Adwords, TMs and translation go together like ‘fire and petrol’ or ‘dictionary and gorilla’.

Translation Memories (TMs) are an accepted, if not mandatory, part of the web content translation process. Indeed, it’s regarded as nigh on a hanging offence by most corporate procurement departments for any vendor found guilty of not applying TMs to each and every translation project.

Yes, well maintained TMs can reduce translation cost and turnaround time when applied consistently to high volumes of content, both of which are stated and laudable aims for any supply chain manager. But, like the old cliche about crocodiles and swamps, it is easy to lose sight of the reason for translating the online content in the first place.

Why do any of us spend money on PPC campaigns? Is it because we are lexophiles or just because we love love throwing money at Google?

Neither. Our aim is to convert traffic from a landing page into a sales lead!

Let's not just throw money at Google

We craft our ad text, select our keywords and vary our landing page design to maximize the probability that our targeted audience will respond to our ad and submit an enquiry. All of this is highly customized to the needs of a specific campaign. The same applies equally to all campaign languages.

We want the German landing page to convert local German leads and the Turkish page to generate lots of qualified Turkish enquiries. Our criterion of success is not how accurate the German translation is; rather, did we use German keywords that have high local search volumes or was the call to action appropriate in Germany?

The last thing we really need is some statistical engine with megalomaniac tendencies automatically dictating phrases that may have been used before ad nauseam. For PPC and SEO, one size definitely does NOT fit all.

As I may have mentioned before – it’s not getting it translated that’s the problem per se, it’s the brief you give and the way it’s translated that matters. Of course, it is always a good idea to select a vendor that knows what’s special about international SEO and PPC.

Reminds me of the man who had a photographic memory which was never developed.

Search marketing is big and commands big spend in companies large and small with the demand for search analysts reaching the levels that html programmers achieved in the 90s. While the US market clearly leads the global field in terms of the adoption and sophistication of search marketing techniques, international brands are hungry to generate similar improvements in lead-generation and conversion across all their major markets, particularly the growing or more resilient ones.

While multilingual search engine optimization requires thought, structure and time, paid search does offer the promise of more instant gratification in terms of click-throughs and potential conversions.

“You pays your money and makes your choice.”

Need Adwords for your international lead generation campaigns? Easy. Follow our simple 4-step process to international success:

• Step 1 Grab those ad groups and campaigns that worked in the US
• Step 2 Download them into a spreadsheet from Google Adwords and send them for translation
• Step 3 Load them back into Google Adwords, build local campaigns
• Step 4 Ante-up the PPC bids until the ads are prominent in the “Sponsored links”.

Right? Not really. You just reduced the probability of success by a factor of ten!

If you know anything about Adwords you will be aware that they are made up of a list of trigger keywords, three fixed length lines of copy and two URLs. All of which have a specific role to play. Every component needs to be localized to suit the target local market, including the destination landing page.

Starting to have doubts about my “Simple, easy 4-step process?” If not, you should be. Have a look at the following sentence – lots of words all of them familiar but what does it mean?

Prices houses and cottages, Cottages and houses – Reviews and Prices, Forecasts cottage market

Here it is in its original and hopefully more recognizable form:

Russian:

Цены на дома и коттеджи

Коттеджи и дома – обзоры и цены
Прогнозы коттеджного рынка

English:

Prices houses and cottages
Cottages and houses – Reviews and Prices
Forecasts cottage market

What is interesting here is that the Russian search phrase used was “дом в финляндии” or “House in Finland” and we also tried “Property and Finland” (недвижимость в финляндии) but guess what is the most common search term for Russians looking for a house in Finland?

коттеджи в финляндии (Cottages in Finland)

Yes, ‘Cottages’, not house or property or even dacha, but ‘cottages in Finland’. Notice that whoever created this Adword knew that and made sure that house and cottage where not only in the Ad but also trigger keywords.

From this you can see how important it is to do proper local keyword research as part of your ‘Adword Translation’ process or you are going to both miss out on relevant searches and score a low Google quality rating. Which will either force your bid price higher or drop you down the sponsor list.

The moral of this post? Don’t just translate your Adwords; go to a competent International Search Marketing Agency or, better still, come to Wordbank, where we understand search and marketing and get your Adwords properly localized for the target market. Otherwise it is just more expensive mud on an ever bigger wall.