Baidu SEO vs. Baidu PPC: Best Strategies in 2025

When promoting any brand in the Chinese market, two channels are set in stone: WeChat and Baidu. As the largest search engine in China (Google is blocked), Baidu is the starting point and go-to place for netizens to find information, research products and services, and shop. Therefore, it’s essential to rank high on the results pages of Baidu to stand out from the crowd with your brand and message!

Now, the question is: As an overseas marketer, how can you achieve that? Just keep doing a good job, provide a useful product, offer customer service, and the rest will follow, right? Well, as noble as that may sound, it likely isn’t enough to cut through the noise of the bustling online world. There are several ways of “pushing” your brand to the top of search engines, but should your business focus on Baidu SEO or Baidu PPC strategies? Or perhaps even both?

In this article, our China experts—with more than 18 years of professional experience running thousands of campaigns for hundreds of clients—break down the Chinese search market for you and show you how to develop campaigns that convert. 

Using examples from real clients, we will lay out the differences between SEO and PPC on Baidu, the strengths and limitations of each approach, and our take on it. We will equip you with the knowledge so you can decide what’s best for your brand and its search engine marketing (SEM).

Let’s jump right in.

What is Baidu SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) on Baidu and other search engines refers to optimizing your website (with keywords and relevant content). This means the website is easily found by search tools and ranks high organically. 

Additional tactics include backlinks to your site from high-authority domains, a smooth user experience, social signals, and more. Finally, technical SEO, which is particularly relevant in China, includes

• site loading speed (less than three seconds!), 
• domain hosting, 
• mobile friendliness, 
• sitemaps, and 
• well-structured data. 

The key characteristic of Baidu SEO is its long-term strategy, which focuses on earning traffic over time instead of paying for it (which PPC does). SEO can be seen as a marathon that requires consistent effort over at least one year up to several years. The process is gradual and regularly requires updating to respond to the ever-evolving search engine algorithms. Also, SEO isn’t “free” as marketers either need to invest their own time and skills or outsource this task to an agency. 

Now, all this may sound a bit off-putting, and you may wonder why anyone would even bother with Baidu SEO and not just pay for a click. 

Well, SEO is cost-effective…(dramatic pause)… in the long run, and therefore sustainable. Unlike PPC, which ends once your budget is used up, SEO is a gift that keeps on giving. Once a website has achieved a high ranking, organic traffic is generated without additional costs. An added benefit is that organic results on Baidu are often seen as more trustworthy than paid ads.

Baidu SEO vs. Other SEO

Chinese Internet users tend to use search engines differently than users in the West, prioritizing locally relevant content. Baidu search results often include both paid ads and organic results, and the interface may appear “cluttered.” On the other hand, Google users have a broader search approach, and the search engine makes a clearer distinction between ads and organic listings. While in the past, this made the Google interface look “cleaner,” it has become more cluttered in recent times with things like AI results and ads.

Furthermore, Google displays information from around the world, whereas Baidu shows content that is useful for searchers from China. Besides, Baidu must adhere to China’s strict online regulations, whereas Google generally offers more freedom and fewer restrictions.

Finally, Baidu mainly focuses on content quality, whereas Google prioritizes backlinks as a key factor for authority and trust. In fact, fresh, relevant, and localized content plays an extremely important role in the Chinese online world.

It’s much easier for a small, niche website to do well on Google than for Baidu. To demonstrate, this very website you’re reading now usually ranks #1 on Google for keywords related to Baidu ads. However, when we use this niche strategy for Chinese websites, they usually won’t even get indexed within six months.

Baidu loves huge websites with tons of information. For example, we’ve only done minimal work on Samtec.com and yet were able to help them improve organic rankings a great deal. Baidu has indexed almost 100,000 of Sametec’s pages and sends lots of “free” monthly traffic.

Another thing Baidu loves is fresh content. We once had a website ranking #1 for the Chinese words for “los angeles” real estate by publishing three translated real estate listings per week and organizing those listings into categories.

Our Take on Baidu SEO

Baidu SEO and SEO, in general, can be challenging for smaller and newer websites. It’s simply an advantage if you have hundreds or even thousands of pages with relevant content that you can enrich with keywords, integrate into sitemaps, get valuable backlinks, and so on. Newer websites may struggle to gain visibility and climb rankings, especially when competing against other, more established players.

Besides, SEO is a long-term strategy that requires persistence and, for those who don’t find this challenging enough, patience! Unless you are prepared to (and have the resources to) invest at least one year (in practice, more like several years), you will be disappointed with the results.

But don’t lose hope just yet! SEO is versatile, full of opportunities, and fun. Parasite SEO leverages content marketing on established platforms like REDnote or Bilibili to work in your favor (more on that in a moment). Plus, you can always hire an expert to help you with Baidu SEO, as it does pay off in the long run (promise).

At Baidu Advertising, we include Baidu SEO when we create or transcreate our client’s websites. Then, we distribute the content to different platforms to increase the index and brand awareness.

When to Choose Baidu SEO

Using Baidu SEO tactics is suitable if you have the long-term resources (budget, skills, team or partners, time) and strategy to grow your traffic, and, of course, the larger your website, the better the SEO scalability. Finally, the less competition there is in your niche, the easier it is to achieve higher rankings faster with SEO.

A Word on Parasite SEO

By publishing useful content on sites like Xiaohongshu, Bilibili, or Zhihu, you can take advantage of their established status and indirectly push your site higher on Baidu. It’s like riding piggyback on sites that already have a large user base with high engagement rates and trust.

Parasite SEO achieves faster results and is more cost-effective. However, smaller and newer brands in the Chinese market still find themselves in a highly competitive environment. 

We usually write WeChat articles and distribute the content to different high-value platforms related to the client’s industry to create SEO synergies.

