChat ads, you need at least one verified official account. It can either be a Service or Subscription.

We all know how universal this app is in China that if you want to invest in paid ads, you know you get much exposure. But the advertising has a price tag and not cheap at all. For small companies, they sometimes have second thoughts.

WeChat has two types of ads, either Moments ads or Sponsored banner ads. The latter are often place at the bottom of Subscription accounts. To be honest, the ads are expensive. It’s recommended for deep-pocketed, global brands that like a more aggressive approach.