• Baidu PPC Phoenix Nest
• Google Adwords

Baidu Phoenix Nest and Google Adwords both employ an account structure that consists of 3 major levels:

• Campaigns
• Ad groups
• Ads and keywords

Let’s compare Baidu Phoenix Nest PPC and Google Adwords on items that include:

• Quality Score, Keyword Quality
• Keyword Matching, Click Reports
• Ad Text Optimization
• Editing Tools
• Conversion Optimization Tools, Auto-bidding Tools
• Conversion Tracking
• Web Analytics
• Keyword Tools, Keyword Trends
• Content Network Optimization
• Ad Re-targeting

Quality Score, Keyword Quality

Adwords:

• Google Adwords Quality Score: Quality Score is re-calculated every time your keyword is eligible to trigger an ad. Adwords Quality Score algorithm differs when it is affecting ads on Google and the Search Network or ads on the Content Network.
• Google Includes Ad Position in Adwords Quality Score Calculation: As click through rate (CTR) is one of the most important factors in ranking ads, and normally the higher the ad ranks, the more clicks the ad gets, Google would normalize the positions and CTR of ads to give your ad a more precise Quality Score.
• Landing Page Load Time to Affect Adwords Quality Score: Optimize your landing pages will improve the Quality Score of your Google Adwords campaigns’ performance.

Baidu Phoenix Nest:

• Baidu PPC Keyword Quality: Ad ranking in Baidu’s new PPC system, Phoenix Nest, is very much based on keywords’ maximum cost-per-click (CPC) and keyword quality, after Baidu’s retires the old PPC system. Factors in keyword quality includes click through rate (CTR).

Keyword Matching, Click Reports

Adwords:

• Adwords Search Query Report: Shows search queries that have led visitors to your website through your Adwords ads, and connects the clicks to conversions in most Adwords reports for all further keyword analysis.
• Adwords Broad Match Keywords: A keyword match type that is used in conjunction with negative match keywords to maximize the number of clicks, discover new keywords, and reduce cost.
• Adwords Negative Keywords: A keyword match type to reduce cost by excluding irrelevant clicks. You can use negative keywords as negative broad, negative phrase or negative exact in your campaigns or ad groups.
• Adwords Separates Statistics for Google and Search Partners: Google reveals the origins of clicks you have received by separately reporting clicks of Google search and clicks of Search Network (Google’s search partners)

Baidu Phoenix Nest:

• Baidu PPC Search Queries: Shows search queries that have led visitors to your website through your Baidu PPC ads, but does not connect the clicks to conversions for any further keyword analysis.
• A basic negative keyword matching can be applied to Baidu Phoenix Nest campaigns.

Ad Text Optimization

Adwords:

• Adwords Dynamic Keyword Insertion: DKI helps you automate ad text creation, allows you to minimize the time you spend manually creating and managing your ad groups, ensures your ads are relevant and improves your ads’ click through rates (CTR).
• Adwords Trademark Keywords: Google’s trademark policies are applied on ads and keywords, and differ from country to country. If your competitors have infringed your company’s trademarked “terms” on Adwords, file complaints through Google’s online trademark complaint procedure.

Baidu Phoenix Nest:

• Dynamic keyword insertion can be applied to any ad text.
• Contact Baidu’s account management team to file protection for your trademarked “terms”.

PPC Editing Tools

Adwords:

• Adwords Editor: When you have a large number of Adwords campaigns, ad groups, ads and/or keywords, use Google Adwords Editor to download your account, update your campaigns, ad groups, ads and/or keywords offline, and then upload your changes to your Adwords account. Adwords Editor shows Quality Score of your keywords and is available in almost 40 languages. The tools includes keyword opportunities tool and keyword grouper.

Baidu Phoenix Nest:

• Baidu PPC Editor: A basic editor that allows you to create/edit campaigns, ad groups, ads and keywords offline and then post changes to Baidu Phoenix Nest.

Conversion Optimization Tools, Auto-bidding Tools

Adwords:

• Adwords Conversion Optimizer Tips and Adwords Conversion Optimizer Review: An optimization algorithm that manages your keywords’ cost-per-click (CPC) bids by keeping the cost of each conversion below the maximum cost-per-acquisition (CPA) you specify, based on your Adwords campaigns’ historical conversion data.
• Adwords Conversion Optimizer Target CPA Bidding: Specify the average amount (or actual cost) you will pay for a conversion and Targeting CPA bidding will automate your keywords’ cost-per-click (CPC) bids.
• Google Adwords Bid Simulator: Get estimation of cost, clicks and impressions before setting your keyword’s maximum cost-per-click (CPC). Adwords Bid Simulator’s prediction is based on your keywords’ bids and Quality Score, the keyword bids and keyword Quality Score of your competitors, historical search volume of Google.com and Google’s Search Network of your keywords, and historical click volume of your keywords.

