Paid Search Performance Linguistics®
Why translated ads underperform, and how trained linguists and continuous testing lift click-through, conversion and revenue in international paid search.
10
Markets audited for a global fashion group
2
Channels, paid and organic, assessed side by side
60
Slides of prioritised recommendations
83
Languages covered by in-market specialists
Where your audience spends its attention, and why your message works in one market but not the next.
A media landscape audit maps how audiences in a market consume media: the platforms and publishers they use, how they search, what they trust and how they move from discovery to purchase. Locaria’s audits add a second layer. We review your live or planned campaigns in each language, checking whether targeting, keywords, ad copy, landing pages and creative fit local behaviour and expectations.
Why language matters: campaigns rarely fail everywhere at once. They fail in specific markets, on specific channels, for specific reasons: a headline that reads awkwardly, a keyword built for the wrong search intent, a landing page that does not match the ad. Left unchecked, these gaps drain budget and distort reporting.
What it is not: Locaria is not a media buying agency, and this is not a review of agency pricing or contracts. We provide independent research and recommendations your media agency or in-house team can act on.
When brands bring us in
A media landscape audit earns its keep when channel decisions are being made on habit or on global averages.
LAUNCHING IN A NEW MARKET
You need to know which channels, platforms and publishers matter locally before committing to a media plan built for your home market.
PERFORMANCE VARIES BY MARKET
The same campaign performs well in one country and poorly in another. We find the specific causes, from local search intent to mistranslated headlines.
AN INHERITED CHANNEL MIX
Budgets follow last year’s plan or the global template instead of how local audiences behave today.
MESSAGE AND MEDIA OUT OF STEP
Ads, landing pages and local expectations have drifted apart, quietly lowering relevance and conversion.
Most media audits stop at the numbers. Ours explain them.
Performance data shows what is happening in each market. Language and culture often explain why.
A numbers-only audit
Media landscape audit with Locaria
Channel benchmarks from global data
Local media habits researched in-market and in-language
Performance gaps reported by market
Root causes found, from search intent to translation errors
Ad copy checked for length and compliance
Ad copy and landing pages checked for local meaning, tone and relevance
One template applied to every market
Recommendations prioritised per market, quick wins first
Findings kept separate from copy and creative
Fixes that feed straight into localisation, copy and creative adaptation
A numbers-only audit
Channel benchmarks from global data
Performance gaps reported by market
Ad copy checked for length and compliance
One template applied to every market
Findings kept separate from copy and creative
Media landscape audit with Locaria
Local media habits researched in-market and in-language
Root causes found, from search intent to translation errors
Ad copy and landing pages checked for local meaning, tone and relevance
Recommendations prioritised per market, quick wins first
Fixes that feed straight into localisation, copy and creative adaptation
What a media landscape audit covers
Scoped to your brief, in any combination, for one market or many.
01 / Local media habits and platforms
Which platforms, publishers and formats audiences use in each market, researched in-market and in-language, using sources such as GWI and Statista alongside social listening.
02 / Audience profiles and targeting
Who is really in each market’s audience, and whether your targeting and geographies reach them.
03 / Search behaviour and keyword intent
How people search in their own language, and whether your keywords reflect local intent or translated assumptions. Search Query Reports help refine relevant terms and exclude irrelevant ones.
04 / Paid search, paid social and organic
Ad-group structure, headlines, calls to action and organic content performance, reviewed side by side so you can see how channels support each other.
05 / Path to purchase
Whether ads, landing pages and the customer journey stay aligned in each language, so the promise in the ad is the one the page delivers.
06 / Localisation and cultural accuracy
Translation errors, missing information and cultural mismatches in ad copy and landing pages that erode relevance in every market they touch.
Media landscape audit in action: a global fashion group across 10 markets
A global fashion group needed to understand why paid and organic performance varied so widely across its markets in Asia Pacific and beyond.
We audited paid search, paid social and organic content using our Performance Linguistics® methodology, identifying and prioritising the language, targeting and content issues holding each market back. Foundational problems came first, followed by advanced optimisations such as GEO for AI-driven search.
- 10 markets audited
- 2 channels, paid and organic, assessed side by side
- 60 slides of recommendations, from quick wins to advanced fixes
Pre-launch audit
Insight in place before the first euro of media spend.
For a campaign targeting international travellers, we combined in-market desk research with social listening to recommend social imagery, identify design-led publishers for media buys and culturally check cross-channel ad copy, all before any media spend went live.
Want evidence from live activity before committing a full budget? Global media scoping tests, scoped separately from the audit, use focused localised PPC and paid social campaigns to measure real demand market by market.
What you receive
Practical outputs your media, content and localisation teams can act on straight away.
Market-by-market media landscape
The platforms, publishers and formats that matter in each market, and how they differ from your home market.
Audience and platform profiles
Who you are trying to reach in each market and where they spend their time.
Campaign and keyword audit
Structure, targeting, keyword intent and Search Query Report findings by market and channel.
Localisation and cultural review
Ad copy and landing page issues by language, with corrected or recommended alternatives.
Prioritised recommendations
Quick wins, foundational fixes and advanced optimisations, ranked so teams know where to start.
Briefing for your media team
Findings presented to your media agency or in-house team so recommendations turn into changes.
FAQs
Questions we often hear from teams reviewing their channel mix across markets. If yours is not here, ask us directly.
What is a media landscape audit?
A media landscape audit maps how audiences in a market consume media: the platforms and publishers they use, how they search, what they trust and how they move from discovery to purchase. Locaria’s audits also review your live or planned campaigns in each language, to show whether targeting, keywords, copy and landing pages fit local behaviour.
Is this the same as a media agency audit?
No. A media agency audit usually reviews what an agency pays for media, its contracts and its compliance. A media landscape audit looks at audiences, channels and the relevance of your campaigns in each market and language. We do not audit media pricing or agency contracts.
Do you buy or manage media?
Locaria is not a media buying agency. We provide research, auditing and recommendations, and we localise and optimise the copy and creative that runs. If you want to validate demand with live activity, we can run separately scoped test campaigns through our multilingual PPC and multilingual paid social teams.
Should we run an audit before launch or after we are live?
Both work. Before launch, an audit shapes channel selection, targeting and messaging from day one. During or after a campaign, it explains why performance differs between markets and what to fix first.
Which channels do you audit?
We typically cover paid search, paid social and organic search and content, alongside research into local media habits, platforms and publishers. Where it matters, we also look at how your brand shows up in AI-driven search and answers.
How do you work with our media agency?
We are independent of your media buying, so our findings are written to be briefed straight to your media agency or in-house team. We can present recommendations to them directly and help them prioritise the changes.
What will we receive at the end?
A market-by-market report in English with local media and audience insight, audit findings by channel and language, and recommendations prioritised from quick wins to longer-term fixes. For one global fashion group, that meant 60 slides covering 10 markets.
Go deeper on multilingual performance
Research on language, search and performance across markets.
Strategic Website Localisation
How brands adapt different types of web content to drive local e-commerce growth, with examples from De Beers, adidas, HotelsCombined and Printemps.
Data Science and its Practical Applications in Multilingual Content
How natural language processing, sentiment analysis and incrementality testing make multilingual content more effective, and why human linguists remain essential.
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