Did you know you can set your Google browser to any of over 100 different languages? Within the United States 56% of individuals speak another language in addition to English. It is clear that not all consumers are shopping the internet in English. However, the majority of Pay Per Click advertising is English specific in the United States, as the language is generally determined by location. Not only are the ads in English but the landing pages are as well.

If we look at New York there are approximately 180,809 French speaking individuals that may be shopping online at any time with their browser set to French. Sandrine is searching for Macarons in New York and she is more inclined to have her browser set to French. If you search Macarons in English there are several ads that appear, however in French there are none. By utilizing location targeting and advertising in French you have higher visibility and possibly a lower CPC.

According to a translations.com case study in 2014, US Hispanic consumers spend $653 billion each year. With this spending power in mind, think of advertising for pool supplies in Miami. In Miami as of 2000 61% of residents speak Spanish as their first language and a total of 72% of the Miami population is Spanish speaking.  Therefore if you are looking to sell pool supplies in a Google text ad near Miami it would be key to have ads in Spanish, as you would potentially be reaching a higher percentage of the local population with Spanish ads than with English. It is similar in Los Angeles as 47.14% of adults speak Spanish.

With Spanish being the largest minority in the United States it would be easy, yet misguided to simply create English and Spanish bi-lingual advertising campaigns. Take San Francisco for example, 11.68% of people speak Spanish at home, however it is the third most common language spoken in San Francisco. 18.6% or 140,302 San Franciscans speak Chinese at home and they most likely conduct their online product searches in their primary language, Chinese. Chinese is also the second most common language used on the internet as a whole with Spanish coming in third and English being the most prominent.

Internet marketing will continue to grow and adapt – do not remain focused solely on English ads or you will miss opportunities to enhance your market reach. By utilizing location targeting with language targeting you can get granular in your campaign approaches which will allow you to focus on key clientele demographics with a higher ROAS.

For information on how you can use language targeting in your own campaigns, click here.