How to Launch Effective SEA Campaigns in New International Markets

Launching paid campaigns across borders is never as simple as translating your old ad copy and pushing it live. Yet many global teams jump straight into search engine marketing without first understanding the market and adapting their content for the audiences they’re targeting. Don’t make this mistake.

Get to know your market

Behavioural patterns and purchase triggers vary not just by country, but often by region or even city. Which local factors make them buy or turn them away? Conduct focused research to really understand how your audience searches and what persuades them.

You also need to put your search engine marketing efforts in the right __. In some markets, Google dominates, but in others, you’ll need to understand Baidu, Naver, or Yandex. Don’t assume that your existing search engine marketing playbook applies everywhere.

Localise your content

It’s not enough to machine-translate your content and hope for the best. You need to adjust the tone and even your imagery and layout to cater to what matters in the market you want to penetrate.

Adapt to the local digital landscape

Each market has its own mix of platforms and content norms, so you might need to shift channels entirely. A video-heavy approach might underperform in low-bandwidth markets, for example. Your media mix needs to follow user habits instead of just replicating HQ’s original plan.

Likewise, your search engine marketing strategy must match the platforms and behaviours of each market. Keyword sets that work in the UK may be irrelevant in Malaysia — even if they are in English.

Stay agile after launch

Set up dashboards to track performance by country or region so that you can adjust quickly and reallocate spend as needed.

Questions to ask before launching a global search engine marketing campaign:

• Does the value proposition still make sense in translation?
• Do you know who your competitors are in this market?
• Have you actually involved local teams in the review process?
• Who owns the final say on localisation?
• Is performance reporting set up to show results by market, not just in aggregate?
• Are you clear on local compliance rules?

Launch your search engine marketing across markets

From localised ad structures and compliant data flows to SEO and search engine marketing support across 40+ countries, MONDIS helps brands enter new markets. Email contact@mondis.de or call +49 30 48496622-0.

About the author:

Mondis is an online marketing and general SEO agency. MONDIS focuses on giving international SEO consultation to companies looking to connect with targeted groups in Germany, Europe, and worldwide. We also provide professional support to businesses looking to improve the performance of their existing global portfolio. As part of our SEO consultation process, we work with our clients to develop individual SEO solutions for their global expansion.