Sometimes terms can be confusing across platforms in the digital space. We’ve put together a short glossary for you of the 4 most common Baidu Ads terms.
Baidu Ads: Quality Score
Quality score refers to the visibility of your keywords and ad copy on Baidu’s search engine results pages (SERPs). A higher quality score generally means a higher display position (ranking) on the SERP and a lower CPC.
Improving the relevance of your keywords and ad copy to your content and the user intent can help lower the minimum ad display price.
Quality score is determined by several factors, including:
CTR
This refers to the click-through-rate of your ads. The higher the CTR, the more effective your content. A high CTR shows that there is significant interest in your content and that it resolves searchers’ queries.
Relevance
There are two relevance factors:
- The relevance between keywords and ad copy
- The relevance between keywords/ad copy and the landing page
And of course, the greater the relevance, the better your quality score.
Ad Copy Composition
Ad copy should be clear and concise. The more readable, the better your CTR, which leads to more conversions and a higher quality score.
Comprehensive Account Performance
Keyword performance is tallied across your account, affecting the quality score of your overall profile. Don’t forget to optimize keywords with low-quality scores.
Baidu Ads: Ranking
Ranking refers to the ad’s actual position on the SERP. Ads with a high-quality score are shown on the top-left, and all other ads are shown on the right.
The higher the ad is ranked (positioned on the page), the better the ad engagement, driving more traffic to your site and greater brand impressions.
Ranking is determined by quality score and bidding price and is adjusted by Baidu. If the quality score of the keywords in competing ads is the same, then the ad with the higher CPC gets the better position. And if the bidding price of competing ads is the same, then the ad with the higher quality score gets the better ranking.
Baidu Ads: Bidding Price
How much you are willing to pay for a single click? This is the bidding price.
The actual CPC will be no more than your bidding price. However, the bidding price is not the final price you will pay for each click—it is the top limit of what you could pay.
Bidding is one of the many factors affecting ranking.
Bidding price ≠ CPC
Baidu Ads: CPC
Cost-per-click (CPC) is the actual price you pay for each click your ad receives.
The actual CPC is affected by rankings, bidding price, and the quality of competing ads. It is a dynamic metric, meaning that it changes regularly in response to competition and quality score.
For example, the CPC of a particular keyword may be different from one ad campaign to another in the same account due to the dynamic nature of ranking, bidding, and quality score.
CPC = (next ranked competitor CPC * next ranked quality score) / your quality score + 0.01
