As an enterpreneur, expanding ones horizon is always tempting: why not do business abroad? One of the first steps on the foreign market is often setting up an adwords campaign, as it is an easy way to test the waters and see whether the product or service could be successful in a different market.

To achieve the best possible results during the testing period, it is important to adapt ones website to the needs and expectations of the customers in the target country. There are a number of things you can do to earn their trust and improve the chances of success, some of which seem obvious but are frequently overlooked.

In addition to the local domain extensions and preferred payment

methods, country specific information is also important. For Germany, for example detailed legal information is a must on every commercial website, and different currencies have to be taken into account in different (even european) countries as well.

Setting up an international Adwords Campaign

As soon as you start to set up your first international Adwords campaign, its important to keep a good structure and organisation. One option is, for example, to use one account to organise all the campaigns. This, however might create confusion and is not recommended for a number of reasons:

1. Budget planning / Strategies
2. Creating reports
3. Different domain names
4. Quality score
5. Account settings (currency, time zone, etc.)

By setting up an individual account for each language / country you keep full control over all campaigns and can make individual changes for the specific markets. This way, you also avoid affecting new campaigns by data from previous ones.

What do you have to keep in mind when setting up an international adwords campaign?

After setting up your english speaking campaign, of course it is tempting to simply translate the campaign to the language of the target country. Beware! Literal translations of adwords campaigns run a high risk of mistranslations and are doomed for failure.

Other languages, other words, other meaning

Besides the fact that other countries obviously use different languages, there are also many cases in which direct, literal translations do not achieve the desired effect. Eventhough the translation might not be entirely wrong, its also a matter of using different phrases or words to search for a product. Without in depth research, basic mistranslations can lead to an entire campaign back firing.

Regional differences in frequency of use and meaning of a word can lead to a lot of confusion. Eventhough both words might be correct English and therefore not pop up in a spell check, they might mean completely different things in different parts of the English speaking world: While a ‘rubber’ in the United Kingdom describes a tool to erase mistakes written in pencil, the same word means condom in the United States. There are a number of other examples of differences between the US and the UK, that – eventhough maybe less embarrasing – still cause problems in online marketing.

Again, we want to highlight the importance of thorough keyword research. Translation agencys might be good at languages, but they will only translate what you give them – not necessarily adapt it to the peculiarities of the local market.

Stay away from translating full texts with Google Translate. While it is tempting, and a great tool for a basic understanding of foreign language texts and translation of single words, the Google service does not guarantee error free translations of complex contexts and phrases. Trust in native speaking language experts to translate your campaigns and adapt strategies to the local markets.

Summary

Here is a list of the things you need to keep in mind when starting an international adwords campaign:

• use local domain extensions
• offer the locally preferred payment methods
• create a seperate account for each language / country
• carry out a detailed search term analysis
• pay close attention to currency and time zone
• do not translate your campaigns literally

If you have any questions regarding you international online marketing campaign, feel free to contact us!