10 Essential Tips for Running International Google Ads

Global expansion just like your local one requires a sound marketing strategy to help successfully run an international business. Here are 10 essential tips for running an international Google Ads campaign.

Perform research on the target location

When it comes to running international Google Ads, advertisers often make the mistake of targeting a whole country – without inquiring how vast the country is. For instance, when a business select location targeting for a new campaign that targets Australia, it’s important to remember that Australia is both a country and a continent.

Neglecting this piece of information could cost you a lot, especially if you consider the costs of shipment and the effect they would have on your ROI.

If you’re aiming to expand your business to another country, a prudent strategy would be to target large cities. This way you’ll be able to successfully trigger larger search volumes. Targeting large cities will radically help build brand awareness and gain insight into how the target audience is reacting to your content.

Focus on language consistency

Measuring your quality scores and page ranks are essential parts of every PPC marketing strategy. Google handsomely rewards consistent businesses. Your keywords, ad copy, and landing pages must all be in the same language. So, prioritizing language consistency over everything else is not an option. It’s also important to pay attention to word nuances. While an American woman is in “labor”, in the United Kingdom she is in “labour”. The same thing goes for words like “prioritize” and ‘analyze”.

Target multiple languages when appropriate

When launching international campaigns, each target country should have a customized campaign. This will give you more freedom to readjust your Google Ads based on language, location, or both.

If you’re targeting multiple languages, then make sure to create different ad campaigns for each language. Google allows you to reach international markets using location and language targeting.

By mounting multiple campaigns for multiple languages, you can manage your Google ads setting efficiently and track ad campaigns in each language.

Use keyword research tools

Keyword research is a fundamental SEO process that allows you to identify popular words and phrases that people google. Businesses want to know keywords that people are searching for because it helps them offer relevant content to their audience.

There are various keyword research tools that you could use for both your local and global ad campaigns, but my favorites are Google Keyword Planner and SEMrush. Needless to say, keyword research tools are just that – tools! What’s important is utilizing keywords that have intent, a decent search volume, and are in sync with your business philosophy.

Use the right keyword match types

Whenever a user types in a search query into a search engine, ads are displayed based on relevancy and intent. It’s important to understand the keywords you use and how you structure them in your ad campaign. There are 4 keyword match types:

–   Broad Match: This is the default match type that all keywords are assigned to. It will match search inquiries with any words in any order that includes your keyword.

–   Broad Match Modifier: This is the second widest launch you could do. It’s a more cautious alternative to broach match. This match type is the middle ground between the most flexible type of matches and the more restrictive ones. Broach match modifiers allow you to specify exact terms for Google to show your ad.  

–   Phrase Match: Order is essential for this match type. Your ad will only appear if someone typed a keyword phrase in the exact order. If they add to or omit parts of the keyword phrase, that does not affect the ad to be displayed.

–   Exact Match: This match type is as restrictive as match types get. Choosing an exact match means that your ad will only show to searchers who typed in your exact keyword or close variants.

Google your global competition

Assumptions like “my online competitors are the same as those who have a brick-and-mortar business going on” could be a big mistake. That’s just not true. As a PPC marketer, you need to intentionally examine the web domains that are actively competing for the same keywords you’re bidding on.

This will help you figure out (1) who your competitors are. (2) If any competitors solely exist online. (3) If bidding domains are relevant to your business or you’re bidding on the wrong keywords.

Find out how local businesses communicate their brands to their local customers

Perform popular keywords searches in the target location to find out local competitors. Once you have a list of your competition, analyze their online marketing strategy, by studying their social media content, ad copy, and website copy, especially the landing pages.

Listing the most-used words and phrases gathered from the aforementioned places will uncover what would make sense to your new audience.

Target one country for each ad campaign

Optimizing your ad campaigns in such a way that targets one country at a time is one of the most effective strategies. Granted this could take a toll on your budget, but done well, your international Google ad campaign could reward you handsomely.

Mind the time-zone differences  

One of the costly mistakes that advertisers make is mounting campaigns for various countries with different time zones all at once. This will negatively impact your ROI, you’d be launching an ad campaign the audience of which might be asleep or busy doing something else. Creating region-based campaigns could help you target numerous countries using one campaign, provided you don’t use time zones that very far from each other.

Optimize your ad campaigns with geotargeted bids

Channeling your budget towards geographic locations where potential customers are more likely to make a purchase is an essential part of every marketing strategy.

Optimizing your ad campaigns with geotargeted bids requires a deep understanding of target user needs. Is X time the right time for them to buy it? Are there are other regions more convenient for your target audience?

Conclusion

Considering those tips when you’re running your international Google ad campaign will ensure that you target the right audience, at the right time, and in the right way. Therefore, you’ll be able to save a lot of money which could be rechanneled towards more profitable locations.

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