does your ppc speak european?

Does your PPC speak European?

Gianluca BinelliFounder | Booster Box | @ktzstyle

AgendaWhat we are discussing today

● What does European even mean?

● 5 Tactics:

○ Language Targeting

○ Currency Implications

○ Structure and Survive

○ Ad Testing in real life

○ Our BFF: the Search Term Report

Unless else specified images in this presentation are taken from pixabay.com@ktzstyle

Who am I?● 6.5y at Google

● Google Online Marketing (B2B in EMEA)

● Advisor for Google Capital

● Booster Box

● Probably lowest amount of Twitter followers than everyone else in this room

@ktzstyle

What does European even mean?

Source: Yahoo Answers@ktzstyle

Europe is crowded

Source: Wikipedia

Europe USA

742M

324M

Population by Region Another relaxing morning of commuting

Multiple data point to a solid finding

@ktzstyle

and it is fragmented ...

● 50 Countries

● 24 Official Languages

● 11 Currencies

Source: Wikipedia @ktzstyle

...very fragmented

Source: Plugsocketmuseum.nl

we cannot even agree on sockets

@ktzstyle

...but as an aggregate it is worth it

Source: WorldBank

GDP by time

@ktzstyle

...also from the agency side

Source: emarketer

Western Europe Media Ad Spending

is almost

50% North America

@ktzstyle

and it is (sometime) cheaper than US

Source: wordstream @ktzstyle

and it is (sometime) cheaper than US

Source: economist @ktzstyle

There are 3 kinds of people in the world

People who already have a Pan-European PPC Operation

People who do not have yet a Pan-European PPC Operation

People who do have any PPC operation

@ktzstyle

What we are not discussing today

1. Planning and Goal Setting (How to identify the right market?)

2. What people want in different countries?

3. When are the seasonality peaks?

4. Setting up the team (Local vs Central)

5. Localization vs Translation

Interested about these questions? Check out this great preso from Maddie Cary

@ktzstyle

5 Tactics to set up a Pan-EU Operation

1. Language Targeting

2. Currency Implications

3. Structure and Survive

4. Ad Testing in real life

5. Our BFF: the Search Term Report

@ktzstyle

Language Targeting

Language Targeting

● Unlock less competitive traffic

● Deploy one simple tactic: secondary language campaign

● Why? 3 reasons:

○ Language Minorities○ Polyglotism○ Migration Trends

Discover new portions of traffic with less competition

@ktzstyle

Reason #1: Language MinoritiesLanguages are not delimited by borders

● The EU has +60 indigenous regional and minority languages, spoken regularly by up to 40 million people.

● There are language minorities across Europe and autonomous communities (eg Catalan in Spain)

Source: wikipedia@ktzstyle

Do you like coffee?

Yeah. We want these beans too

The spillover effect of language minorities

@ktzstyle

Question: What is the most common mother tongue in Europe?

Who wins the popularity contest?

Source: europa.eu, wikipedia

Funny fact: R Pearson = .76

and at football? Germany

@ktzstyle

Question: What is the most widely spoken language in Europe?

The most popular language: English (38%)

Source: europa.eu

Reason #2: Polyglotism

@ktzstyle

Reason #2: Polyglotism

Source: europa.eu

54% of Europeans can hold a conversation in at least one additional language, (25%) two additional languages and (10%) in three languages

● Only 39% of Europeans are saying they can communicate online (Email, Twitter, FB) in a foreign language.

● 26% of Europeans can do that in English

@ktzstyle

So can we just keep it in English?As an initial trial it could work, but conversion rate would probably increase with localized version

Source: europa.eu

● 90% of European internet users prefer to surf the internet in their own language

● 44% feel they are missing interesting information because web pages are not in a language that they understand.

@ktzstyle

● Migration is one of the key components of population change in Europe

● Both Intra EU Migrations and Extra EU Migration

● 18.5 million persons who had been born in a different EU Member State from the one where they were resident.

