7 Tips for Better International PPC Campaigns

Are you looking to reach new audiences for your product or services? Running international PPC campaigns may be the solution you’re looking for. But it’s essential to plan them accordingly to get the desired result. This includes your budget, account structure, regional concerns, channel allocation, and assets localization.

For instance, remember that some countries may speak English but prefer to use their native language when looking for information or purchasing products online.

By planning your international PPC campaign, you can ensure it is successful and effective.

In the following article, I will teach you seven proven steps for targeting foreign countries and audiences.

Research your competition

Before starting any international PPC campaigns, it’s essential to research and understand the level of competition in your market. For example, the traffic levels, keywords, and CPC rates in Spain and France are different, and the same is true for other territories.

By understanding the competition in your market, you can adjust your PPC management strategy to be more effective.

Doing proper market research will help you achieve your goals and get the best results from your PPC campaigns.

Research top channels by region

Consider what search and social channels people use the most in the regions you’re looking to target.

Targeting Google alone will exclude a significant number of users in several countries. For instance, Yandex covers 44% of the search engine market share in Russia, and Baidu has 66% of the market share in China.

Research solutions like Semrush and discussing with representatives at ad platforms will help you check stats on regional usage and identify the best channels for the region you intend to advertise to.

Plan for account structure

One effective way to manage your PPC campaigns is to create separate campaigns for different countries or regions. This will allow you to control your bids better and segment your reporting. It will also prevent countries with lower CPCs and high volumes from cannibalizing your ad spend, giving countries with higher CPCs but higher-quality leads a chance to perform.

Separate geographic campaigns also allow for more accurate use of time-based bid modifiers. If you lump Europe and the US into the same campaign and lower bids during the night in the US, you will also lower bids during the workday in Europe. Keeping these regions in separate campaigns allows you to apply hourly bid modifiers without worrying about hurting performance in other time zones.

You should also consider your billing needs when segmenting your accounts. For large enterprises, payment often needs to come from different divisions by region. Using separate ad accounts may be necessary to ensure that you can use various billing sources for each division.

Focus on translations

One way to ensure accurate language translation for your PPC campaigns is to use a translation tool for your website and ad texts like Google Translation Toolkit. However, it’s often best to seek the help of someone proficient in the target language, either to translate from English or to check for grammatical errors.

In non-English-speaking countries, there will be minimal search volume for English keywords.

You may need proper translation and advice from a language expert to reach your target audience. Accurate translation will allow you to develop the right long-tail keywords for your new customer base.

Ensure proper asset localization

When marketing to a global audience, it’s essential to translate your keywords, ad copies, and landing pages into the appropriate languages. Remember that even audiences whose native language is English may use different words for products depending on their dialects.

It’s essential to be aware of these differences and use the appropriate terms for each market. This will help you reach your target audience and be more effective with your PPC campaigns.

Consider regional concerns and expectations

Simply copying a campaign created for a country is not a good idea. This is because other regions may have different times of high demand for particular products, which may vary depending on the situation.

Before starting an international PPC campaign, consider researching the monthly search trends in your target region.

You can use tools like Google Trends, Semrush, or SimilarWeb to learn about seasonal trends in a specific region. For instance, if you sell woolen clothes, you should know the peak winter times in the regions you sell.

Also, for people in the UK, offering post-sale support is more important than saving a couple of pounds, but for customers from eastern European countries, the best price matters more. So make sure you inform yourself about these matters before you create the creatives and the CTAs and launch your campaigns.

Know customers’ behaviors

Knowing the specifics of consumers in the regions, you plan to advertise is essential. For instance, in some regions, potential customers prefer to inform themselves online and talk with the salesperson before considering a purchase.  Others love to read the content.

Based on this, you need to structure your sales funnel and decide how much content you must put at the top and middle based on consumers’ interests.  This step may require testing to determine what works well in a particular country.

Conclusion

So here are seven tips that will help you improve your international PPC campaigns. Remember that besides these tips, your website should look professional and trustworthy, load fast, and be in the native language with no errors for a better user experience.

If you need help with your international PPC campaigns, we’d love to give you a helping hand. Check our International PPC campaigns Service.