How to advertise on Facebook internationally

TLDR: Don’t duplicate, localise. Get to know your target market behaviour and adjust bids and audiences accordingly

Simply duplicating your existing campaigns and changing the location to the country you want to target is not the best idea. There is a number of considerations you should take into account when building out your Facebook ad campaigns to other countries in order to ensure you spend your budget effectively.

Audience Considerations

• Take care when replicating existing campaigns to target new countries as potential audience size can vary greatly in both directions based on the availability of the selected criteria in the new location.

TIP 1: Once you update the location check the potential reach is sufficient for the daily budget and duration of the campaign.

TIP 2: If changes are required you can narrow the audience by adding new layers of criteria that the audience members should meet or adding exclusions:

Alternatively, you can expand the audience size by using the suggestions Facebook provides based on your existing criteria by picking the most relevant ones:

Think Device

• The adoption of different mobile devices varies greatly between countries

TIP 1: At the ad set creation stage, select the types of mobile devices you want to show ads on as shown below:

TIP 2: At the ad creation stage, make sure to review what the ad would look like not just in the different placements (e.g. News Feed, Right Column, Audience Network etc.), but also on the different devices by using the drop-down menu as shown below:

TIP 3: When analysing historic data, use the Breakdown by “Impression Device” feature to keep track of the portion of the total impressions that the different mobile devices represent.

Learn from Competitors

• Facebook have recently launched a new feature, which allows users to view all ads that a business page is currently running on Facebook.
• This is an incredibly powerful tool when launching Facebook Ads campaigns in new markets, as advertisers can view their competitors content/tone of voice prior to launching.
• The feature can be found by inserting “/ads/” after the business pages URL. Using Nike as an example: https://www.facebook.com/nike/ads/
• Advertisers can view the ads in different countries by toggling the Location drop-down (as below)

Use Relevant Ads & Landing Pages

• When launching campaigns in new countries, advertisers need to ensure that they are adapting their ads and landing pages to speak to the local users.
• Accurate translation is key, nothing will put off users more than fragmented messaging in the ads & landing page. The messaging should be consistent between ads and landing page also.
• Beyond translation, all imagery should be relevant to the users in the target countries. If Nike were to advertise new running shoes in Australia, an image of a runner next to the Sydney Opera House will resonate better than London Bridge. Help them understand your product in the context of their everyday lives.

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