Reason #3: Migration

@ktzstyle Source: europa.eu

Conclusion: secondary languages

● Languages are not delimited by borders

● 26% can hold a conversation in English

● People move a lot in Europe (Intra-Extra)

Example: Turkish speakers in Germany

@ktzstyle

What languages to target?Guidelines looking at generic traffic volumes

What about my business? Look also in your Google Analytics > Audience > Language

@ktzstyle

What do we need to set it upWe need to localize 4 elements

● Keywords○ Remember the negative keywords (typically the shared negative list)

● Ads○ Do we need a local domain extension? Let SEO Decide and use Display URL

in the Ads

○ Even if the language is the same we can let the user know that we are shipping to her country (eg works particularly well when you target autonomous communities). Tip? Use Geo Ad Customizer

@ktzstyle

What do we need to set it upWe need to localize 4 elements

● Landing Pages & Funnel○ Remember to update Pricing, Shipping Options and to use international

Payments methods. You might even want to include in your costs International Shipping Insurance.

● Customer Service○ Remember to clarify Your Hours of Operation within your Time Zone and to

switch on International Phone Numbers (or add your country code)

@ktzstyle

Oh Snap! I do not have localize assetsWe can start in a scrappy manner

● Start with what we have (eg we have campaigns in English, we can scale to IE, UK)

● Countries where English is a secondary language

● Create a Pan-European campaign in English (good discovery campaign, then localize)

Same Sunset: Scrappy vs Epic

@ktzstyle

How to set up language targeting?● Case 1: The keys for a new market at

home - Create a Secondary Language Campaign in a Domestic Market

● Example: UK Business can create campaigns targeting Polish speakers in the UK.

● Action: Create a new campaign targeting the same market(Geo: UK, Language: Polish)

@ktzstyle

How to set up language targeting?● Case 2: You found “more of your

tribe” abroad - Use your Primary Language Campaign Abroad

● Example: UK Business create campaigns targeting English Speakers in Spain

● Action: Copy the existing campaign and target the new market (Geo: ES, Language: English)

@ktzstyle

How to set up language targeting?● Case 3: You already have an

international operation - Scale Up

● Example: Spanish Business operating in France can scale to North Africa

● Action: Use all your Primary Languages Campaigns in other countries where that language is spoken as secondary language, by copying the existing campaign and target new geographies

@ktzstyle

Currency Variations

Currency VariationsMany currency = Many variations

@ktzstyle Source: google finance

Currency variations

● Bids and Budgets

● Retail Price

● Delivery Cost

Fluctuations impact 3 elements

@ktzstyle

Bids and Budget

● Focus on big fluctuation (eg Brexit): ○ This is what probably most advertisers do

○ Do not panic (“I am going to open an account in a new currency!” is panic)

● Check currency variations periodically for reporting & budgeting purposes

(eg Weekly, Monthly,...)

● Include the currency fluctuations in your bidding system

(Daily or multiple times per day) Check this script from Brainlabs

Taking in consideration currency we could do 3 things (from High to Low Priority):

@ktzstyle

How to pick a currency● Local or Home Currency: Example: US Advertiser (USD) targeting France (EURO) on

an industry where competition bid in EURO

○ Local Currency: If account is set in EURO then: Reporting/Budgeting challenge

○ Home Currency: If account is set in USD then: Bidding challenge

● If you are lucky enough to have found cheap targeting method (around $0.01): you could take advantage of other currencies (eg if you bid in Romanian Leu)

@ktzstyle Source: google finance

Structure

What structure should I pick?

● Forget to separate: We need (at least) new separate campaign (there are no reason to use international bids modifiers)

● Forget to take in consideration that we are serving multiple Time Zones, that we have Multiple Budgets and Multiple Currencies

Errors to avoid when picking a new structure

@ktzstyle

What is the ideal structure?

Type PRO CON

In the existing account(s)

Simple and easy to control budget

allocation at product line / category level

Only works with (relatively) simple

structures

One account for each language

group

Easier to scale intra-language

learnings

Confusing if the language groups have

different market condition (eg CPCs ES

vs LATAM)

One account for each country

You could use different

Currency (if you really really want it) & Time Zones

A lot of work to scale cross country

learnings

Where ideal means “as painless as possible”

@ktzstyle

How to survive

● Campaign Name

○ Type of Campaign | SubType | Country | Language

● AdGroup Name

○ Match Type | Keyword in English | Variation

● Shared Negative Lists

○ Brand protection

○ Seasonality events

○ ...

