International PPC: How to Increase Profitability in International Markets

For many businesses creating an international marketing strategy is both a dream and nightmare rolled into one.

Increasing profits, developing powerful new relationships and strengthening your global position in the market certainly has its pull. Yet the logistical, technical and marketing challenges faced by going global can often outweigh the perceived benefits.

If done correctly, businesses can use PPC to break into and strengthen your position in a new market, ultimately leading to increased profits for your business. In this article we take a look at the why and the how behind using international PPC and multilingual PPC to increase overall profitability.

Boosting Profitability In International Markets

It won’t come as any surprise that more clicks to your website should lead to more profitability for your business. However, international PPC and multilingual PPC offers some unique opportunities to increase your return on investment.

In domestic markets, businesses often have tiers of potential customers based on their need for what your brand offers.

For example, you may have a small audience of customers that are easy to sell to due to your ability to meet their wants and needs perfectly. However, you are also likely to have a group of customers that are more difficult to sell to, they may even bounce between you and competitors and are often only on boarded through heavy selling, marketing and even discounting.

This second group of customers often cost more and benefit less, making them less valuable to your business. By unlocking a new international market, you are able to find a new group of ‘perfect customers’ therefore enabling you to eventually spend less on sales and marketing whilst maintaining the same or better profitability.

When compared to domestic PPC, international PPC can also increase profitability by offering better break even points on campaigns. WordStream explain this with an example for the US:

“The average “breakeven” CPC on US ecommerce is $2.56 (this factors in the client being a client for three years and spending $100 on their first purchase). With these metrics in mind, each customer is delivering you 55% ROI. By contrast, the “breakeven” CPC in Australia is $3.53 with the same first time purchase value, which means the ROI comes in at 114%. Yes, there might be more overhead associated with catering to that market, but given that the average CPC in Australia is $0.85 for every $1.00 spent in the US, profit is still possible.”

Test, Test and Test!

Regardless of how profitable it may be, going international or even committing more business resources to increasing international share of market always comes at a substantial risk.

Obviously, the first step in testing international markets is to undertake deep research into the country your targeting. Once this has been done and the new market has been judged as suitable, using digital methods such as PPC allows businesses to invest a small amount into testing the water before fully investing in that direction of growth.

This method lets you limit risk and drive interest in your product or services before launch.

For example, PPC allows for immediate exposure to the right target audience. By leading a test campaign either with brand specific content, in country event or short run product launch you will get a true feel if your brand will be successful and well received in that market.

This initial test run will also provide you with a set of data that will let you push your business in the right area given the demands of that specific market.

Why PPC has an advantage over other methods

Why use PPC when looking to increase profitability through international markets?

Although other digital marketing methods do work and should certainly be included in your wider international digital marketing mix. PPC offers unprecedented access to your new audience with immediate effect.

Techniques such as SEO and organic social media growth should be part of your long-term international marketing strategy. PPC can give you instant exposure to your desired audience as well as letting you quickly build up data on them. This lets you speed up the process of understanding what works in the new market and build that into your long-term strategy.

Get Local expertise

For those that want to increase profitability, using a local guide is going to help.

By either partnering with a local business or working with a local freelancer or consultant you will gain insight that is going to support your efforts in new markets. Although this will come at an upfront cost, ultimately it will save you time and money in finding what works as well as limit any damage you may do to your brand by making a local faux pa.

By educating your international partner about your business will also allow you to create professional multilingual PPC ads in the target language that still reflects your brand voice and values.

Business assessment

Although it is easy to get excited about increasing profitability through international and multilingual PPC it is important to take a step back and take a look at its genuine suitability.

Although we have established that businesses may be able to lower PPC costs whilst increasing results, there is a need to apply this to your individual business. Taking into consideration how much it will actually cost you to deliver value in the new market will go a long way to helping you understand this.

For example, business leaders will need to ask how much it will cost you to deliver your products and services in that new market? In the case of digital products this is fairly simple, although translation and compatibility may come at an initial up-front cost. For those delivering physical products may need to set up local distribution offices, which can come at a higher cost.

It is clear that adopting international PPC can increase profitability for businesses if done correctly. By following the steps we have highlighted in this guide you will be able to limit any unnecessary spend and ensure success in the new markets you are targeting. To gain some expertise and explore more information on international PPC head to our solutions page on international PPC.