Managing Accounts for Multiple Markets

It's a daunting task, managing multiple markets' PPC accounts. Different languages or dialects, different perceptions of the same brand and even time zone issues within the same country can affect what should be a straightforward account management structure. The importance of treating each market differently is vital in ensuring that your campaigns succeed in a competitive and global market.

After managing a couple of multi-market campaigns for continental Europe, it's easy to say that account structure needs to be different for each country because of the language differences. Sure, some aspects of structure should be the same, but multi-language markets behave so differently in terms of tastes and brand popularity. Germans love a little town called Ortona on the Adriatic coast in Italy which is just down the road from Pescara, but it might be a tough sell to English tourists: knowing that the Brits prefer Pescara over Ortona can make a huge difference in budget allocation and strategic targeting for a successful campaign.

What about multi-markets where only one language is spoken? Doesn't every English-language campaign behave pretty much the same? It's the same language, right? Try advertising a Ute in the US, or an SUV in the UK. If you've got the latest, greatest wrinkle-free pants and want to expand into Europe, people will wonder why you bothered to alleviate the rare issue of ironing your unmentionables. Simple answer: language still counts when you're managing multi-market English campaigns as well.

So how do you go about structuring multi-market PPC accounts? Firstly, take a really good look at audience demographics. It might seem pretty elementary, but it's the first stumbling block of a lot of account expansions. Feel free to use a similar skeleton structure, but understand why people in each market are searching for you, and tailor your account for a "big guns" vs "small fry" approach. Don't be afraid to geo-target for different areas of countries as well. What works in Scotland might not work in Wales, and your ad copy should reflect regional differences where practical. Many people have experienced ad copy success in one area of the United States where they experienced failure on the opposite coast. While I'm not trying to paint all Arizonans and Floridians with one big shuffleboard-playing retiree brush, consider that a snappy creative might work better in California or Massachusetts where a more informative one works in Snowbird territory.

The best advice for everything is to test. Test geo-targeting, test different ad copy for different regions, and know what you're selling for different markets. Use common sense. And don't assume that the same account structure will work across multi-markets: it might make your job easier for reporting, but think about reporting successful results rather than carbon copies of the same account. In the end, don't market trousers as pants to Brits in the same way that you wouldn't market band-aids as plasters to Americans, and you're halfway there.

Happy multi-targeting.