Baidu ads cost has two parts: entry costs to open and fund an account (verification, a service fee in many cases and a minimum prepayment, usually handled through an authorized agency for foreign advertisers) and media costs, paid per click through Baidu’s search auction. Click prices depend on industry competition, keyword choice, ad quality and landing page experience, so a test budget should be set by expected clicks, not by a monthly round number.
Baidu remains the main paid search channel for reaching users in mainland China, through Baidu Tuiguang (Baidu Promotion, also known as Fengchao in its newer interface). The rules for foreign businesses differ from Google Ads, and costs reflect that.
What do you pay before the first click?
Foreign companies typically open accounts through a Baidu authorized reseller or agency. The process involves business verification documents, often translated, and Baidu’s account review. Many agencies charge an account opening or management fee, and Baidu requires a prepaid balance before ads run.
Exact fees and minimums change and differ by agency and region, so get a written quote. The point for budgeting is that the entry cost is not zero, and the prepayment is locked as ad credit. Plan cash for it before planning clicks.
- Business license or registration documents, translated where required.
- Website and landing pages that load in mainland China and are in Simplified Chinese.
- An ICP filing if the site is hosted in China (needed for China hosting, not for overseas hosting).
- Agency service fee, if charged.
- Initial prepaid ad balance.
What drives cost per click on Baidu?
Like Google, Baidu runs an auction weighted by quality. Your bid and a quality score based on ad relevance, expected click-through rate and landing page experience decide position and price. Competitive industries such as education, healthcare, finance, legal services and B2B machinery tend to have high click prices; niche B2B terms can be cheaper.
Landing page speed in mainland China is a real factor. A site hosted overseas, loading fonts or scripts from services blocked in China (Google Fonts, Google Analytics, some CDNs), loads slowly or partly. Slow pages lower quality and raise costs. Some advertisers use a China-accessible CDN or a dedicated landing page hosted closer to users.
- Keyword competition in the industry.
- Match type and how broadly terms expand.
- Ad relevance and click-through rate.
- Landing page speed and accessibility in mainland China.
- Time of day and region targeting (province and city level).
How do you estimate a test budget?
Work backwards from clicks. Use Baidu’s Keyword Planner inside the account to get estimated CPC ranges for your terms. Decide how many clicks you need to judge a landing page; for lead generation, a few hundred clicks is a common minimum before conclusions.
Example budget sketch
For example, an industrial valve manufacturer wants B2B leads from Chinese buyers. Keyword Planner shows its core terms at an estimated range that, for the sake of the example, averages ¥8 per click. To get 600 clicks in a month, media spend would be around ¥4,800, plus the agency fee and the prepayment requirement. If 2 percent of clicks become inquiries, that is about 12 leads. These are illustrative figures to show the method; use your account’s estimates.
Which targeting settings change spend the most?
Region targeting is the largest lever. Baidu lets you target by province and city. A B2B company that sells mainly to manufacturers in Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang can exclude other provinces and concentrate budget. National targeting for a regional business spreads spend thin.
Schedule matters too. Business-to-business searches cluster on weekdays during working hours, China Standard Time. Running ads overnight in China because the head office is in another time zone wastes clicks on low-intent traffic.
- Region: province and city targeting matched to real demand.
- Schedule: CST business hours for B2B, adjusted after a few weeks of data.
- Devices: separate bid adjustments for mobile, since most Baidu searches are on mobile.
- Negative keywords: block terms for jobs, free downloads, used equipment and similar.
How do Baidu costs compare with running Google Ads?
The comparison is less useful than it seems because the audiences barely overlap. Google is largely unavailable in mainland China, so Google Ads reaches Chinese speakers outside China, while Baidu reaches users inside it. Click prices can be lower or higher than Google for the same industry; the bigger cost difference comes from setup, localization and fees.
Localization is often underestimated. Ads and landing pages need natural Simplified Chinese, not machine translation, and trust signals Chinese buyers expect: a Chinese phone number or WeChat contact, local certifications, company details. Without them, clicks are paid and leads do not come.
How do you keep costs under control after launch?
Review search term reports weekly in the first month and add negatives. Pause keywords with spend and no conversions after a reasonable number of clicks. Check landing page load time from within China with a testing service that has China nodes.
Track conversions properly. Baidu Tongji (Baidu Analytics) works in China where Google Analytics may not load reliably. Set up conversion tracking for form submissions, calls and WeChat clicks so the account can bid toward real leads.
Which Baidu ad formats beyond search affect cost?
Besides standard search ads, Baidu offers formats such as information feed ads in the Baidu app and partner network, and brand zone placements for brand searches. Feed ads are bought on clicks or impressions and reach users browsing rather than searching, so cost per lead tends to behave differently from search.
For a first test, most foreign advertisers stay with search only. It has the clearest intent, the simplest reporting and the most predictable cost. Feed campaigns make more sense once search has shown which messages and landing pages convert.
- Search ads: keyword intent, cost per click, the usual starting point.
- Feed ads: interest targeting, broader reach, needs strong visuals.
- Brand zone: premium layout on brand searches, for established brands with search volume.
Keep a simple monthly cost sheet with media spend, agency fees, translation and hosting costs side by side. Seen together, they show the real cost per lead from China, which is the number to compare with other markets.
Where to start this week
Ask two authorized Baidu agencies for written quotes covering account opening, service fees and minimum prepayment, and compare them line by line. Check whether your landing page loads in mainland China using a speed test with a China location.
Then build a keyword list of 30 to 50 terms in Simplified Chinese with a native speaker, and use the estimates once the account is open to calculate the cost of 500 to 600 test clicks. That number, plus the entry costs, is your realistic first budget.
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