Setting up contextual advertising for foreign markets

The countries of Western Europe and the USA are the most promising regions in terms of doing business. Particular scrupulousness of setting up and maintaining contextual advertising to the west is due to the conditions of high competition: therefore, it is necessary to approach the campaign having worked out the semantics to the smallest detail, take into account all the territorial features and mentality of the audience, and use the functionality of advertising cabinets as efficiently as possible.

What is the difference between setting contextual advertising in the West and in Ukraine?

I would like to note the cardinal differences between setting up contextual advertising in Western countries and in Ukraine.

The usual Google Ads tools work there in a completely different way. Many of the Google advertising tools in the Western market work as they should (although when configured in Ukraine, they may not perform the functions that the developer assigned them), and many of the functions, on the contrary, have their own characteristics that must be taken into account when setting up in order to don’t waste your budget:

• Work aimed at matching CS types requires more attention;
• Radically different optimization and automation through built-in tools;
• In broad matching, the reality system suggests close, high-relevance keywords rather than a set of common words;
• Due to targeting by similar audiences in the Display Network, a truly suitable target audience is selected.

This makes it more difficult for an inexperienced advertiser to set up a campaign, and increases the risk of overspending the budget without achieving the desired result. Therefore, to set up advertising for a foreign market, it is better to turn to the help of professionals.

Peculiarities of conducting contextual advertising in the foreign market

• Mentality is the main qualitative difference between Ukrainian and Western audiences: interaction with websites and searching for goods is fundamentally different, as , as decision-making and reaction, to the advertiser’s proposals. A thorough analysis of the market, studying the audience and the approach of competitors is the key to success. In addition, we create ads and creatives with the involvement of foreigners. We are constantly experimenting and testing new solutions;
• Language barriers – a simple translation of the text into the desired language will not be a sufficient condition to achieve the result. Taking into account the differences in dialects and language constructs, the difference between the text written by a native speaker and its translated counterpart in most cases will be noticeable and even striking. Remember at least advertising in Russian on Aliexpress and other Chinese stores. Therefore, to set up Google Adwords, for users from different locations, in the same language, different texts are needed. In order to increase the effectiveness of advertising, taking into account localization, it is necessary to plunge into the cultural environment, the use of slang with the involvement of native speakers;
• Local Laws – the focus of advertising on a specific country cannot bypass the systems and rules approved by local legislation. One such example is Spain’s ban on advertising for weight loss products, or the sale of contact lenses in the US without a prescription. Legal requirements must be met, and Google gives this point the highest priority. Contextual advertising in a foreign market requires a detailed study of the legal regulations for each country separately in order to avoid economic damage and legal consequences due to errors in the preparation of the ad.

The cost of contextual advertising to the Western market is much higher

Differences in income levels between clients from Ukraine and Europe allow the latter to invest much larger amounts in advertising campaigns. If we compare the budgets of the largest advertiser in Ukraine and the budgets of a local business in the states, the amounts may turn out to be identical.

It may be common practice to work at rates as high as $10 for local advertising. A more thorough study of semantics is simply necessary in this case.

If in Ukraine it is possible to launch an ad without sufficient development of negative keywords, and then “clean up” them using search query reports, then this trick will not work in the USA.

The high cost of traffic in most topics does not allow it to be one-time. Achieving the maximum effect from the campaign should occur by creating various sales funnels, and using a wide range of tools, which should eventually lead the user to the main target action (purchase of a product or service).

And if he has already visited the resource, but is not immediately ready to place an order, he should at least leave his contact details, subscribe to the newsletter, or put the product in the basket in anticipation of a discount or other advantageous offer.

For these reasons, the price of setting up contextual advertising in Google Adwords West ranges from $500 per month and may vary depending on the promotion niche, regional characteristics, and the ultimate goal of the campaign.