Baidu Search Ads Drops Device Bid Coefficients: What It Means for Overseas Advertisers

Baidu's search advertising platform is retiring the device bid benchmark and device bid coefficient settings. If you've been managing Baidu campaigns manually, here's what changed, why it matters, and what it means if you're advertising on Baidu without a Chinese business entity.

---

📊 What's Being Retired

Device bid coefficients were a legacy feature from the early days of Baidu's manual CPC bidding. The feature let advertisers set different bid multipliers for computer vs. mobile when using manual CPC.

Baidu officially retired the feature in September 2022.

---

📊 The Timeline (Already Completed)

| Date | Change | |------|--------| | Sep 14–19, 2022 | Existing plans with device bid coefficients could still be modified manually | | Sep 20, 2022 | New/edit entry points went offline — no more device bid coefficient settings for new or edited CPC plans | | Sep 20 – Oct 15, 2022 | Historical plans with "unlimited device" and coefficient ≠ 1 were auto-switched to Enhanced Mode |

> Note: This retirement only affects *device* bid coefficients. Regional and audience bid coefficients still work normally with manual CPC.

---

📊 What Replaces Device Bid Coefficients?

When you create a new search ad plan, you now choose:

• Unlimited devices (system optimizes for both)
• Computer only
• Mobile only

For bidding, you choose:

• Manual CPC (click bidding, no device coefficient)
• Enhanced Mode (automated, recommended)
• Target CPA / oCPC (conversion-based)
• Max Conversion Volume

Enhanced Mode and Target CPA automatically optimize for device, audience, region, and time — no manual coefficients needed.

---

---

📊 The Barrier for Overseas Advertisers

Here's the part that matters if you're reading this from outside China.

All of these bidding features — Enhanced Mode, Target CPA, even manual CPC — require a Baidu advertising account. And to open a Baidu advertising account, you need a Chinese business license (营业执照).

No Chinese entity = no direct Baidu account = no access to any of these features.

This is exactly why BPP exists. We provide Baidu PPC services for overseas companies that want to advertise on Baidu without setting up a Chinese subsidiary.

---

🔧 How BPP Handles This

When you work with BPP, we:

• Open and manage the Baidu account for you — using our Chinese business entity as the account holder
• Set up Enhanced Mode or Target CPA — we handle the technical setup and conversion tracking
• Manage device targeting — we configure computer-only / mobile-only / unlimited at the campaign level as needed
• No Chinese business license required from you — you remain the advertiser; we handle the platform side

You get the performance benefits of Baidu's automated bidding without the corporate infrastructure requirement.

---

---

📊 Key Takeaways

---

Talk to the BPP team. We will walk you through the realistic options for your industry, your budget, and your goals — no pressure, no fluff.

→ Contact BPP