Baidu Phoenix Nest:

• Baidu offers no tool for your campaigns’ conversion optimization or keywords’ cost-per-click (CPC) auto-bidding.

Conversion Tracking

Adwords:

• Adwords Conversion Tracking: Track Adwords keyword / ad group performance/conversion for both search-targeted and content-targeted campaigns by inserting a conversion tracking code snippet onto your website’s confirmation / thank you page. Adwords conversion tracking enables you to track purchases/sales, leads, sign-ups, and/or views of a key page as conversions with or without a value assigned to your conversions. Each Adwords conversion has a cookie period of 30 days and is reflected in most Adwords reports.

Baidu Phoenix Nest:

• Baidu PPC Conversion Tracking: A basic tool that offers multiple conversion goal tracking. All you need is to insert a conversion tracking code snippet onto your website’s confirmation / thank you page.

Web Analytics

Adwords:

• Google Analytics: The world’s most widely-used, free web analytics tool that gives you reports on your site’s traffic data. Google Analytics can be set up in many customized ways to support your websites’ different tracking requirements.
• If you run campaigns on multiple Chinese PPC search engines, track PPC conversions in Google Analytics.
• Import Google Analytics goal data into Adwords if you are not using Adwords conversion tracking.

Baidu Phoenix Nest:

• Baidu Analytics: A basic, free web analytics tool that offers traffic data reports for your Chinese website. Baidu’s Analytics interface is only available in Chinese language.

Keyword Tools, Keyword Trends

Adwords:

• Google Keyword Tool: Offers search volume keyword data of the previous month, average search volume of the past 12 months, and advertiser competitions on the keywords.
• Google Search-based Keyword Tool: Get new keyword suggestions based on the actual search queries on Google and matched to specific web pages of your website, that are not currently in your Google Adwords account.
• Google Insights for Search: Discover keyword trends of your website’s industry based on geographical regions, and spot your competitors’ brand strength.
• Google Trends in Chinese: A simple version of Google’s Insight for Search, in Chinese.

Baidu Phoenix Nest:

• Baidu Keyword Research Tools: Generate keywords from a “core keyword” and/or from a URL that you enter. Download the list of suggested keywords and/or add the new keywords to your Baidu campaigns.
• Google Trends vs Baidu Index: Discover Chinese search trends that users typed into Baidu.

Content Network Optimization

Adwords:

• Adwords Content Targeting Optimization: Google enables you to manage both search network ads and content network ads in one system, Adwords. Optimize your content targeted campaigns using placement report, conversion targeting tool, and site exclusion tool.
• Google Adwords’ matching takes your entire ad group of keywords and match semantically and thematically to Google’s content network sites. You can further improve the relevance of your targeting sites by applying Google content network site exclusion. Restructuring will expand the “reach” of your content-targeted campaigns.
• Adwords Placement Performance Report for Google Content Network: Reveals the referring sites’ URLs that have sent clicks to your Google content network.
• Google Content Network Performance Trends: This Google whitepaper reveals content network makes up of 19.6% conversions of Adwords, CPA is 2.6% lower than the search network, and clicks are 28% less expensive than the search network.
• Google Adwords Display Ad Builder: Set up your display ads on Google’s content network with pre-designed display/image ad templates.

Baidu Phoenix Nest:

• Baidu Union: Baidu content network’s ad matching technique is still at a pre-mature stage as it can only match keyword by keyword from your campaigns to a site within Baidu’s content network. This often causes your ads appearing on irrelevant content sites and can cause extremely low conversion rates for the budget you have spent through Baidu Union.
• To expand your campaigns’ reach in Baidu’s content network, the only option is to increase cost-per-click (CPC) which will directly increase your budget.

Ad Re-targeting

Adwords:

• Adwords Remarketing, Retargeting to Google Content Network: Adwords Remarketing enables Google showing ads to visitors who previously visited your site but did not convert, this time through ads on Google’s Content Network.

Baidu Phoenix Nest:

• Baidu has not officially launched any retargeting tools for ads.