Define a structure and naming convention and stick to it

Eg. when you can translate the word X in english in 2 variations in French and you still want to keep a 1:1 structure

@ktzstyle

Bonus tips #1

Take in account different holidays

(eg in Israel weekends are Friday to Saturday)

when setting daily bidding

Sunday is the new Monday in Tel Aviv

@ktzstyle

Bonus tips #2

Additional Character Limit

Google AdWords allows using additional characters on the Title and Description for ads targeting Eastern European (eg RU) and

Asian Countries (eg JP)

details

@ktzstyle

Bonus tips #3

● Take into account different demographics

● Low internet penetration: check ad scheduling (Workplace = the internet access)

● Device usage (Mobile Only markets)

Write a horror

story in 3 words

No Internet access

@ktzstyle

Bonus tips #4● Identify incremental portions

of traffic with Greeklish

● = Greek language written using the Latin alphabet:

○ English: Good Morning

○ Greek: Καλημέρα

○ Greeklish: Kalimera

@ktzstyle

Ad Testing

Ad TestingChallenges with international Ad Testing

● Challenge #1: How do you know that what works in a market would work everywhere?

● Challenge #2: How to make sure to reflect the key messages in the localization?

● Challenge #3: How to maintain a consistent product positioning?

@ktzstyle

Ad Testing: Challenge #1How do you know that what works in a market would work elsewhere?

Let’s say we found that saying “Start Today!” increase CTR by 10% vs the existing ad “Start Now!” in UK. Can we scale it to Europe?

● Option 1: We just roll it out and pray for the best

● Option 2: We replicate the test until we have a statistically significant result at Regional level

● Option 3: We test it everywhere until we are sure it works in every single country

@ktzstyle

Ad Testing: Challenge #1We replicate the test until we have a statistically significant result? How to select the sample

● Option 2 a): Divide the countries by tiers (for revenue contribution) and replicate the testing in each tier

● Option 2 b): Divide the countries by cultural similarities (eg German speaking, Nordics, France-Italy-Spain, etc..) and replicate the testing in each tier

● Option 2 c): We test it everywhere as a limited portion of traffic (eg 5% of traffic)

@ktzstyle

Ad Testing: Challenge #1What if you still get inconsistent results

Country Winning Copy

UK Start Today!

FR Start Now

PL Start Today!

DE Start Today!

ES Not a relevant difference

@ktzstyle

Ad Testing: Challenge #1Summary

● Use multiple markets in your advantage

● Big = Fast You would reach conclusions in less time in bigger countries

● Avoid Overload Avoid concentrating too many tests in the same countries (prioritize for non urgent test smaller countries)

● Be Your Travel Personality Far from home sometimes you can dare to be someone else: dare to test new products, new pricing methods, new product positioning.

@ktzstyle

Ad Testing: Challenge #2How to make sure to reflect the key messages in the localization?

In general for localizing you have 3 options:

● Option 1: Machine based (eg Google Translate)

● Option 2: Contractor

● Option 3: PPC Specialist with Language Skill

SPEND TIME EXPLAINING WHY AND

WHAT YOU ARE TESTING

@ktzstyle

Ad Testing: Challenge #3How to maintain a consistent product positioning?

Once a quarter stop testing and do a “meditation week of realignment”

where you scale everywhere the learnings you developed

(Ads and KWs)Stop the engine

@ktzstyle

Search Term Reports

Search terms reports are dauntingWhen you are running it across multiple languages

First we setup (even a basic) automation

● Define what is a good / bad keyword● Example of thresholds:

○ IF Impressions > 1000 and CTR >1% and CR >3% and Conversions > 5 in the last 30 days = THEN Good Performance

○ IF Cost > 100$ and Conversions = 0 in the last 30 days = THEN Poor Performance

● Automate the STR (example: Script from Google Developers)

@ktzstyle

Extinguish the firePoorly Performing Keyword? you do not need to know what it means to exclude it

@ktzstyle

Process for scaling upGood Performing Keywords and Negative Root need localization

STR

Google Sheet

Good KWs

Bad KWs Exclude

Evaluate

Google Sheet

RULES

CAN WE ALSO EXCLUDE THE

ROOT KW? DO WE HAVE A LANGUAGE SPECIALIST?

YES

NO = GOOGLETRANSLATE(text, [source_language, target_language])

= GOOGLETRANSLATE(text, [source_language, target_language])

DO WE HAVE A LANGUAGE SPECIALIST?

YES

NO

EMAIL ALERT

CAN WE ADD AS POSITIVE

KW?EMAIL ALERT

@ktzstyle

binelli@boosterboxdigital.com

Gianluca BinelliFounder | Booster Box | @ktzstyle