PPC Translation – do I really need it?

24th January 2023

PPC (Pay Per Click) is a form of online advertising in which advertisers pay each time users to click their ads. Your ads are shown to users interested in and searching for the keywords you have chosen. PPC is a popular choice for companies trying to get in front of their target audience quickly and is an important part of an online marketing strategy. While SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) can take time to flourish, PPC is instant, meaning you can get on top of the search results very quickly. It can rapidly increase your sales, generate leads and promote your brand to your target audience. Two of the most popular PPC platforms include Google Ads and Bing Ads.

For this reason, companies invest in PPC when entering new markets overseas. It’s a fast way of gaining visibility in their chosen countries and a good tester to see if a given product or service is going to be successful.

Having said that, serving English ads in Spain is unlikely to get you the results you need. Unfortunately, Google Ads won’t automatically translate ads for you. You will need a multilingual PPC strategy in place. CTR rates are consistently (and often substantially) higher when ads are written in the local language instead of English.

What is multilingual PPC?

Multilingual PPC (Pay Per Click) is a paid search campaign where paid search ads are tailored to specific markets based on their location, language and culture. Your ad copy, images, videos, keywords and landing pages are tailored to that target county.

How is the PPC translation achieved?

The translation of PPC ads requires a slightly different approach to normal translation. Language skills are not enough, you need local expertise and knowledge of how paid search works in each target market to make sure your ads are successful.

1. Keyword research for multilingual PPC

Your keywords play a vital part in your PPC campaigns. If you bid on the wrong terms, it can cost you a lot of money for very little return. We’ve all heard about failed translation where a word that means one thing in the UK means something completely different abroad. While many brands choose to simply translate their keywords from the source to the target language without necessary adaptation, it can lead to costly mistakes. Not only for the budget but also for the company’s reputation. This is why keyword research can be tricky unless you have the right skill set.

For example, if you translated the Parker Pen slogan “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you” directly into Spanish, it would become “It won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant”.

Keywords are also a part of the Quality Score. The Quality Score estimates the quality of your ads, keywords and landing pages. It is used to determine your cost per click (CPC), meaning that higher quality ads can lead to lower prices and better ad positions.

2. PPC ad copy translation

Translating copy for PPC adverts isn’t as simple as translating text from one language to another, as there are character limits to adhere to. Your ads should read well and be appealing to the user, prompting them to click and convert. This will improve your CTR (click-through rate) and make your adverts more effective.

If you choose to go with Google Ads, you can select 8 different types of ads: Responsive search ads, Call ads, Video ads, Comparison listing ads, Responsive display ads, Discovery carousel ads, Discovery ads and Discovery product ads. Each type requires a different level of information.

Let’s take the Response search ad as an example. Each ad allows you to add up to 15 headlines, all up to 30 characters long and up to 4 descriptions, each 90 characters long. If you are translating into double-width languages such as Chinese, Japanese or Arabic, these character limits can be problematic. The character limits are nearly halved, making it harder to get the right message across to the user.

3. PPC sitelinks

You can add more information to your ads by adding sitelinks. These can include links to relevant pages (sitelink extensions), benefits of your product or service (callout extensions), promotions (promotion extension), links to apps (app extensions), telephone numbers (call extensions), locations (location extensions) and price (price extensions).

Sitelinks are easy to update, they can show you detailed data for your clicks and can be scheduled with start and end dates. Sitelinks are also free for search campaigns and they have been proven to improve CTR and engagement.

Sitelinks also help to improve your Quality score (remember the higher the quality score, the less you pay); they provide alternative conversion paths, can send users to multiple landing pages and give you a competitive advantage.

4. PPC landing page translation

PPC ads need landing pages – pages you send users each time they click on your ad. They also need to be in the same language as your adverts. Landing pages are part of the Quality score estimate and can impact how much you pay per click. Ideally, you would want to send users to a relevant page with good-quality content including your chosen keywords. This page should be easy to digest, describe your products/services, outline its benefits and include a call to action.

How to make the Google Ads translation process easier?

  1. Work with Foreign Tongues translation agency. Do not use Google Translate to translate your ads; its translation is far from perfect, can cost you customers and damage your business reputation.
  2. Plan your ads and account for character spaces. Choose the type of ads you want before sending the text to Foreign Tongues, together with the required character limits and important keywords to include.
  3. Don’t forget about display ads and have them translated too.
  4. Create separate campaigns for each language to prevent ads from showing in the “wrong” language. This will also help you monitor and optimise campaigns accordingly.
  5. Update your settings for each campaign to ensure you target the right country and language.
  6. Test your English language campaigns in other countries to target the English speaking population.

Translating your Google or Bing ads takes time but the extra time is worth the effort given the differences in performance that can be achieved.

Foreign Tongues will help you deliver successful internal PPC campaigns. Our linguists adhere to the character limits and know how to optimise paid search campaigns by selecting relevant keywords and using them to write compelling ad copy. Get a no obligation quote here.

 

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