Something that I learned About Using English Banners in Foreign countries (22)
Something that I learned About Using English Banners in Foreign countries
Have been testing some banners lately with exoclick and xhamster in a non english country..So here is a quick tip for all of you..Never use a english banner and then a regional landing page for your offer..they dont convert at all...just my personal opinion ..looking forward to your opinions on this
I wouldnt go near anything thats not in my language either
Originally Posted by santhej
Going into countries like (which I know for a 100%) Germany won't work in almost ANY case. You'd be surprised how poor the average German citizen speaks (especially understands) English. My English is anything but perfect neither, but often enough I see foreigners asking 'how much is it?' in a store and they get the typical ' WTF ' face ^^
I wouldn't expect it to.
You need consistency in your conversion funnel.
Hopping between languages is probably going to be about as effective as Google Translating one badly.
I've had some experiences with English doing really well in foreign countries.
About a year and a half I ran a LivingSocial campaign in Dubai and some middle-eastern countries and English did way better than the properly translated versions of their local languages.
Most of the time it sucks though. I spend a lot at onehourtranslation.
well the country i tested is germany..but if you use http://www.adultadspy.com/ and check germanys top 30 ads you wil see many english ads..thats what i dont understand
Originally Posted by santhej
Originally Posted by gritz
Originally Posted by redrummr
Germany,France,Poland,Greece,Spain,Czech and Cyprus are countries where I had trouble with English to be honest.
Netherlands, Switzerland,Denmark and Sweden I felt like everybody was able to at least understand my question. You can't simplify it by country, but fact is, especially going eastern European countries you'll see a lot of people not understanding English at all. Has to do with those countries teaching Russian as the 'worlds' language much rather than English until years ago.
Bottom line: take the time / cash to translate into native language. Only countries English worked great for are Singapore, Malaysia,SA and HK from my experience, but again, look at those countries, they're kinda different being much involved in global biz.
/Edit: This is my experience from traveling those countries, not from running campaigns
Hi fjk...
I fully support your statement. I'm also from Germany and must say the willingness or ability to read and / or understand English here is pretty low.
One question: Do you target markets in languages that you don't speak? How do you go for that (like translate once so you understand what your competition is doing and then again back to have copy for your campaign)? How do you spy on them (tried the POF Spy tool because I have an offer for France but don't know what keyword to search for...)?
For everything except the actual final ad text translation, Google Translate is your friend - just spam ad text from your competitors in there and you'll get at least some idea of what they're doing. You can also pick a lot of information up by reading English ex-pat forums for the country in question - that'll get you a good idea of the general culture for most verticals.
For the final translation to the target language, though, I go with One Hour Translation every time. It's worth making sure to specify if you want more casual / slang-filled translation, and even doing some research on slang in the native language and specifying a translation. One well-chosen piece of slang can make a lot of difference.
caurmen, thanks for your feedback. Don't want to hijack this post so please tell me if this is not appropriate.
I just wonder how you discover your competition. Say, I have Mate1 for Spain. This seems to be a very generic "product" or offer. I fire up the POF Ad Spy tool and then what? There is the textbox where I can enter a keyword (at least from my understanding) --> Ad Contains Text. I just have problems (pretty sure that is because I'm so newb ;-) understanding how to exactly find that competition. Or is there another way to find it...?
Inservo - can you repost this question as it's own thread? It's a good question and I want to make sure people can find it.
Hi Caurmen. Thanks have posted this as a new thread in the Newbies Q&A section here:
http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...129#post128129
It's not often that I stumble across something that lends itself so well to potential affiliate $$$. 
http://www.ef-australia.com.au/epi/
This is the English Proficiency index. It's a yearly release and very accurate (hundreds of thousands of samples/tests.)
I read about it in a recent article about HK (thinking about moving there). I read that since the Chinese handover, fewer people are bothering to learn English properly anymore, and it's becoming less common outside of the 5-star hotels and such... even though it remains an official language of HK!
France is the WORST European country for English speaking and comprehension, in fact it trails behind Japan, Taiwan, Russia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam etc.
Sweden, Norway, Netherlands are the highest countries in the rankings (obviously does not include primary English-speaking countries).
Enjoy, and remember to test, and remember that a good translation slaughters Google Translate, and English sucks mostly for intl campaigns.
Originally Posted by redrummr
http://www.ef-australia.com.au/epi/
This is the English Proficiency index. It's a yearly release and very accurate (hundreds of thousands of samples/tests.)
I read about it in a recent article about HK (thinking about moving there). I read that since the Chinese handover, fewer people are bothering to learn English properly anymore, and it's becoming less common outside of the 5-star hotels and such... even though it remains an official language of HK!
France is the WORST European country for English speaking and comprehension, in fact it trails behind Japan, Taiwan, Russia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam etc.
Sweden, Norway, Netherlands are the highest countries in the rankings (obviously does not include primary English-speaking countries).
Enjoy, and remember to test, and remember that a good translation slaughters Google Translate, and English sucks mostly for intl campaigns.
Nice! Thanks for posting
Originally Posted by Finch
OK, that's very interesting. If I get a chance I'll test that!
We need to get "TEST, TEST, TEST" on a T-shirt
The reason why Google Translate CAN work better than OHT is because it breaks the "state" of the reader. Harlan Kilstein goes heavy on this topic in his NLP Copywriting program (the best of its kind). He uses many absolutely weird phrases that makes the reader go, "what the fuck did I just read?" but in a more subtle way.
Doing this en masse but subtly, via Google Translate, is effective. Very few people realise the power of NLP in copywriting, I can't remember seeing an LP that uses pacing and leading, and it's so simple. 3-4 paces and 1 lead is all that's required for a good LP: mention (in passing) 4 certainties about their current situation (they just clicked a [topic] ad, they're in a chair, they're in a room, they have a drink at their side [who uses the PC without their drink? This is the riskiest pacing but if it's right, they'll be more inclined to accept the LEAD]), and the lead: they want to [click forward / fuck local slags / lose those disgusting rolls of fat].
When people read comprehensible but poorly worded translations, their brain is more active.
The case study in question is here
Spent a fair amount the last couple weeks on one hour translation. Time to test this, I predict some epic buyers remorse 
@dragoshd - I'll be right there with you, looking at my OneHourTranslation bills and going "Oh, god..."
@redrummr - that's extremely interesting! Thanks. Another thing to add to the "to-test" pile!
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