Digital Advertising in China

Through paid advertising, brands can reach a very broad target audience and get more traffic and leads. China has a unique digital landscape which provides numerous offerings for brands to place their ads. These channels include both search engines and digital media platforms.

SEARCH ENGINE ADVERTISING

Baidu is China’s most popular search engine. Similar to Google, there’s also a map search engine – Baidu Maps. It has a 67% market share and 174 million daily active users.

According to some reports, Sogou, backed by Tencent, has about 3.3% of the market. It classifies its results into categories such as music, pictures, video clips, news, maps and topical information.

Some reports put Qihoo’s market share at around 30%. Since it started as an anti-virus software company, it’s seen as a safe search engine that provides virus-free viewing.

SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING

WECHAT

WeChat, one of China’s big two social media apps, has several ad options. Banner ads are placed at the bottom of articles and messages and clicking on them directs you to another page. WeChat Moments ads blend in with the page to appear just like regular posts anc can be in display or video format. But first, you need to register your official account on the platform.

WEIBO

Advertising on Weibo, the second of China’s big two social media apps, includes cost per click display ads, which include pop-up ads for images, videos, or GIFs, banner ads and post boosts for KOL cooperation posts. Ads can be made interactive with “click here” buttons that direct users to dedicated pages or external links.

ZHIHU

This platform is China’s Quora. It’s moved towards greater monetization of the platform by opening it up to advertising. Pop-up ads that come up after opening the app are available with “click here” buttons that direct users to a dedicated page. Newsfeed advertisements are integrated within the explore page’s feed. Zhihu also provides traditional banner advertisements on internal search pages.

RED

Translated as “little red book”, the platform is a shopping recommendation site that revolves around influencers. However, it does provide brands with customer service and marketing support including data insights and in-app advertisements. There are two types of paid advertisements. Pop-up ads that are shown when the app is opened and ads integrated within the page feed..

ALARICE HELPS YOU TO DESIGN AND SET UP A MULTI-CHANNEL ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN TO HELP YOU ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS INCLUDING:

Reviewing your landing page to make sure it’s promotion-friendly and ready to go
Creating or adapting ad materials, including copywriting and images
Researching keywords and setting up targeting options
Testing the ad performance and allocating budget accordingly
Continuously optimizing your ad campaign to maximize conversions

WHY CHOOSE ALARICE?

Help clients to register
advertiser account

Work with a variety of
Chinese MCN

Work with flexible budget
and promotion period

ADDITIONAL SERVICES

MARKETING RESEARCH

Our China marketing research and strategy team gives you a detailed framework that will allow you to start and grow your business in mainland China.

SOCIAL MEDIA
MARKETING

We help you to localize messages, strengthen your brand image and reach out to target audiences through Chinese social media.

SOCIAL LISTENING AND DIGITAL MONITORING

We can help you understand and analyse what netizens are saying about your brand online.

COMPETITOR RESEARCH

Our China marketing research and strategy team gives you a detailed framework that will allow you to start and grow your business in mainland China.

CHINA CONSUMER RESEARCH

Identify target consumers and understand their demands and possible future trends, with Alarice’s research team. We’ll help you convert insights about your consumer personas into actionable strategy.

INFLUENCER MARKETING AND
CAMPAIGNS

We help you to establish goal-specific social marketing campaigns and fruitful collaborations with Chinese KOLs and influencers.

MEET OUR FOUNDER

Ashley Galina Dudarenok is a China digital marketing expert, serial entrepreneur, masterclass facilitator, keynote speaker, bestselling author, vlogger and podcaster. She’s also a LinkedIn Top Voice in Marketing, Holmes Report Asia Pacific Top 25 Innovator and has been a member of JD’s Global China Experts Group. She’s the founder of digital marketing consultancy ChoZan digital marketing agency Alarice.

As a keynote speaker, Ashley has spoken at over 100 events across the globe for companies like BMW, Disney, Shangri-La, Deutsche Bundesbank, Richemont and TEDx. She’s also given lectures at HKU Space and done talks at the China Business Centre of Hong Kong PolyU and the National University of Singapore Business School.

A regular media contributor, Ashley has appeared in The SCMP, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, China Daily, Inside Retail, Jing Daily, Technode, CNBC, Wired, Huffington Post as well as interviews on The BBC, CGTN and more.

MORE ABOUT ASHLEY

WHAT DO PEOPLE SAY

“ The number of room nights booked by Chinese clients has DOUBLED since November 2018. This is a great result! Our SMM and PR activities in China, run by Alarice, have been the major fuel behind this success. Thank you, Alarice team! ”

Anna Bolotskaya
Head of Marketing of Metropol Hotel

“ Great job handling digital marketing for The Yidan Prize over the past 2 years. Professional, responsive and full of energy! Thank you, Alarice! ”

Brian Yeung
Marketing Manager of The Yidan Prize

“ Alarice team has helped us kickstart our Astana EXPO-2017 Weibo page from scratch and grew it to 178,000 followers within 18 months on a very tight budget! This is no easy task, but they did it with great content, engaging campaigns, but most importantly through treating this project like their own. Highly recommended! ”

Diana Petrenko
Project Manager of Astana Expo-2017

“ Alarice helped us do comprehensive marketing research and create a strategy for China. The insights are extremely helpful and we are now ready to tackle China. Thanks Alarice team for the great work! ”

Kshitij Minglani
Co-Founder of Mindvalley Quests

“ Ashley, you’re living the Disney brand! Thanks for the amazingly insightful, high-energy and entertaining strategy workshops! ”

John Sinke
Director, Marketing at
Hong Kong, Disneyland

“ The number of room nights booked by Chinese clients has DOUBLED since November 2018. This is a great result! Our SMM and PR activities in China, run by Alarice, have been the major fuel behind this success. Thank you, Alarice team! ”

Anna Bolotskaya
Head of Marketing of the
Metropol Hotel

FAQ

What should my monthly advertising budget be in China?

China is not a cheap market to advertise in. Depending on your product, audience, sales channels and the outcome you’re after, we advise you to start with a minimum of 5,000-10,000 USD per month. Contact us to get more information.

Do you arrange search engine advertising?

Yes we can help you to advertise on Baidu, Sogou and Qihoo. For some businesses, search engine marketing is more crucial than for others. Before launching any advertising, you need to make sure that you’re investing your money in the right platform. It’s also important to know that before advertising on Baidu, you need to be in an industry that’s allowed to advertise on the platform and that your ad has been approved. Schedule a call to know more about advertising.

How do you guarantee a result?

We always deliver the results that we promise. This is why we set realistic expectations. For instance, we can commit to certain levels of exposure by platform and estimate the number of clicks. If we’re lagging, we can boost them with an ad round. We can’t promise how many products will actually be bought. We track performance on a daily basis and adjust budget allocation accordingly to make sure that campaigns perform at their best. Please contact us to get more information.

READY TO ORDER YOUR PAID ADVERTISING IN CHINA? GET IN TOUCH NOW!

LOOKING TO TRAIN YOUR CHINA TEAM?

Check our Digital China Consultancy for a variety of learning programmes, consulting sessions, China trend watching and research focused on China’s best practices and successful business models. Click on the ChoZan logo for more info.