Language, Length and Location: Three Muy Importante Hispanic Search Facets

July 23, 2007
Source: Hispanic Targeting, a division of Location3 Media, Inc.

Anyone involved in marketing to the U.S. Hispanic population knows that it requires unique message and campaign construction to account for the varying customs, characteristics and backgrounds of the individuals. You can’t simply translate English ads into Spanish and call it a day. And the same goes for search engine marketing.

Few agencies offer specific Hispanic search marketing services and many of those that do are metiendo la pata by performing direct English to Spanish translations. The reason for this is not disrespect or negligence; these Hispanic search marketers simply do not understand the Hispanic marketing landscape because it is such a new medium. Yet, nearly 17 percent of Internet users are Hispanic and that number is growing exponentially.

To reach this expanding audience, search marketers must understand a number of things about the diverse population and employ several unique marketing strategies. Three facets of Hispanic search marketing that require special attention are language use, keyword composition and target location.

1. Language Use – Hispanic search marketing is well steeped in language, whether it is all Spanish, all English or a combination of the two. If you are using all Spanish ad copy, be sure to remain neutral with Broadcast Spanish; this way U.S. Hispanics of any background or from any country of origin can understand your marketing message.

Spanish is on average 20 percent longer than English, based on both letters per word and words per sentence. For instance, Spanish speakers would search for “restaurante en Denver” not “restaurante Denver,” as a direct translation from the English would be “Denver restaurant.” Extended or additional words can be a challenge when complying with character restrictions for search engine ad text. With Google, your ad title may only be 25 characters and the two lines of ad text may only be 35 characters each. This is another reason doing a straight translation from English to Spanish does not work—it is difficult enough adhering to these character limits. Additionally, there is the issue of cultural relevance. Search marketers composing ads in all Spanish or a bilingual blend must have a flair for creative word usage.

2. Keywords Composition – Hispanic Internet users seem to search differently than other users—including long-tail and extended phrases or even questions. Most searchers begin very broad with one search term then add words or phrases to narrow down results. Hispanic Internet users do the opposite; their initial search reveals exactly what they are looking for and when this proves too specific, they remove superfluous words. The issue of longer language comes into play but the reason for these detailed search queries is likely because many Spanish-language dominant Internet users do not yet understand how search works. Although less acculturated U.S. Hispanic’s are catching on quickly, at this time they may still be less tech savvy than English-language dominant Hispanic searchers.

To account for this, search marketers must include all possible long-tail keywords that are associated with the product or service offering. Fortunately, character limits on keywords are typically long enough to accommodate all words and phrases. Keep in mind that search engines do set limits on the number of keywords for each campaign; however, the limit is high, usually falling somewhere around 1000 phrases. If you are working with an agency they can usually leverage their relationships with search engines to obtain more keywords should you need them.

3. Target Location – Certain portions of the country are more densely populated with Hispanics than others, namely Western Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Southern California, Southern Florida and all major cities. Search marketing allows you to deliver ads only to individuals living in these areas through geo-targeting. Geo-targeting can be completed in three ways—targeting specific states, setting zip code restrictions or plotting maps using Google’s polygon mapping system (using latitude and longitude coordinates to construct shapes around desired areas). Both geo-targeting techniques read the searchers IP address to determine their locations; the searcher sees the ad only if they can be found within the zip code restrictions or polygon maps.

At this time, the techniques for reaching U.S. Hispanic Internet users are still being fleshed out. Due to the expanding population and different levels of bilingualism, Hispanic search marketing techniques are constantly changing as well. However, if you remember these three unique aspects to targeting the U.S. Hispanic population and always keep their cultural differences in mind, you will be well on your way to Hispanic search marketing success.