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Businesses seeking profitable growth are expanding internationally. To succeed, they’re localising their products, services, and communications to match the unique needs of each market and acquire customers.
And they’re doing that efficiently, at scale, with AI.
Going international opens up new growth opportunities. The cross-border e-commerce market value is estimated to cross $1.2 trillion in 2025, according to a recent report by eCommerceDB. And in the casual and puzzle mobile game sector, seven of the top eight markets driving global game downloads recently are non-English markets, according to the insights platform Sensor Tower.
To go international successfully, it’s critical to be locally relevant. The latest study from CSA Research shows that 82% of shoppers are more likely to buy a product if an ad is in their own language. Conversely, 42% of U.S. consumers either switch to other retailers, or abandon the purchase when their preferred payment method is unavailable.1
The effort of localisation, however, can be a barrier when businesses rely on manual methods. For instance, using traditional ways to dub video ads in multiple languages can be time and labour intensive.
But with AI-powered tools and ads solutions, marketers can supercharge their localisation strategy to connect with, convince, and convert customers in new markets efficiently.
How to succeed in new markets with an AI-powered localisation strategy
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Connect with customers in their languages
Localise your ad campaigns at speed and scale with the power of AI. With video campaigns, for instance, Google’s AI-powered Video Ads Dubbing tool lets you use an existing video to automatically generate accurate, natural-sounding, and hyper-realistic audio dubs in different languages.
As for text ads used in Search, App, and Performance Max campaigns, partner with Google to use its Campaign Translator tool. It covers over 200 language pairings and lets advertisers easily translate their campaigns and run them internationally.
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Convince customers by being culturally relevant
Build trust with international customers by showing that you understand their culture and local preferences. For example, in your product and marketing content, reflect local customs by referencing cultural moments and featuring local advocates.
You can also leverage the latest Google AI-powered video and image generation models, Veo and Imagen, on Vertex AI to efficiently create localised, high-quality creatives.
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Convert customers by removing friction in the user experience
A smooth user experience makes it easy for customers to buy from you, and catering to local shopping needs helps. One way is to provide local measurement units so shoppers can easily tell if their purchase is of the right size.
Another way is to include the date and time in the local format. Doing that, for example, helps customers easily make time-bound purchases like flight tickets. It also lets them be confident about when they’ll receive deliveries of their purchases.
Making local currency, payment, and shipping options available also lets shoppers pay for and receive their purchases conveniently.
Notebook LM, a research assistant tool powered by Google AI, can help you swiftly identify localisation gaps in your online properties by auditing them against localisation best practices. Upload your prompt and best practices to the AI-powered tool and have it generate a user interface prototype that is localised and able to help you drive conversions.
Here’s how two businesses in different industries use Google AI to localise effectively and expand internationally.
Vietnamese mobile game and app developer Amobear has a solid user base in the U.S. and it wanted to expand its business into new markets.
To grow its face-swapping app successfully in Europe, Amobear used Google’s Video Ads Dubbing tool to produce high quality German- and Spanish-dubbed video ads. That led to a 45% increase in click-through rate and an 8% rise in return on ad spend (ROAS) in Germany, and a 13% growth in ROAS in Spain.
To bring its email apps to Latin America and connect with customers in their local languages, it partnered with Google and used Google’s Campaign Translator tool to convert text assets from English to Portuguese and Spanish.
The result was a 2X year-over-year growth in downloads of its email apps across its top seven localised markets, and a six percentage point lift in ROAS in Mexico.
Video game company Gaijin Entertainment, based in Europe, wanted to grow its game title, War Thunder, in Korea. It was keen to explore if localising the content of its creatives to resonate culturally with gamers in the new market would drive business results.
So it partnered with Google and creative agencies that had deep knowledge about culture in Korea to localise its ads.
Besides creating video ads that had translated voiceovers and text, it developed video ads that featured local landscapes in Korea and key moments from its history and culture. The result: Its culturally relevant ads drove the best performance.
When compared to the original English ad, the culturally relevant ads drove 2X conversion at 2X lower cost per acquisition. They also did better than the translated ads, driving 16% higher conversion at 14% lower cost per acquisition.
Indeed, fortune doesn’t just favour the bold. It favours businesses that use AI to gain a local edge when they venture internationally. And profitable growth can be theirs when they use Google AI to supercharge their localised marketing strategy and connect with, convince, and convert customers at scale.
Contributors: Daniela Putz, Head of APAC International Growth Global Business Solutions; Zuy Nguyen, International Growth Consultant; Jennifer Chau, International Growth Consultant; Brian Kuo, Global Business Solutions Consultant; Anastasia Kim, Creative Strategy Lead, Gaming & Tech, MENA; Alexander Madonov, Senior Analytical Consultant, MENA; Paris Tran, Gaming Growth Manager, SEA AppDev; Nano Pettinato Global Product Lead, YouTube Creatives
