Google Contextual Ads in Indonesia

Together with Malaysia and Thailand, Indonesia is one of the top three fastest growing online advertising markets in Southeast Asia. The volume of contextual advertising in Indonesia is twice as high as in Thailand.

Information! Today, businesses in Indonesia spend a third of their marketing budget on online promotion, and by 2025 this figure, according to analytical forecasts, will increase to 50%.

In its region, Indonesia leads in terms of population. Almost 275 million people live in the country, of which three-quarters use the Internet constantly, which is also the highest among neighboring countries. GDP per capita ($3,800) is lower than in most developed countries, while Indonesia is almost 1.5 times ahead of India in this indicator.

All of the above allows us to conclude that the launch of a new e-commerce project here is promising, and investments in contextual advertising will be profitable.

Peculiarities of setting up contextual advertising in Indonesia

Before you start working in a new market, you need to answer a number of questions about how it functions and what rules the game is played by. Next, we will look at what you need to consider when setting up contextual advertising in Indonesia.

Language targeting

For the vast majority of Indonesians (94%), the native language is Indonesian (Bahasa), recognized as the official language in the country. English, Malay, Javanese and Sundanese can also be heard in several regions.

Important! English is not the language of everyday communication for most people in Indonesia. His knowledge is at a low level.

It is best to write advertisements in the official language. Therefore, the first priority, even before launching and setting up Google Ads in Indonesia, will be to find a native speaker, a qualified translator or a local specialist with a good command of Indonesian.

Which devices connect to the Internet?

Less than 4% of users in Indonesia go online from desktop computers. Everyone else accesses web pages through mobile devices.

Advice! Even though the portable audience looks very attractive, when launching a Google AdWords campaign in Indonesia, target your ads to both mobile and landline traffic. After all, according to statistics, transactions in online trading are most often concluded through desktop computers. The conversion rate in this segment exceeds the similar rate for mobile devices by 200%.

Demographic targeting

According to the accumulated statistics, in the Indonesian segment of the Internet, women are more active in buying. Their share among all users is 65%.

The youngest audience (15-24 years old) makes up 31% of the total number of users, about half are those who are over 25 and under 35 years old, the group of 35-44 years old is 16%. This distribution of the audience by age, with a significant predominance of young people should be taken into account when creating advertising creatives and text content for ads.

Ad formats

The most popular form of advertising in Indonesia is mobile video. Businesses are increasingly willing to buy such ads due to good audience engagement and high returns compared to other formats.

Advice! Go beyond search and shopping ads in your ad campaigns. Be sure to supplement them with videos.

When promoting online stores, dynamic remarketing demonstrates high efficiency. Also, the new format, Performance Max, has already proved itself well.

Indonesians tend to listen to opinion leaders, so we recommend allocating part of your advertising budget to advertising with bloggers.

Methods of payment for goods

Indonesia is actively digitizing the banking sector, so the share of electronic payments is constantly growing.

About 138 million people are online merchants, but not all Indonesians carry a credit card. Transfers to virtual bank and electronic wallets (ShopeePay, OVO, etc.) are widespread.

Locals also everywhere use the most familiar method of payment – cash.

Geo targeting

Indonesia is made up mostly of islands, so geo-targeting is crucial here.

Advice! When targeting ads in Indonesia by location, target only major cities and their closest suburbs for display.

The effective demand is mainly concentrated in the capital Jakarta and large agglomerations: Semarang, Surabaya, Makassar, Denpasar, Medan and Bandung. In other places, less wealthy people live, so purchases via the Internet are made disproportionately less often.

What do Indonesians buy online?

Indonesians rarely make impulse purchases. Inexpensive and practical things are popular in online trading.

The following products are most in demand among Internet users:

The process of making a purchase decision takes a long time due to the long comparison of the cost and characteristics of several options. Typically, Indonesians turn to the priceza.com platform, where they can compare prices, and search for a particular product or brand. Then they compare the selected product with analogues and only then pay for the order.

Selling expensive goods online is not about Indonesia. The average bill fluctuates around 481,000 rupees, which falls short of 35 US dollars. Of course, there are those who spend much more, but in general, it cannot be said that Indonesians are used to buying luxury goods and expensive equipment in online stores.

