The Chinese market is considered one of the major targets for global brands seeking to market their products in China, due to its high potential. This is driven by over 829 million internet users, more than ten times the number in Thailand, with almost all accessing the internet via smartphones. Furthermore, over 150 million Chinese tourists travel abroad annually, with a growth rate of nearly 15% per year, and over 75% of these tourists conducting transactions online.
Every minute in China's digital world is filled with online activity. For example, over 400 articles were posted on WeChat, over 1.6 million updates on Weibo, 11 million messages were sent via QQ Messenger, 15 million yuan was paid through Alipay, and even over 13,000 product reviews were posted on Taobao—all within a single minute.
If you're looking for ways to create online marketing campaigns in China, our team is ready to assist you. We have digital marketing strategies specifically designed to reach Chinese consumers and penetrate Chinese platforms (WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, Xiaohongshu), whether it's building brand awareness, promoting products, or strategic communication.
If you're ready, let us help you develop a Chinese marketing strategy for your Thai business to take your business to success in the Chinese market starting today.
The Chinese market is the world's largest e-commerce market and one of the most promising, with a massive market value exceeding hundreds of billions of baht. Surveys show a clear shift in Chinese consumer behavior, with over 58% preferring online shopping, 26% shopping both online and offline, and only 17% still relying solely on offline channels.
This trend has resulted in the growth of over 400% Chinese social media platforms in recent years, and this expansion is expected to continue in the future. As Chinese consumers prioritize convenience, speed, and time saving, online shopping has become a core part of their lives.
However, penetrating the Chinese online market is highly competitive. Building brand awareness and establishing an online presence so consumers remember you is essential. Strategies...
The channels that work in China are influencer marketing, social media marketing and Baidu advertising. Each reaches Chinese consumers in a different way, and most brands need more than one.
You don't need to walk alone when it comes to starting your marketing in China. We are a trusted Chinese marketing agency partner you can rely on every step of the way. HelloAds, your Chinese marketing consultant, collaborates with leading digital online marketing companies in China, ensuring that all our services help your brand stand out, differentiate itself, and gain recognition in the Chinese market.
Beyond being a service provider, we also serve as your Chinese marketing strategy consultant and professional assistant, providing close support to make penetrating the Chinese market easy and increase your chances of achieving sustainable business success.
Influencer Marketing
According to research by Frost & Sullivan, influencer-generated sales in China reached 32.9 billion yuan (approximately US$4.9 billion) in 2017 and are projected to grow by more than 40% over the next five years. This reflects the strong importance Chinese consumers place on influencers, as they trust influencer reviews more than official brand information or even word-of-mouth from friends.
Currently, there are over 2–3 million influencers in China, spanning all levels from Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) to Micro-influencers, making this market one of the most powerful channels for building consumer awareness and influencing purchasing decisions.
HelloAds Agency, a Chinese marketing agency, offers the following services: Influencer Marketing This service helps you find and select the most suitable influencers for your brand, enabling you to reach your target audience effectively.
Baidu is the largest search engine network in China, with a market share of 76%. Therefore, Baidu Advertising can be considered a gateway to reaching over 950 million internet users in China.
With AI-powered targeting and precision, the HelloAds team specializes in comprehensive Baidu advertising solutions. This ensures your brand gains recognition in the Chinese market and provides an essential marketing channel for your products in China. The goal is to dramatically increase website traffic, expand target audience visibility, and boost sales beyond your targets with a superior Chinese marketing strategy.
With over 1 billion users on its social media platform, WeChat is a crucial tool for businesses targeting the Chinese market. Offering a variety of functions including text information, voice information, and chat moments, WeChat is currently the world's second-largest chat application provider and continues to experience rapid growth in the Chinese market.
With over 400 million users, this social media platform is the largest online social network in China. It boasts a daily activity rate of 94%, with 1,300,000 video posts per day, up to 200,000 live streams daily, and 114,000,000 articles posted on Weibo. It's a platform where careful strategic marketing planning in China is crucial for business success.
Ranked #1 in China's entertainment social media platform and #2 in China's digital advertising industry, it is currently one of the most talked-about social media platforms globally. Helloads Agency, a Chinese marketing company, will help you develop effective Chinese marketing strategies to capture consumer hearts within the Douyin framework, tailored to your specific goals.
