International paid search offers the unprecedented ability to break into new markets with low upfront costs. However, a common mistake made by marketers when expanding to a new country is that they only translate ad text without taking into consideration all of the additional complexities involved.

Here are seven tips that will help marketers successfully expand their paid search campaigns based on experience with global retailers and agencies in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific.

  • Choose your targets carefully : Always begin your campaign with a global plan. Once you have a representative selection of data, you can optimize on a country-by-country basis. This strategy will help you ensure that your campaign strategy is rooted in solid facts and your paid search budget provides a strong return on investment.
  • Harvest local keywords : Keyword research should reflect the local culture of your target market. It is important to understand which words have the most positive association and are the most “clickable” in the given context and location. The best way to include what locals look for is to capture their actual search queries and turn those into effective keywords. Search queries can be captured using most tracking systems and web analytics platforms and added automatically to keep ads on target.

Take into account different demographics. Do not assume that different countries have the same culture and internet usage habits as others. For example, in markets where internet penetration is particularly low, ad scheduling doesn’t always work the way you might expect since many people can only access the internet at work. Don’t forget to factor in different work weeks, work hours and seasonal differences. For example, summer vacation in Australia occurs during the middle of winter in the US.

Always produce reports that will enable you to see consolidated data by different time periods and days of the week to identify patterns that are unique to individual countries. Read More