Approaching International campaigns can be an exciting experience for any business. Typically it represents a point in the business’ journey where expansion and profit are at a level for things to increase and on the whole it highlights a huge shift in overall business direction.
When understanding this period from a paid search perspective, it is crucial to understand how to appropriately align paid search strategies in line with those of the business. That being said, this can often be easier said than done. Whilst many paid search professionals understand that international expansion requires more thought than simply duplicating campaigns and changing location targeting, understanding that initial first step can be difficult to distinguish.
Speaking from personal experience, it’s a process I have encountered across various clients in a range of sectors and in truth – it never gets easier! With client pain points differing on a case by case basis, there’s always a challenge around understanding which task to tackle first.
In order to make this process easier and to assist somewhat with bridging that gap, I’ve tried to break the approach out into three separate smaller entities: trends, translation and taxation. Sharing a clear understanding of trend data in the region as well as an understanding of how language can differ from region to region is undoubtedly important.
As well as this, understanding how taxation differs with regards to how billing occurs can make a big impact on discussions around international planning and can help give you a great initial steer.
Trends
Arguably the most important aspect of understanding regional campaigns is understanding the basic principle that search trends differ from region to region. Whilst this might seem a very basic point to make, I have been in far too many meetings where people can’t understand that audience intent can differ depending upon the region.
A prime example of this is revealing search data between intent in Germany and Austria. Whilst linguistically they share the same official language, there are dramatic shifts in search intent over the same period for specific products (with t-shirts highlighted in the examples below). We have to take into account population volumes (which can obviously impact data volumes) the overall popularity trends on the below differ whilst indicating that popularity spikes are not consistent across the two countries.
Search intent in Austria
Search intent in Germany
As a result of this, ironing out how keyword volumes, buying trends and market fluctuations differ (unfortunately some additional desk research!) is crucial at the planning stage to avoid massively skewing forecasting.
Translation
Another key element when considering international growth is translation. Standard process goes that agencies will typically outsource translation services, but finding a good one is worth its weight in gold. I feel that there is a great deal of focus placed around copy being a direct translation rather than taking marketing aims into account – this is what a great translation agency can do.
When addressing translation, it’s crucial to carve out time for an immersion period with the translation service to discuss overall campaign aims, so that they can have input on which wording they feel would work best. With this, i’m not talking sharing revenue targets or wider data-led KPI’s, but more information on the funnel and what you’re hoping to achieve.
It should also be noted when discussing translation to not forget the impact that translation can have on character counts, which again makes the immersion process so crucial as the translation team will need some degree of autonomy.
In addition to this, it’s important to remember that translation extends to keyword selection too. Building off our earlier point, if we know that trend data differs by region, then this will have a direct impact upon keyword strategies. As a result of this, take time to understand synonyms and keyword choice as this can not only impact direct performance but also negative keyword selection and search query reporting (namely exclusions).
It should be noted however that the above only applies to content which is being shown to non-english speakers. There is also an opportunity to test English copy/keyword content to your audience but bear in mind that this will likely have less of an impact upon native speakers.
Taxation
A topic that I believe is hugely underreported to clients is the topic of taxation. Whilst it is pretty standard for taxes such as VAT to be added to invoices, what is less normal is additional taxes such as digital services tax (or DST).
Taxes and tax legislation differs by region but in Turkey and Austria for example where an additional 5% tax is added on top of VAT this can accrue a significant extra cost in higher spending accounts.
As a result of this, whilst i’m not recommending that we all become accountants – what we should be doing is making clients and or ourselves (if we’re working in house) aware of this additional cost. Not only does this help to build trust through transparency but it also helps to avoid having any awkward conversations once that first invoice has been billed. More information on this can be found here.
Conclusion
In summary, taking that first step into international paid search campaigns can without a doubt be tough. Understanding what to take into account and how to do so can be really challenging, but through addressing the three T’s covered above you’ll hopefully be able to make that first step a little easier and set yourself up for international success!
