Research New Markets Using Google Global Market Finder

If you have ever advertised for your company, you should take note – especially if you use Google’s advertising tool, AdWords. As part of a package aimed at helping companies reach overseas customers, Google’s Global Advertiser is a step-by-step guide to help companies research new markets and after, localize their websites and ads (using Google AdWords) into a target country’s language. The first step in this package is the Google Global Market Finder – a tool to help companies assess business opportunities around the world extrapolating from Google Search data, Google AdWords keyword bid and competition using Google Translate’s keyword translation technology; it allows you to view search volumes and Google AdWords costs for your keywords in any market worldwide.

From the press release:

“Global Market Finder helps businesses answer the question: who are my potential customers overseas? Businesses enter keywords that describe their product or service and select the region they’d like to explore. The Global Market Finder automatically translates those keywords into any one of 56 languages used in the selected region. It then ranks each location by opportunity based on factors like local search volume, suggested bid price, and competition for each translated keyword.”

Screenshot of Google Global Market Finder search results:

Click for enlarged version.

How “opportunity” is determined in the Google Global Market Finder is based on an “Opportunity Score”. From the FAQ:

How does Global Market Finder determine Opportunity Score?

Opportunity Score is a dynamic metric based on local monthly search volume, suggested bid, and competition between different locations in your target market. If two locations have the same search volume, then the location with the lower suggested bid receives a higher Opportunity Score. Similarly, if two locations have the same suggested bid, then the location with the higher search volume gets a higher Opportunity Score.

Aliza Knox, Google’s Managing Director of Online Sales in Asia-Pacific says, “There are 1.9 billion consumers online worldwide and tens of millions of businesses looking for products and services on the web and the Global Market Finder and Google Ads for Global Advertisers help advertisers, including the 154,000 SMEs in Singapore and 600,000 SMEs in Malaysia, convert these consumers and businesses into customers and grow their business globally.”