The Complete Guide to Bilibili Ads in China

With over 229 million monthly active users and an average of 107 minutes of daily time spent per active user, Bilibili (哔哩哔哩, commonly called B站) is one of China’s most important video and community platforms and one of its most distinctive advertising environments. Bilibili has a particular emphasis on youth reach and content-driven brand engagement. For brands targeting Chinese consumers, especially younger demographics, Bilibili Ads combine native video distribution, creator-led marketing, performance tools, and community trust in a single ecosystem. This guide explains what Bilibili Ads are, where they appear, how overseas companies can run them, and what best practice looks like.

What Are Bilibili Ads?

Bilibili Ads are paid placements and promotional tools sold through Bilibili’s official marketing system. The platform organises its commercial offering around three broad pillars: brand marketing, performance marketing, and content marketing. In practice, that means a mix of high-visibility brand exposure, native in-feed and video-led promotion, creator collaborations, and self-serve traffic amplification. There are three key tools that Bilibili offers:

• 花火 (Huahuo). Bilibili’s official commercial collaboration platform connecting brands, agencies, and creators
• 必火推广 (Bihuo Promotion). Bilibili’s official traffic-boosting tool for plays, followers, live-room traffic, and transactions
• Brand and performance marketing resources managed through Bilibili’s official marketing organisation and campaign infrastructure

This makes Bilibili less like a traditional ad inventory marketplace and more like a content-led marketing platform — one where paid media, creator partnerships, and content amplification are designed to work together rather than in silos.

Why Advertise on Bilibili?

Bilibili’s main strength is not simply scale. It’s the type of user behaviour the platform supports. Bilibili describes itself as a leading video community for young generations in China, and its official marketing materials highlight reach across 172 million Gen Z users. An average daily time spent of over 107 minutes, which is well above most Chinese platforms, reflects a highly engaged user base with strong habits around long-form and mid-form video content.

That makes Bilibili particularly well-suited to:

• Youth-oriented brand awareness, particularly for categories where Gen Z purchasing behaviour matters
• Content-led product launches where video storytelling drives discovery and consideration
• Creator and UGC-style campaigns leveraging trusted voices within Bilibili’s niche communities
• App, e-commerce, and conversion campaigns tied to video content and live commerce
• Community-building activity for brands that want cultural fit, not just impressions

Bilibili works best when advertising is built around content rather than around media inventory. Brands that succeed on the platform treat it as a culture-and-content environment, because Bilibili users respond to quality, relevance, and creator authenticity in ways that more transactional platforms don’t demand.

Where Do Bilibili Ads Appear?

Bilibili’s commercial system centres on a combination of brand exposure formats, native content promotion, creator collaborations, live promotion, and transaction-orientated amplification.

Brand Exposure Placements

Bilibili’s marketing materials refer to premium display resources and larger viewing formats designed to improve awareness and brand favourability. These are best suited to large-scale launches, major seasonal campaigns, and top-of-funnel visibility work.

Creator Collaboration via Huahuo

Huahuo is Bilibili’s official platform for commercial cooperation between brands and creators. Bilibili describes it as a system for safe, standardised, and efficient brand-creator transactions, with tools for creator recommendation, performance data, and multi-project management.

Creator content is a core part of how brands build trust and reach on Bilibili, making Huahuo one of the most commercially significant tools in the platform’s ecosystem.

Content Amplification via Bihuo Promotion

Bihuo is Bilibili’s official traffic-boosting tool. It supports increased plays, interactions, follower growth, live-room traffic, and orders. Bihuo is particularly relevant for advertisers who already have creator content or brand videos and want to scale reach or drive conversion efficiently.

Live and Commerce-Linked Promotion

Bihuo also supports live-room promotion and transaction-orientated advertising, including traffic aimed at users with demonstrated product or service intent. This means Bilibili can support not just upper-funnel awareness but also more direct-response objectives when integrated with live commerce or lead-generation flows.

How Do Bilibili Ads Work?

Bilibili Ads operate through a combination of official marketing support, platform tools, and campaign review. Brands can buy creator collaborations through Huahuo, amplify existing content through Bihuo, and work with Bilibili’s broader marketing organisation for brand, performance, or content marketing campaigns.