China’s Pay-per-click (PPC) Search Engines

Chinese search engines can be categorized into three tiers:

• 1st tier search engines: Baidu, Google China
• 2nd tier search engines: Yahoo China, Tencent’s Soso, Sohu’s Sogou, Netease/163.com’s Youdao
• 3rd tier search engines: Bing, others

Chinese search engines that offer Chinese pay-per-click (PPC) auction systems:

• 1st tier PPC search engines: Baidu PPC Phoenix Nest, Google Adwords
• 2nd tier PPC search engines: Tencent’s Soso PPC, Sogou PPC, Youdao PPC
• 3rd tier PPC search engines: Yahoo China, smaller PPC search engines that can be ignored

Chinese Search Engine Marketing in 2009 Revised

Baidu PPC auction systems has made major upgrades. The number one Chinese search engine Baidu,

• Launched Baidu PPC Phoenix Nest in April.
• Retired Baidu’s old PPC system and launched Baidu PPC Editor in December.
• Offers Baidu keyword research tool and Baidu Analytics to advertisers who have Baidu’s Phoenix Nest accounts.

Adwords launched a few Chinese localized advertising products in China. Google China,

• Started showing bottom Adwords ads.
• Tested China’s version of Google Adwords PPC site links (i.e. Adwords Brand Zone).

Soso PPC’s Account Structure

Tencent Search Marketing has simple account structure and do not have campaign or ad group levels. Keywords and ads are the two major layers in Soso PPC’s account structure.

A keyword consists of:

• Keyword match type (broad, phrase or exact)
• Keyword cost-per-click (CPC)

An ad consists of:

• Ad title
• Ad description
• Display URL
• Destination URL

How Soso.com Displays Pay-per-click Ads

Soso.com currently shows Tencent Search Marketing PPC ads above and on the right hand side of organic search results.

At the bottom of Soso.com’s search results pages, Google Adwords ads are shown.

Create a Tencent Soso PPC Account

Soso.com does not allow new advertisers to directly create Tencent Search Marketing account. However, you can go through one of the ad agencies which have been approved by Tencent.

Soso PPC Reports

Soso PPC offer two basic reports:

• Ad report
• Keyword report

Other Issues and Features about Soso PPC

• Soso PPC’s auction system takes click through rate (CTR) and keyword maximum cost-per-click (CPC) into account to determine ad ranking, but the effectiveness of this new ad ranking algorithm is yet to be verified.
• Soso PPC’s account interface and many features are not as thorough and complicated as Google Adwords search ad auction system or Baidu’s PPC auction system (Phoenix Nest). So optimization may tend to be mainly based on bidding.
• The default minimum bid for keywords is RMB 0.30, but many high search volume keywords’ minimum bids are over that rate.
• Only basic reports are offered for you to monitor the performance of your keywords and ads.
• No ability to set and control your account’s / ads’ daily budget.
• Ad rotation or A/B ad testing are not possible.
• Exporting and/or importing of your account (ads, keywords, CPC, match types, ad titles, ad descriptions, destination URLs) are possible through spreadsheets.
• No payment feature is available to advertisers to pay directly through Soso PPC’s system.
• Tencent’s Soso search engine has much lower Chinese search volume than Baidu and Google.

For the companies in China that already have been spending on PPC in 2007, they are currently focusing on generating sales and conversions. Branding and combining PPC strategies into overall marketing strategies have already been happening commonly in the US and many Western European countries, but will only be the next two steps for most of the companies in China.

Advertisers who want to reach online Chinese audiences should consider spending through the major China paid search platforms below:

• Baidu Search Marketing
• Google Adwords
• China Yahoo P4P

In terms of traffic, Baidu Search Marketing is the PPC search engine that delivers the highest traffic volume in almost all sectors. Google Adwords delivers the highest quality of traffic, as Google’s user base in China is of generally higher educational backgrounds.

Regarding to platforms, Adwords is of the highest user-friendliness and provides the most features for optimization. Baidu Search Marketing and Yahoo P4P provide platforms that are more basic.

• 16.8% don’t know what paid search is about and have never heard of it
• 11.3% know what paid search is about
• 9% pays great attention to the ranking of paid search ads
• 9% think paid search is high risk to search history privacy leak
• 9% believe the pay per click business model is sustainable
• 5.1% are able to distinguish between paid search ads and natural search results

Other concerning findings regarding the use of search engines include:

• 32% have searched on their own real names on a search engine
• 29% have used a search engine to find their own personal information

The research report is based on the survey conducted to 4500 people in metropolitan areas of Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.

• Banner 48.9%
• Paid Search (PPC Advertising) 24.9%
• Classifieds 7.4%
• Text Link 7.2%
• Rich Media 2.6%
• Email 1.4%
• Others 7.4%