If your business relies on your website to generate new custom, then you’ll know just how important paid advertising can be. But what if you want to target overseas markets that speak different languages? Translating your Pay Per Click adverts is something worth considering.
What is Pay Per Click?
Pay per click – or PPC – is a type of paid digital marketing where ads are shown online, and advertisers pay a fee if they are clicked.
You almost always see paid adverts at the top of results pages on search engines such as Google. PPC can also refer to paid, targeted ads you see on your social media feeds, such as on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. PPC is essential when it comes to growing a business online and finding new customers.
This is especially true when you’re seeking to reach potential new customers who speak different languages. Translating your PPC can form a solid foundation for success in new markets, but taking the right approach from the beginning is crucial. Here are our key considerations for painless PPC translation:
What should be translated?
Your ad titles and ad descriptions will need translating, as these are a key part of your message. But before you send them to your chosen language service provider for translation, check your source language content. There are restrictions on length for ad titles and ad descriptions, so it’s worth considering that your content may end up longer once it’s been translated.
For example, Google has recently made changes to the limits on their expanded text ads. This means adverts on Google can now be nearly twice as long as before; up to 300 characters in total. But this still isn’t that long if your content turns out to be a third longer after translation!
If you’re in doubt about how many characters your translated ads might take, speak to a professional translation company about the languages you require. They’ll be able to tell you which languages will need extra space.
Who are you targeting?
We’re sure you know this already, but it bears repeating: think about your target market. Really think about it. Which countries are you aiming your PPC at? What language variants are spoken there, and by which age groups and demographics? And, most importantly, will all of your ads be relevant in those countries?
If your business is UK-based, some of your ads might only be specific to the UK. For example, you might sell high-end home audio products to customers around the world, but only offer professional installation to customers within 50 miles of your store. Product PPC ads would be global, but installation PPC ads would be location-specific.
The point here is that some of your ads might not need translating. Remember to check this before batching all of your ads together for translation, only to realise you didn’t need half of them!
Use Google Keyword Planner
Google’s Keyword Planner has replaced the old Keyword Tool. You’ll need to create a Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) account in order to use Keyword Planner, but once you’re set up, you can hone and track your use of keywords in your PPC campaigns more effectively.
A particularly useful feature in terms of ad translation to reach new markets is the Keyword Planner targeting filter, because this allows you to see how ad campaigns comparable to yours work in different countries and cities, and on other search engines. This can be really useful when deciding which keywords will create the most impact and ROI (return on investment) for PPC in your target markets.
Successfully localising keywords for other countries takes knowledge and skill, and is best left to the professionals (in-country linguists). Professional localisation of your PPC will avoid your expensive ad campaign falling flat with potential customers. For more info about making your e-commerce business a success overseas, check out our localisation blog article.
Finalise your wording
Make sure you finalise your PPC wording before you send it off for translation. This will save time and money during the translation process, but also reduces the risk of errors being introduced through sending multiple versions of content.
Careful wording of source content is always key to successful translation, but this is especially true for PPC. One word out of place could be the difference between your ad campaign bringing in hundreds of new customers, or none at all.
Track your ROI
Tracking ROI from PPC has become increasingly complicated, as many customer journeys now take place on multiple devices before a purchase is made. However, Relevance says, ‘if you’re not measuring your return on investment (ROI) for pay per click (PPC) advertising campaigns, you might as well be standing on the street corner burning money’. It’s a strong statement, but if you have no idea how your PPC is performing, you can’t adapt it to be more successful.
This rings equally true for translated PPC – you need to know which ads are working well for which countries, and then possibly ask your language service provider to tweak your content to make it more appealing.