The practical process typically involves:

1. Defining the campaign goal. Brand exposure, creator collaboration, content amplification, live promotion, or performance/conversion
2. Selecting the right tool. Huahuo for creator-led campaigns, Bihuo for content amplification, or direct engagement with Bilibili’s marketing team for larger brand programmes
3. Preparing content and qualification materials. This includes business credentials and any category-specific compliance documentation
4. Submit through the appropriate official system. Bilibili’s ad infrastructure requires a formal review before campaigns go live
5. Launching and optimising. Using real-time data to refine titles, thumbnails, targeting, and distribution logic

One consistent theme across Bilibili’s commercial system is that success depends as much on content quality and creator fit as on media-buying mechanics.

Can Foreign Companies Run Bilibili Ads?

Foreign companies can advertise on Bilibili through its official marketing and collaboration systems. Bilibili’s marketing site is open to brands and agencies, and Huahuo’s documentation explicitly supports both brand-side and agency-side onboarding.

That said, Bilibili does not publish a streamlined English-language onboarding pathway for foreign entities, as some other Chinese platforms do. The operational path requires business documentation, platform process knowledge, and, for most overseas advertisers, local support for campaign setup, creator coordination, localisation, and compliance review.

How to Run Bilibili Ads

1. Create an Account

Navigate to the official Bilibili marketing platform and create an account. 

2.  Define the Right Bilibili Use Case

Decide whether your campaign is primarily about brand exposure, creator collaboration, content amplification, live promotion, or conversion performance. Bilibili’s tools are designed around these distinctions, and campaigns work better when those choices are made before spending begins.

2. Choose the Right Official Tool

• Huahuo, if the strategy is creator-led
• Bihuo, if you have existing content, live-room assets, or sponsored creator material that needs distribution and scale
• Bilibili’s marketing organisation for larger brand programmes, premium placements, or integrated campaign support

3. Prepare Content and Qualification Materials

Bilibili’s systems emphasise standardised, transparent commercial cooperation. That means campaign assets and business documentation need to be in order before launch. For regulated categories such as healthcare, financial services, education, food and beverage, assume a separate compliance review against Chinese advertising law requirements.

4. Launch the Campaign or Collaboration

Once the right system is selected, brands can move into creator matching, content promotion, live-room amplification, or performance traffic. Huahuo handles creator matching and collaboration management; Bihuo handles self-serve promotion with real-time monitoring.

5. Optimise Based on Content Performance

Bilibili’s tools surface real-time data on content quality and distribution. Treat launch as the beginning of an optimisation process — refining titles, thumbnails, targeting parameters, and pacing — rather than a one-time event

Best Practice for Bilibili Ads

Content

Bilibili’s own marketing language frames it as a video-first space where trust is built through content. Native-feeling, creative and genuine creators matter more than on most other Chinese platforms.

Objectives

Bihuo is ideal for plays, follower growth, live-room traffic, and transactions. Huahuo is suited to structured brand-creator partnerships. 

Localise

Bilibili has a distinct platform culture shaped by long-form video, fandom communities, creator trust, and an active comment ecosystem (弹幕, tanmu). Content that reads as corporate, poorly localised, or transplanted from another market is unlikely to perform well.

Compliance

Even when Bilibili approves a campaign operationally, all copy, claims, endorsements, and category-specific materials should be reviewed against Chinese advertising law. This is particularly important for regulated sectors and for creator-led promotions where the line between editorial content and commercial endorsement requires careful handling.

Limitations of Bilibili Ads

The commercial system has operational complexity. Because Bilibili’s advertising infrastructure spans brand marketing resources, creator collaboration tools, and content amplification platforms, advertisers need a clear strategy and often local operational support before they can spend efficiently.

Bilibili skews young. The platform’s own marketing emphasises Gen Z reach and next-generation audiences. Brands targeting older, broader, or less content-engaged demographics may find other platforms such as Douyin, WeChat, or Baidu more naturally suited to their campaign objectives, depending on the product category.

How Can AppInChina Help?

AppInChina helps overseas brands use Bilibili as part of a broader China marketing strategy.

We can help by:

• Advising whether Bilibili is the right platform for your category and campaign objectives
• Supporting campaign setup, creator selection, and collaboration planning through Huahuo
• Localising ad copy, scripts, and creative for Bilibili’s specific content culture
• Reviewing claims and materials for Chinese advertising law compliance and platform policy risk
• Integrating Bilibili into a wider China channel strategy across Douyin, WeChat, RedNote, Weibo, and Baidu

Contact us to get started with your promotion campaign in China.