What is Baidu PPC?

Pay-per-click ads on Baidu are exactly what it sounds like. By bidding on keywords, you pay for a click or other call to action (CTA), such as completing a contact form or downloading an app.

Compared to SEO, this has several advantages, the main ones being that PPC is faster and you see instant results, it’s precise (in targeting your audience), scalable, and fully measurable. The downside is that as soon as you stop paying for ads, your traffic will also evaporate.

There are several different ad types on Baidu, including search and display ads, and on Baidu SERPs (search engine results pages), ads usually appear at the top or on the side of search results. 

The exact cost per click depends on the keywords you bid on and your industry—the more competition, the more expensive a click on the keyword! The good thing is the targeting on Baidu is precise and offers many options, including location, demographic, and user behavior, to ensure that your ad reaches the right audience.

Our Take on Baidu PPC

To be perfectly honest, we love paid ads on Baidu (and WeChat) and believe that alongside organic strategies, this is the most effective approach for most brands to gain traction in the Chinese market. Therefore, PPC on Baidu is usually part of our China marketing mix for overseas and domestic brands. 

Even with budgets under 10,000 USD, results can be achieved, and the return on investment and ad spend can be directly measured. This gives you, the client, optimal control and flexibility (unlike SEO, where you have to commit for a long time).

When to Choose Baidu PPC

Baidu PPC is fantastic if you seek immediate results, for example, when launching a new product or service, running a promotion, or wanting to get your brand off the ground in China.

Although ad campaigns on Baidu can be started with a small budget, keep in mind that high-value keywords have their price, and once your bidding stops, lead generation will come to an end as well.

In our experience, service businesses like education, real estate, and tourism particularly benefit from quick lead generation through paid ads, but make sure that your specific service is not blocked from advertising on Baidu.

Baidu SEO vs. Baidu PPC

The principles of SEO and PPC apply to Baidu and other marketing channels. We have broken down the key differences between both strategies and what they mean for your business. 

These principles apply regardless of your niche, whether you are a B2B or B2C brand, or whether you sell products or services.

What do we mean by restrictions? 

Due to online regulation, certain categories are outright blocked from running any type of advertising, while there are workarounds for other niches. If you want to learn more about the minefield of Chinese Internet regulation, our WeChat compliance article covers online censorship in general and also largely applies to Baidu.

This is what Baidu SEO vs. Baidu PPC looks like

For the exemplary search for “Lizenzero” on Baidu, you can see the results below as follows:

Left Side

1. Paid ad
2. Baidu AI answer box (organic)
3. Baidu Baike, an encyclopedia entry (organic)
4. Lizenzero Europe Website (organic)
5. News Article from 企鹅 (organic)
6. News Article (organic)

The text next to the blue mark means “ad” (广告) and indicates that the content is paid advertising (this is mandatory on Baidu).

Right Side

• Baidu’s trending topics: popular search trends and news (organic)
• Customer service ad

Some items have an orange “热” (hot) or “新” (new) tag, indicating high engagement.

Next, let’s dive a bit deeper into a real-life case study.

Case Study: Lizenzero

Lizenzero （莱证通） is a platform that helps global businesses comply with the German packaging law, which is complex and mandatory for all sellers in the German market. To reach Chinese retailers and help them sell in Germany, Lizenzero wanted to gain visibility in China and get more orders.

Objective

To increase Lizenzero’s visibility, we applied a holistic strategy with a focus on organic measures. 

Organic strategies (including SEO)

First, we launched a WeChat Official Account and published bi-monthly articles on packaging regulations (enriched with relevant Baidu keywords) to provide helpful and relevant content to Chinese manufacturers.

Secondly, we integrated Zendesk for customer support on WeChat to remove any friction in the consultation and sales process.

Paid strategies (including Baidu PPC ads)

We also ran paid advertising on Baidu. (See the screenshot below.)

Campaign Results

After just one year, the number of license sales increased significantly, and Lizenzero became the first packaging authorization licensing service agency to offer free Chinese customer service. This positive trend only amplified over the following years of our collaboration.

Baidu Results

Marked in red below, you can see Baidu SERPs for “德国包装法注册教程” (German Packaging Act Registration Tutorial). The first result is an ad, which we launched, all other results marked red are organic results we achieved.

Next, marked in red below, are the Baidu SERPs for “ 莱证通” (Lizenzero). Again, the first result is an ad we ran, and the other results are organic pages we published.

When users first discover a topic, they can fall down a rabbit hole of search queries. So, in our case, a Chinese exporter who learns that certain packaging regulations are mandatory for the German market will start multiple searches to narrow down the specific information they need.

During this process, thanks to the power of SEO, they will keep seeing Lizenzero, suggesting that this service provider is the leader in their field—which is the truth. Plus, paired with our other services to improve conversions on the website, Lizenzero can bring this traffic straight to the bank.

PPC ads: Baidu Results

Below, you can see a close-up of the paid ad in the search results for “德国包装法” (German Packaging Law).

This brings us to the end of this article on Baidu SEO vs. Baidu PPC.

The Takeaway

To sum it up, paid ads on Baidu are integral to almost every China marketing strategy. Throw Baidu SEO in the mix, and you set yourself up for success in China in the long run. 

• Baidu PPC: Instant results, but the effect vaporizes when the ad budget stops.
• Baidu SEO: Organic, takes years, but pays off in the long run.
• Parasite SEO: Leverage the high authority of established sites to publish your organic content.

Our service to you is more than that. We optimize your funnel from awareness (keywords and ads) to purchase (landing page and website conversion).

In our experience, a multi-faced strategy yields the best results. Chat with our experts about your next step to success in China with Baidu SEO and Baidu PPC.