With its immediacy, accountability and cost management benefits, it is easy to get carried away with the huge size of global audiences that SEM makes readily accessible. But before jumping into a global search engine marketing campaign it pays to do plenty of planning.
We have a number of clients that sell into the global marketplace from their Australian base and SEM is a key component in their online marketing strategies. Before SEM can even be recommended as a marketing channel it is important to follow a structured evaluation framework that considers:
1. Language. Are you going to be targeting only English speaking countries, English search quires within non-english speaking countries or does your product translate to many languages?
2. Product Suitability. This seems fairly obvious, but have you consider if your product is compliant with the laws of the countries you want to sell into? How are you going to ship it? Will the shipping costs keep it affordable? Do you need to adjust your pricing?
3. Market Demand. Again an obvious consideration. This is where keyword research plays an important role in evaluating the market opportunities. At this stage it is critical that enough time be given to understanding how people in different cultures look for information.
We often see large variations in search queries between English speaking western cultures and vast differences in the phrases people use in non-english speaking countries. If you are considering a non-english SEM campaign it's imperative you conduct the keyword research in the local language and do not just translate the English search terms.
4. Ad Copy. Is the ad copy going to be English or in the local language? If you are writing non-english ads, its critical you do not just translate your English ads but have them written by someone who understands the language and local grammar.
5. Campaign Structure. Do you create 1 big global campaign or do you target different regions and countries with their own campaigns? We have found Google AdWords makes it much easier to manage complex global campaigns through a single account, where Yahoo Search Marketing requires separate accounts for each country and region to be targeted.
The more granular you can structure your campaign the more control you will have over managing the outcomes.
6. Currency. Are you going to purchase your search media in Australian dollars, US dollars or in the local currency of the countries you are targeting?
So as you can see the importance of planning can not be over emphasised when considering a global SEM campaign. It is far to easy to burn through your precious marketing budget if proper consideration isn't given to the complexities of multi country / multi language search engine marketing.
If you have had success or learned some lessons using search engine marketing to sell your product or service globally we'd love to hear about it.
This article was posted by Matt Forman. Matt is a Google Qualified AdWords Professional and Managing Director at Traffika. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattforman.
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