Dianping has over 250 million people per month This is a review platform for restaurants, cafes, spas, and tourist attractions that Chinese people use before making any purchasing decisions. Authentic reviews and ratings help Thai businesses attract Chinese tourists more easily, making them stand out, build credibility, and effectively increase their Chinese customer base.
Xiaohongshu is a review and lifestyle platform with over 300 million people per month Distinguished by genuine reviews and beautiful images that help customers make easier decisions, this is ideal for businesses that want to reach young Chinese women who like to research cafes, restaurants, and skincare before making purchases, making the brand more visible and trustworthy.
Our team is from China and specializes in Chinese-related matters. We communicate and negotiate directly with KOL in Chinese, and the captions on Xiaohongshu (小红书) and WeChat are written in Chinese from the start, not translated from Thai later. We select reviewers from the KOL/KOC database of over 10,000 people and manage the campaigns on the Chinese platform ourselves, allowing for quick revisions and strict control over review quality.
Most Thai agencies stop at Xiaohongshu and Douyin, but actual restaurant, hotel, and shopfront decisions by Chinese customers are made through Dianping — we handle everything from setting up restaurant information and developing review strategies to attracting Chinese tourists to your business.
Let's start with... What is Dianping? or At what stage should a Thai restaurant begin the Dianping process?
See details of the teams and specialized services for each platform at: china.helloads.net — HelloAds's China Marketing Service Center
The numbers below are from real campaigns we've run for clients, and we've included cases that don't yet have figures available for disclosure.
The numbers above are in units. View count From furthest to closest to monetary gain, the ranking is: Views → Engagement → Leads → Sales. If your goal is sales, ask us from day one what unit you want to measure it in, and we'll design your campaign accordingly.
Restaurants, cafes, hotels, spas, clinics, souvenir shops — customer searches. Dianping / Meituan · Xiaohongshu · AMap / China Map Before leaving the hotel, my main task was to review numerous KOC ( Korea Online Stores) items, find accurate Chinese-language store profiles, and promotions that accepted scan-to-pay ( Alipay / WeChat Pay).
Cosmetics, food, herbal products, rubber, processed fruits — starting from... Xiaohongshu + Douyin Create demand and close sales through Tmall Global / Douyin Shop / import agents. You need to handle CIQ documentation, Chinese labeling, and Live Commerce from the start.
These two goals utilize different platforms, creators, and budgets, so we always ask this before submitting a quote. For B2B businesses and education aimed at helping Chinese people discover your products, we start with... Baidu + WeChat Official Account
Most clients ask the same three questions: How do I start? How long does it take? And what do I need to prepare? This is the actual workflow we use for every brand.
We discuss goals, products, target Chinese customers (tourists in Thailand / cross-border buyers / B2B), budget, and documentation limitations. We'll be upfront about which platforms allow accounts opened with a Thai legal entity and which require an agency account.
Choose 1-2 main platforms first (e.g., Xiaohongshu + Douyin or WeChat + Baidu), along with the scope of work, number of projects, KPIs, and separate pricing for service/media fees.
Open an Official Account/Brand Account, verify your identity, set up a Chinese language profile, and create an advertising account. If an agency account is required, we will use our account, while you retain ownership of the client data.
The Chinese language team writes and curates content to align with Chinese purchasing culture, selects KOLs / KOCs based on product categories, and runs and adjusts advertising campaigns weekly.
The report includes reach, engagement, lead/sales, and upcoming adjustments, all in Thai. No need to read the Chinese dashboard yourself.
To help you budget before discussions, we've compiled a price range publicly available from agencies in Thailand for comparison, and explained what causes the price differences.
| level | Initial budget (one-time payment) | Monthly budget | Suitable for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | ฿50,000–฿100,000 | ฿30,000–฿80,000 | Restaurants, cafes, private spas. |
| Growth | ฿150,000–฿300,000 | ฿100,000–฿300,000 | Hotels, beauty brands |
| Scale | ฿300,000–฿800,000 | ฿500,000–฿1,500,000 | National brand Tmall flagship |
| Enterprise | ฿1,000,000+ | ฿2,000,000+ | Cross-border tourism agency. |
Estimated total revenue per platform (per month): Xiaohongshu ฿80,000–฿400,000 · WeChat ฿45,000–฿420,000 · Douyin ฿140,000–฿1,200,000 · Dianping ฿40,000–฿120,000 · Weibo Settings ฿10,000–฿20,000 + Management ฿20,000–฿60,000 — View platform-specific pricing and a list of all costs.
