The Pros and Cons of Working with Baidu SEM
If you ask a Chinese what search engine do they use, 8 out of 10 will answer Baidu. Baidu provides several cost-effective marketing tools and delivers ads to targeted customers to increase website traffic.
Pros Of Baidu SEM
Baidu SEM Account Automatically Links With Baidu Tongi Account
Once you set up the Baidu search engine marketing account, it will automatically link to an exclusive Baidu Toni account. It means that if you click a link in Baidu SEM and go directly to your Tongi account. You don’t need a separate Tongi account like Google Adwords.
Daily Budget And Geo-Targeting
Baidu Tuiguang or SEM helps you to set up a daily budget and geo-targeting at the account level. It is a useful tool in terms of several campaigns within the account and wants to control total spending in your business account. It also saves time setting the geolocation for the campaigns.
Advance Style Ads
SEM provides advanced style ads for customers, and you can add an image or your website logo to your ads along with site lines. Additionally, there is no extra charge for adding an image to Ads, and it looks attractive and impressive and improves your CTR.
Folder Monitoring And Convenient Management
Baidu SEM provides a folder monitoring icon. It helps to select different keywords to be into one folder or several folders. These folders have relevant keywords data such as impressions, clicks, conversions, and cost, etc.
Business Bridge Mobile Consultancy And Gift Coupons
Baidu is a mobile-friendly app and helps visitors to start chatting with your business staff without installing any software. SEM also offers an ad extension tool, where you can insert the “Free online consultancy” button n your ad. Once the ad gets exposures, visitors may click on the button and start online chat with your staff.
Baidu SEM also calculates points based on how much you spend on your PPC campaign and covert them into gifts or coupons.
Limitations Of Baidu SEM
Not Easy To Set An Account
You can create an account in Adwords within a minute; however, in Baidu, you have to provide a business license, proof of ownership for website verification. For the first login, you also require a Chinese mobile number and other details.
Advertising From Different Websites From Single Account Is Not Possible
It is not possible to advertise different websites from one single account in Baidu like Adwords.
Each Campaign Requires a Daily Budget Of 50 Chinese Yuan
Unlike Adwords, SEM campaign can’t be set up as small as you want. The minimum daily budget for fifteen campaign is at least 750 Chinese Yuan as the minimum daily budget for a campaign must be 50 Chinese Yuan.
Pre-Paid Threshold Is Needed And Requires A Week
You need a pre-payment for Baidu accounts before its balance is used up, you need to pre-pay the money. If you are handling the SEM account from foreign, then the pre-paid threshold takes a week, which is very time-consuming.
Cannot Show Average Position Metric In Dashboard
Baidu SEM doesn’t show the current position of metric on its dashboard. It is more challenging to decide which keywords to use or not when you want to get information about keyword positioning.
Also, you cannot do automatic bidding in Baidu and is limited to the top three positions. However, you have a lot of choices for automated bidding in AdWords.
No Filter And Segmentation Function
As we know, Adword offers a lot of filters and segmentation functions. You may easily use them to filter out or segment what you want to do bidding analysis. However, these functions aren’t available in Baidu.
Editor Is Good, But Still Second To AdWord Editor
Generally, Baidu editor is good for an offline campaign management tool that can effectively help you establish, upload, and download your campaign. You can even manage your bids in Baidu editor.
However, compared to AdWords editor, it has its defects. It isn’t sensitive to errors and also not convenient to do any text change. Baidu editor also doesn’t have functions like replace text, append text, and advance URL changes.