Baidu, one of the biggest internet giants in the world and China’s top search engine, recently released its hotel ads product across multiple platforms. This new product, called “Aladdin,” bears a lot of resemblance to Google Ad’s Hotel campaigns.
Multiple Channels for Publishing Due to Baidu’s Platform Diversity
Similar to Google, Baidu has its own ecosystem to operate on multiple touchpoints. The channel options range from search, to map, to a one-stop lifestyle app, where millions of active users browse for information tailored to their needs. There are three Baidu platforms on which you can find Aladdin:
Unique User Flow and Bidding Method
Unlike the majority of metasearch products where advertiser listings are triggered by a hotel search, Aladdin has developed a distinctive user flow. In the screenshot below, you can see that the advertiser listings are not displayed until users click onto the exact hotels and room types they are looking for.
Other than the user flow, another difference to note is that even though Aladdin uses CPC-based bidding, Baidu only accepts bid changes once per month with no bid levers available for strategic targeting. Therefore, the current Aladdin auction is more of a CPA and CPC hybrid bidding type, instead of the traditional CPC bidding familiar to most advertisers.
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