The figures are the same as those on HelloAds " "China Marketing Pricing 2026" page (china.helloads.net) and are updated simultaneously. KOL fees and pay-as-you-go advertising budgets are separate from service fees. Get a business-specific quote within 24 hours.
In addition to advertising and content on the platform, we handle other tasks. Chinese influencer / Chinese KOL / KOC Comprehensive service: We screen Chinese creators based on product categories (beauty, food, travel, health, real estate), check for fake followers, negotiate rates, handle Chinese-language briefs, and measure post-post results on Xiaohongshu, Douyin, Weibo, and Bilibili.
| level | Followers | Suitable for | Price range per post (reference) |
|---|---|---|---|
| KOC / Nano | 1,000–10,000 | Numerous genuine reviews on Xiaohongshu / Dianping build credibility. | 500–5,000 yuan |
| Micro KOL | 10,000–100,000 | Thai brands that have recently entered the Chinese market have high engagement and are able to choose a niche. | 3,000–30,000 yuan |
| Macro KOL | 100,000–1 million | Launching new products/campaigns for Chinese tourists during the holiday season. | 20,000–200,000 yuan |
We need the Chinese team to select and manage all Chinese KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders). Please review the scope of work. We offer KOL Marketing services in China (china.helloads.net).
Read more: How to choose the right Chinese influencer for Thai products. · What is a Chinese Influencer / KOL ? · Chinese Influencer Marketing Strategies • For Thai and Chinese rates, please see... Influencer Hiring Price List • Full platform-specific guides and services are available at: china.helloads.net ( Xiaohongshu · Douyin · WeChat · Weibo · Chinese KOL · Package prices)
Yes, most platforms ( Xiaohongshu, Weibo, Douyin Ads, Baidu) allow foreign brands to use agency accounts or cross-border accounts. WeChat Official Accounts, especially service accounts, require a Chinese legal entity or authorized agency to open one. HelloAds has a Chinese advertising account and a Chinese language team to start working on this, so you don't need to register a company in China.
Depending on the target customer group: Restaurants, hotels, clinics, and spas catering to Chinese tourists in Thailand start with Dianping + Xiaohongshu ; consumer goods to be sold cross-border start with Xiaohongshu + Douyin / Tmall Global; and B2B businesses and education start with Baidu + WeChat.
Account opening and verification takes 1-3 weeks. Content and KOLs start seeing reach in the first month. Leads and sales are generally clearly assessed after 3 months. Therefore, we offer quarterly plans with monthly KPIs.
Service fees are broken down into maintenance fees (based on the number of platforms and projects) and media/ KOL fees, which are paid on a per-project basis. Market price ranges are shown in the table above. A customized quote for your business will be available within 24 hours of your brief.
Our team is based in Bangkok and communicates in Thai. We have a Chinese language team and Chinese advertising accounts, providing weekly reports in Thai. We also work on Thai media ( Google, Facebook, TikTok, Thai influencers) to create a seamless connection between Chinese tourist campaigns in Thailand.
If your target customers are Chinese, you absolutely need to do this because most Chinese people don't use Google / Facebook / Instagram ; they search and make decisions on Xiaohongshu, Douyin, Dianping, WeChat, and Baidu. Therefore, the budget allocated to Google / Facebook isn't reaching this group at all.
Comparing providers? See... Chinese Marketing Companies in Thailand 2026 — Comparison and Prices Before you make a decision, this page outlines HelloAds ' service scope and how to request a quote.
Experience
Our Work
Because we want to see the Thai economy grow and to ensure customer satisfaction, we will help manage your media to ensure its maximum efficiency.
