Managing International Campaigns

Does your business operate in more than one adCenter market? Although our platform is international, seasonality, target audiences, use of language, negative keywords and competitors may differ from market to market. Pick up some of our smart tips and tricks to get the most out of your international campaigns!

Tip 1 – Be Aware of Local Seasonality

It is important to be aware of seasonality in every market, as much as your local competitors are. Depending on the industry you are working/advertising in, several aspects can be specific to certain markets: bank holidays, sporting events, motor shows, cultural events (movie releases, TV programmes,...), the administrative calendar (tax payments, car registrations), economic situation, product launches, etc.

As an example, if we look at the entertainment vertical in 2008, seasonality and impressions peaks are very different between the US, UK and French markets.

US market number of impressions in the entertainment vertical 2008:

UK market number of impressions in the entertainment vertical 2008 (gambling excluded):

FR market number of impressions in the entertainment vertical 2008:

Tip 2 – Target the Right Audience in Each Market

Your target audience may be different in each market. adCenter enables you to find out more about who that audience is through adCenter reports (age and gender targeting, geographical locations targeting) or the Microsoft adCenter Research tool. You can then identify where the best opportunities are.

Tip 3 – Build Localised Keyword Lists

There are many differences between British and American English. Some advertisers duplicate the same keywords lists when they cross the pond (and vice versa). Many impressions can be gained with a slight translation and adaptation effort.

Examples:

Spelling differences should also be taken into account:

In general, it is recommended to keep the same campaign structure across multinational campaigns, but to make sure the keyword list is relevant to the market. Every language has its specificity. People will use other words to describe and to search for something. For instance, in the hotel industry the keyword “accommodation” is very relevant in the UK. The French translation for it is “hébergement” or “logement”. Unfortunately, “hébergement” also means “web hosting”, and “logement” means “housing”. Both translations are thus not very relevant in a French SEM campaign in the hotel industry, except if negative keywords and many exact match keywords variations are added, which requires the assistance of a good French speaker.

Tip 4 – Localise your Negative Keywords

Adapt negative keywords to the local specificities. If you advertise travel or tourist information and if you are bidding on city names, be aware that some cities in the US share the same name as plenty of European cities. We recommend you to spot those cities and use the “other country” as negative keywords. For example, if you run a campaign in the US and you are advertising a B&B in Birmingham, Alabama, then add “uk” as negative and avoid unnecessary impressions. If your campaign is running in the UK and your product is a hotel in Birmingham, UK, then add “Alabama” and “al” as negative. We would also strongly advise to specify Birmingham, UK in the ad in order to avoid any confusion.

Tip 5 – Check out Local Editorial Policies

The editorial policy is not exactly the same on the adCenter markets. This is due to the necessity of respecting local rules and regulations and also of adapting our advertising platform to local habits.

We recommend you to follow our editorial guidelines available here:

US editorial policy

UK editorial policy

FR editorial policy

Tip 6 – Know Your Local Competitors

Before launching a campaign abroad, it is useful to be aware of the local competitive landscape. Check what type of messages are displayed, what kind of keywords your competitors are bidding on, and if the ad ranking reveals the market hierarchy. What you need to figure out is how competitive you want to be considering your objectives in term of visibility and ROI.

The more advertisers bid on a keyword, the more expensive the cost-per-click (CPC) will be, especially in the mainline area.  It's a best practice to begin new campaigns with an aggressive bidding strategy to establish a solid performance history in adCenter, and then begin dialing things back to a subtler bidding strategy in order to make sure your ads reach the best position for the best converting keywords.

In the meantime, if you have any tips, tricks or questions about managing international campaigns, feel free to comment on this post or start a conversation in our forums.