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Seven common mistakes with international advertising

There are many advertisers out there who are more than happy to get their message out to as many people as possible. Given that selling online is now easier than ever before, many advertisers want to go global and offer their products and services to people around the world. International advertising is on the rise, but there are still a lot of advertisers who are getting it wrong when taking this approach. Let’s look at some of the more common mistakes made with international advertising:

Foreign language

With advertising, you want to create copy that prompts the reader to buy your product or service, but how can you do that if you are using a language that your audience doesn’t understand. Simply assuming that everyone has a basic grasp of English is a mistake, and could end up costing you in the long run.

Wrong currency

While it’s easy to go online and see what the price of a product in another currency translates to in your part of the world, you shouldn’t make your customers do that. Pricing should be clear, easy to read, and in the currency of the region you are advertising to.

Reusing templates

Advertisers who make use of banner ads will often simply use the same template over and over again, regardless of where the ad is posted or who they are trying to reach. This might save some time but it is a bad move. Not only is this boring, it is also ineffective, as the images and text used may simply not resonate with consumers in other parts of the world.

Offending the audience

A word, phrase, or an image that is very commonplace in your part of the world may well be something that is considered offensive or insensitive in other places. Thus, it’s always a good idea to ask someone with a knowledge of the foreign language and local culture to review and proofread your ad copies. Testing your ad versions with a small focus group before releasing them is a good idea.

Generic landing page

When you create a landing page to go with your advertising, you need to make sure that it is specific to the country that you are targeting with the ad. Do not redirect to a generic global site that redundantly asks the viewers to choose a country or language. There is no point in taking the time to create a language-specific ad if it clicks to a page in another language.

Incorrect geo-targeting

This is a huge mistake that could potentially cost the advertiser a lot of money. This is especially true if you are paying by views because the ad will end up being seen by people outside of your target market. It means that the language is foreign and unknown to those viewers. The ad will not be understood and will not be clicked on.

Improper ad server setup

When targeting an international audience, you want to see how the ads are performing and comparing in different regions and countries. Thus, you need to create separate ad campaigns in your ad serving solution so that you can get the correct ad metrics that tell the full story.

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