China runs on a different internet. Google, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube are not part of the picture, and the platforms that replace them each have their own rules for accounts, advertising, verification and payments. A China digital marketing agency exists to bridge that gap: registering the accounts a foreign brand cannot register alone, producing content that works for Chinese audiences, and buying media inside ecosystems that do not accept a standard international ad account.
HelloAds is a Bangkok-based agency founded in 2015. We have served more than 100 brands, and we run China-facing work for two distinct audiences: brands selling into mainland China, and businesses in Thailand that want to reach Chinese visitors already here. The platforms overlap, but the strategy does not.
| Platform | Closest Western equivalent | What it is used for |
|---|---|---|
| Baidu | Search visibility and paid search in mainland China | |
| Xiaohongshu (RED / RedNote) | Instagram + reviews | Product discovery, KOC seeding, lifestyle and beauty |
| Douyin | TikTok (separate app, separate ecosystem) | Short video, live commerce |
| WhatsApp + a web browser + a wallet | Official Accounts, Mini Programs, CRM, payments | |
| X / Twitter | Campaign reach, celebrity and topic marketing | |
| Dianping | Yelp / TripAdvisor | Restaurants, hotels, clinics — critical for Chinese tourists |
| Tmall Global | Amazon | Cross-border e-commerce without a Chinese entity |
Baidu is the default search engine for most mainland Chinese users, and ranking on it is not a translation exercise. Baidu weights hosting location and page speed inside China, prefers sites it can index cleanly in simplified Chinese, and requires business verification before a brand can run paid search. Sites hosted only outside China are usually slower to crawl and slower to load for Chinese users, which affects both ranking and conversion.
Our Baidu work covers account and business verification, simplified-Chinese content structure, technical setup so the site is actually crawlable from inside China, and paid search management. If a brand's audience is Chinese-speaking but sits outside mainland China, we will say so — in that case Baidu is usually the wrong place to spend.
Xiaohongshu — known internationally as RED or RedNote — is where a large share of Chinese purchase research now happens, particularly for beauty, fashion, food, travel and parenting. It behaves less like a social feed and more like a search engine full of user reviews, which changes the strategy: a brand needs a steady body of authentic-looking posts, not a single burst of advertising.
This is why KOC (Key Opinion Consumer) seeding usually outperforms one large KOL on this platform. Many everyday users posting genuine reviews produce the search-result density that convinces a shopper, while one celebrity post rarely does. We run brand account setup and verification, content production in Chinese, KOL and KOC matching, and paid placement.
WeChat is where a Chinese customer relationship lives after the first purchase. Brands operate through an Official Account, and the type matters: a Subscription Account can post daily but sits inside a folder, while a Service Account posts four times a month but appears directly in the chat list and can connect to WeChat Pay and Mini Programs. Overseas companies can register without a mainland Chinese entity, using their own business registration documents, followed by annual verification.
Choosing the wrong account type is difficult to undo later, so this is the first decision we make with a client rather than the last.
Douyin is not TikTok with a different name — it is a separate app with its own accounts, commerce stack and live-selling culture, and a TikTok strategy does not transfer to it unchanged. Weibo remains useful for broad campaign reach and for anything involving celebrities or trending topics. Dianping is the one most Thai businesses underestimate: for a restaurant, hotel, spa or clinic serving Chinese visitors in Thailand, the Dianping listing is often the deciding factor before they arrive.
Tmall Global exists so overseas brands can sell to Chinese consumers without incorporating in China. It carries requirements most brands do not expect — trademark ownership, a qualifying overseas business entity, deposits and commission — so the honest first question is whether the volume justifies it, or whether a lighter cross-border route or a Xiaohongshu-led presence should come first.
Verifiable examples rather than claims:
We do not publish invented performance multiples. If you want numbers for your own category, ask us and we will show what we can evidence.
A good fit: brands exporting to China; Thai hospitality, retail, medical and wellness businesses serving Chinese visitors; companies that already have Chinese-speaking customers and no structured way to reach them.
Usually not worth it yet: businesses whose customers are entirely non-Chinese; brands without trademark protection in China that plan to sell there; and companies looking for a one-month test — Chinese platforms reward accumulated presence, and a single short burst rarely produces a readable result.
If we think China is not where your next marketing budget should go, we will tell you before you spend it.
