On May 8th, I, who is responsible for Baidu bidding, participated in the key account training in Anhui. Brought back shocking news, Baidu is going to correct its evil ways. What a surprise, what a surprise. Combined with the recent actions of Baidu’s bidding department and Baidu’s relevant training information. Let’s first sort out what Baidu will ultimately do. In this way, I will publish several articles one after another about the impact of Baidu's bidding promotion adjustments on SEO practitioners and SEO customers. The use of the word "preliminary exploration" in this article "Preliminary Study on Adjustment" is based on the fact that in some aspects it is just the author's speculation on Baidu's intentions.
Modifications that Baidu has released:
1. The Baidu bidding promotion site has been revised; for example, jingjia.baidu.com has been changed to e.baidu.com.
2. Change the unit price ranking priority to the total consumption ranking priority;
3. Stop selling and renew the popular area on the right side of Baidu;
4. The Baidu promotion area on the left side of the homepage will be changed from a maximum of 10 items in the past to a maximum of 3-4 items. At the same time, more promotion websites will be displayed in the popular area on the right side of the current homepage. At the same time, the promotion ranking website display on the left side will be clearly distinguished from the Baidu snapshot [natural ranking]. You may refer to Google's sponsored link display method.
5. At the same time, the entry threshold for Baidu promotion customers will be increased from about 3k to the current 5k-6k;
6. Baidu's promotion backend allows for more free promotion functions such as regional placement by word and daily consumption limit;
7. Add a Baidu brand area to open up new advertising forms and areas for Baidu’s brand customers;
8. Add relevant information news section to the home page;
9. Pay close attention to excessive optimization and severely punish cheating.
Regarding the above adjustments, it is not difficult to find. Baidu is starting to use its brain like Google. The following is the author's conjecture.
1. Baidu discovered major Internet advertising companies, such as Lenovo, FAW and other customers that focus on brand advertising. It is difficult to submit the original bid, and the ranking mechanism based on unit price priority will also force brand customers to compete with some small stragglers. It is easy to lose Baidu's credibility and customer feelings. Therefore, Baidu can use well-known brands such as Lenovo and Volkswagen to become its new main advertisers by using the new brand area and the policy of giving priority to total consumption rankings. Get orders for greater brand promotion and influence. And it will not lose Baidu's credibility.
2. Move Baidu promotion from the 10 items on the left to the popular area on the right. At first glance, Baidu seems to be losing revenue. But this is not the case. Popular areas have always been a weak point of Baidu's promotion bidding system. Moreover, Ci is a monthly or yearly subscription, and the income itself is very small. After moving No. 4-14 to the right side, the competition for the top three spots has actually increased. Because there is almost no difference between the original 3 and 4 digits. But now there is definitely a huge difference in the number of clicks between the 3rd and 4th digits. As a result, the income for the 2nd and 3rd digits will be much greater than before. At the same time, three bidding promotion positions 11-14 have been added. Brings new advertising space value. Taken together, Baidu's overall promotion department's revenue will be less, but not much less.
3. Baidu has been criticized by the outside world for spending money to buy rankings. It can also completely rectify its reputation through this adjustment. For Baidu, tens of millions is not as good as the outside world's doubts about its brand credibility. Moreover, excessive commercialization will also make Baidu's internal and external environment unstable.
4. In my opinion, the adjustment of the bidding mechanism is Baidu’s most brilliant skill. The original unit price ranking cannot fully control the quality of customers and the persistence of spending money. But the new total consumption ranking priority allows companies to continue spending money to buy rankings. For Baidu, it can also get more revenue.
To sum up, it is not difficult to find that the adjustment of Baidu’s bidding promotion also involves several core interest departments of Baidu such as the engine technology department, customer service department, and anti-cheating. It can be seen that this so-called "adjustment" should be done by Robin Li himself. In the words of Baidu's key account manager, more than 1,600 Baidu employees are involved. This should be the largest adjustment since Baidu went public.