Temporal targeting

European traditions of shopping on weekends are not relevant here. In Indonesia, the maximum demand is recorded on weekday afternoons.

Users are most active between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., with the best conversions on Wednesdays. On weekends, this figure is reduced by a third. Consider these features when setting up time targeting.

What to consider when setting up ads in Google Ads for Indonesia?

Breaking into a new market, many businessmen are confident that they will be able to change it for themselves. After all, they already have developments that have shown their effectiveness in other regions. But what works in Europe may not work in Indonesia. Here, no one will be hooked by the minimalism in design and the highly intelligent name, because the demand and the consumers themselves are very different from what we are used to.

When it comes to Google ads in Indonesia, it is important to remember that in the Asian region, the perception of visual images is different from in countries with a Western mentality. This also applies to the corporate identity colors and photos for social networks.

When setting up a Google AdWords campaign to promote a product in Indonesia, you should pay attention to the following points:

1. Aggressive marketing. Only by writing the word “BUY!” (preferably three times), you can count on the fact that someone will purchase your product. Advertising should be as simple and bright as possible. Entertainment content is very popular in Indonesia. Game mechanics and small video sketches will help draw users’ attention to ads.
2. Head-to-head sales. In Indonesia, the situation can be described as follows: the more understandable the advertisement, the more likely the advertiser is to sell the product. This is due to the low level of education and the peculiarities of the mentality. The path to the heart and mind of an Indonesian should be as direct as possible. Already at the level of the name, he must understand what is offered to him. Otherwise, he will not solve the riddle and will pass by.
3. Design. If you don’t want to risk it, then go for pastel colors, which are the basis of the Korean style, so beloved by Indonesians. Alternatively, you can try a catchy and bright design. Blue elements on an orange background, lurid buttons – this can work well in the Indonesian market, because due to the cultural and religious identity, there is a completely different idea of aesthetics here.

What is forbidden to use in advertising campaigns for Indonesia?

Most of the country’s residents are Muslims, so when setting up an advertising campaign in Indonesia, check all images for prohibited subjects, including:

• bare-chested people wearing shorts or other highly revealing clothing;
• women wearing too tight or provocative clothes;
• children;
• mention of well-known brands;
• persons who may be associated with representatives of the royal family or the state apparatus;
• celebrities;
• comparison of two different products;
• guarantee of a complete cure, mentioning doctors and medical institutions when promoting medicines.

In addition, you need to know that Yahoo search engine, PayPal and some well-known gaming resources do not work in Indonesia, because these companies have not received the appropriate license.

How much does Google Ads cost in Indonesia?

The cost of contextual advertising consists of two parts – the tariff for maintaining an advertising account, which the company pays to the marketing agency, and the budget for traffic charged by the Google AdWords system for each click.

CPC on Google Ads for Indonesia depends on the niche:

• washing machine repair – $0.23;
• ventilation cleaning – $0.25;
• Plumbing services – $0.22;
• beauty salons (manicure) – $0.15;
• carpet cleaning – $0.32;
• permanent makeup – $0.16;
• dentist – $0.22;
• refrigerators – $0.33;
• Korean cosmetics – $0.22;
• shelves for cats – $0.2;
• dog food – $0.2;
• fertilizer for flowers – $0.06.

It should be noted that your account price may be higher or lower than the indicated average cost. It directly depends on the quality of setting up an advertising account and the relevance of ads to user requests, the quality of landing pages.

As we can see from the statistics, the cost of contextual advertising in Indonesia is not high, especially in comparison with the countries of the European Union or the USA. This is due to the fact that the standard of living here is not as high as in these countries.

Google market share in search engines in Indonesia

The vast majority of Indonesians use Google to find information on the Internet. It accounts for 91.93% of all search traffic in this country.

Interestingly, the second place in terms of popularity with a rather significant result of 6.98% is occupied by Yandex. This is partly due to the fact that many expats from the countries of the former USSR live in the resort regions of the country (Bali and others).

Because, focusing on the local target audience, it is better to set up an advertising campaign for Indonesia in the Google search engine.