Your China media budget deserves a senior team. We plan it, buy it, run it.

You do. We set up the Tmall, Douyin, Baidu, and WeChat ad accounts in your brand's name wherever the platform allows it. Pixels, audiences, campaign history, performance data, all of it belongs to you. Stop working with us and you keep the lot, no exit drama. We ask about this first because it's usually the first thing a client who's been burned before asks us.

Realistically, around 100,000 RMB a month, call it 14,000 dollars, to run one platform properly with creative and optimization behind it. You can spend less. You just won't learn much from it. For a multi-platform launch, plan on 500,000 to 2 million RMB across the first three months. Treat those as working ranges, not a quote. Your category moves them, sometimes a lot.

Moments ads start somewhere around 50 to 120 RMB CPM, roughly 7 to 16 dollars, and tighter targeting pushes that up. Minimum campaign spend for Moments is usually 50,000 RMB. Official Account article ads and Mini Program banners come in lower, from about 15,000 RMB. Industry, targeting, creative quality, they all pull the number around.

In-feed video CPM usually runs 30 to 60 RMB, about 4 to 8 dollars. The technical minimum is 50 RMB a day per ad group, but that's not a real campaign. Budget at least 10,000 RMB so the system has enough to optimize against. TopView and Brand Challenges are a different world, hundreds of thousands of RMB.

Feed ad CPM starts around 40 to 100 RMB, roughly 6 to 14 dollars. Search ads run on cost-per-click, usually 1 to 5 RMB a click. KOC seeding starts around 300 to 1,500 RMB a post. KOL campaigns are a wide range: about 5,000 RMB for a small creator, several hundred thousand for a top-tier name.

All down to the keyword. A generic term might be 1 to 3 RMB a click. A competitive one in insurance, education, or medical can run 30 to 100 RMB. Baidu Brand Zone, the premium branded result, starts around 200,000 RMB a year for most categories.

Project fees for setup, monthly retainers for ongoing management, and media spend passed through at cost. No hidden margin on the media itself. We'll show you the platform invoices if you ask. Minimum monthly retainer is 5,000 dollars.

Depends on the product and who's buying it. Skincare and fashion usually start on RED. Fast-moving consumer goods and quick-decision purchases go to Douyin. B2B, finance, anything high-consideration leads with WeChat and Baidu. We pick based on where your buyer actually decides, not where the buying is easiest for us.

Yes, through cross-border ad accounts. Douyin, WeChat, RED, and Baidu all take overseas advertisers. Expect extra verification and slightly higher rates. Setup runs two to four weeks and needs business documents, a brand authorization letter, and whatever certifications your category requires.

WeChat, two to three weeks. Douyin, one to two weeks for standard categories, four to six for regulated ones like cosmetics, food, or health. RED, two to four weeks. Baidu, one to two weeks. Regulated categories always take longer because of the pre-approvals. There's no way to rush that part, and you wouldn't want to.

Almost always, yes. Sending paid traffic to an English-language site kills your conversion rate. The page needs to load inside China, in Chinese, with Chinese payment options where they apply. We build these, or we adapt what you've got.

Standard category, simple creative, one platform: about three weeks from signed agreement to live ads. Regulated category, several platforms, full creative production: six to ten weeks. We don't shortcut the compliance step. That shortcut is exactly what gets accounts suspended.

The usual digital KPIs all apply: CPM, CPC, CTR, cost per acquisition, return on ad spend. On top of those we track the China-specific signals that tell you more. WeChat follower conversion cost. Douyin live-room entry rate. RED's save-to-impression ratio. Baidu brand search lift. We agree the KPIs up front, then report against them every month.

Mostly it doesn't, at least not the way you're used to. These are walled gardens. Each platform reports its own conversions and cross-platform attribution is genuinely hard. We use platform-native pixels, UTM tags where they hold up, and post-purchase surveys for high-value categories. We'd rather be honest about that than sell you a dashboard that pretends it's solved.

No. Each platform has its own voice, format, and audience expectation. Douyin wants fast cuts and a hook inside two seconds. RED wants slower, lifestyle-led content that reads like a real user's post. WeChat sits between them, more brand-led. We adapt or rebuild for each one.

In-house studio. Photo, video, copy, motion graphics, with Chinese writers, editors, and designers doing the work. We also use AI-generated content tools to cut time and cost on the high-volume stuff, like product photo variations and short-form video edits. The judgment stays human. The grunt work doesn't have to be.

Yes, and more so every year. On RED and Douyin, paid spend behind KOL content often beats a straight ad. We treat KOLs and KOCs as part of the media plan, not a separate line item someone else handles. We source them, brief them, contract them, and amplify what works.

Live commerce is its own channel with its own skill set. Paid traffic into live rooms means Qianchuan on Douyin, Wantwang on Taobao. We run it for clients with the right product and the right margins. Not every brand should be livestreaming, and if yours is one of them, we'll say so rather than take the budget.

We rebuild the segments and test fresh creative. Algorithm updates on Douyin and RED happen a lot. We won't promise that last quarter's setup carries into this one. What we promise is that we'll catch the shift fast and move on it fast.

Tobacco and prescription drugs, banned outright. Alcohol, finance, healthcare, infant formula, cosmetics, medical devices, all heavily restricted. Education, gambling, and crypto are effectively banned. We check whether your category is even eligible before we pitch you a media plan, not after.

The absolute terms: best, top, number one, highest, most, national-level, world-class, and anything in that neighborhood. The official list isn't complete, so enforcement catches phrases you wouldn't expect, and it doesn't matter whether the claim is actually true. Health claims, medical-treatment language, and guaranteed-result wording are restricted on top of that. Fines run from 200,000 to 1 million RMB. We write copy that stays well clear.

Not automatically, no. Under China's Personal Information Protection Law, moving personal data out of the country is a regulated cross-border transfer. It needs a legal basis, user consent, and in some cases a security assessment. This holds even if your company has no entity in China. We set up tracking and data flows that stay inside the rules, and we're straight with you about what can and can't leave the country.

Three things that matter for media. Livestream recordings have to be archived for at least three years. Influencers can't use price superlatives, the "lowest price anywhere" kind of line, without verifiable proof on hand. And agencies that facilitate fake engagement now share legal liability with the creators they hire. We run livestream campaigns inside those rules, and we only work with creators who do the same.

China has a population of professional complainants. They scan ads for legal violations, especially superlative language and unsupported claims, then file reports for a financial reward. They work at scale. For a foreign brand, that means one non-compliant word in your copy can trigger a real investigation and a real fine. It's one more reason we get the copy right before anything goes live.

Yes. Hong Kong runs on Google, Meta, and local platforms like HK01. Taiwan runs on Facebook, Line, and Dcard. Different ecosystems, different teams. We have experience in both, kept separate from mainland China.