Baidu Ads UTM tracking
Baidu is the dominant search engine in mainland China, and Baidu's advertising platform drives paid search at scale there. To attribute Baidu clicks in third-party analytics you add UTM parameters to the landing URL and use Baidu's dynamic URL parameters to fill in campaign and keyword values at click time.
Use Baidu URL parameters with UTM
Set utm_source=baidu and utm_medium=cpc as static values, then let Baidu's dynamic URL parameters substitute the campaign unit and matched keyword. Baidu replaces the placeholders at click time so the real values reach your analytics.
Keep the static tokens lowercase and aligned with your wider paid-search taxonomy so Baidu groups with other engines for comparison.
- utm_source=baidu, utm_medium=cpc (static)
- utm_campaign / utm_term from Baidu dynamic URL parameters
- Register the tagged URL as the ad destination
China-market considerations
Baidu measurement commonly uses Baidu Tongji (Baidu Analytics). UTM parameters are what let the same Baidu click surface in a non-Baidu analytics tool for unified cross-channel reporting.
Because China-facing sites often sit behind different routing and CDNs, a clean explicit source token avoids Baidu clicks being misclassified as direct or referral.
How it appears in analytics and logs
A landing hit with your Baidu UTM set means a paid click from Baidu search reached you. Macro-filled keyword and campaign values describe the ad context, not the visitor.
Diagnostic use case
Distinguish Baidu paid search from organic and from other engines in China-facing reporting, and pass the matched keyword and campaign through to analytics.
What WebmasterID can help detect
WebmasterID records the tagged Baidu landing hit as a campaign touch, so Baidu paid search appears as its own source instead of folding into generic search or direct.
Common mistakes
- Leaving Baidu macros as literal placeholders so analytics records the token text.
- Mixing source spellings (baidu, baidu.com) that fragment the channel.
- Assuming Baidu Tongji data flows into GA4 without UTM tagging.
Privacy and accuracy notes
UTM and Baidu macro values describe the ad and keyword, not the person. China-market geography is a coarse edge estimate, never an exact location, and no raw IP or visitor ID is stored on the touch.
Related pages
- Yandex Direct UTM tracking
Yandex Direct is Yandex's advertising platform for search and display across the Russian-language web. To attribute its clicks in third-party analytics, add UTM parameters to your landing-page URLs and let Yandex Direct substitute its dynamic macros (such as the campaign and keyword placeholders) at click time. Yandex documents the available macros for building tracking URLs.
- Google Ads UTM tracking
Google Ads can attach a gclid automatically (auto-tagging) or you can add manual UTM parameters. This page explains how the two interact, why double-tagging a URL with both conflicting schemes causes confusion, and how to keep your utm_* values clean and consistent.
- UTM for regional ad platforms
Western analytics defaults recognize Google, Bing, and Meta, but treat regional giants such as Yandex, Naver, Kakao, Baidu, VK, and LINE as unknown referrals or direct. This page is a cross-cutting guide to applying consistent UTM tagging across regional ad platforms so each appears as its own channel, with macros where the platform supports them.
- Attribution analytics
Attribute Baidu paid search as its own channel.
Sources and verification notes
- Baidu Marketing — official siteBaidu advertising platform; UTM is appended to landing URLs and Baidu dynamic URL parameters fill campaign/keyword values.
Last reviewed 2026-06-24. Facts are checked against primary/official sources where available; uncertain specifics are marked “Data not yet verified” rather than guessed.