Guide

Paid Search Performance Linguistics®: how language lifts multilingual PPC

Why translated ads underperform, and how combining trained linguists with continuous testing lifts click-through, conversion and revenue in international paid search. With results from luxury, fashion and travel accounts.

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Cover artwork for the "Paid Search Performance Linguistics" guide, showing a bar chart and a magnifying glass

+23%

Revenue for Gucci from campaigns in additional languages

+91%

Clicks on a fashion retailer's German account

+59%

Revenue on the same account, from originated ad copy

+62%

Conversion rate across a travel brand's new market accounts

The problem

Why multilingual PPC plateaus

Translated campaigns tend to earn lower click-through and conversion rates. That lowers quality scores and pushes up cost per click, so campaigns plateau, margins are squeezed and brands pull spend from markets that could have grown.

The guide traces the cause to common shortcuts: relying on machine translation, asking colleagues who aren’t trained linguists to translate, leaning on network offices, using generic translation partners who don’t understand digital marketing, or simply running campaigns in English.

What Performance Linguistics® does differently

Locaria combines an understanding of media and marketing with the nuances of language, working to client KPIs rather than word counts.

Local keyword research

Keywords are researched in each market rather than translated, so campaigns match how people actually search.

The right method for each line

Templates for scale, localisation for core copy, and origination or transcreation for high-value paid media campaigns.

Continuous testing

Daily account scans flag errors and weak spots, search query reports refine keywords and negatives, and every change is measured against client KPIs.

Results from live accounts

Gucci: running campaigns in additional languages, even where the website stayed in English, lifted revenue by 23% with no negative impact on cost per click, bounce rate or quality score.
Fashion retailer, Germany: replacing translated ads with originated copy delivered a 91% uplift in clicks, 64% more orders and 59% more revenue.
Travel brand, eight new market accounts: weekly search query reports drove a 129% uplift in clicks and a 62% increase in conversion rate.

The guide was published in 2020, so some ad formats it mentions have since changed. The principles have not, and it includes a low-risk two to three month test framework for brands that want proof first.

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