Perhaps you've noticed this before: even if you run a purely German-language web shop, your ads suddenly appear on foreign-language domains. For many, this is initially slightly confusing. Is there a mistake in the matrix? Is the algorithm perhaps not linguistically gifted enough to recognize where the ads can be understood? The answer is neither. What may seem surprising at first glance is actually completely logical.
Admittedly, when you discover your own ads on sites such as wyborcza.pl, elmundo.es, or sky.it, they may seem a little out of place among all the foreign-language content. But don't be fooled by this impression because these placements make perfect sense. Essentially, they simply reflect a trend that has been emerging in our society for some time now: Society is becoming increasingly multicultural and, of course, multilingual. The concern that German-language advertising on foreign domains will fall on deaf ears is unfounded, at least as far as retargeting is concerned. After all, these ads are aimed at people who have already visited the shop, i.e., who have shown an interest in a German-language shop. It is therefore highly likely that these people speak German in addition to their native language. Incidentally, if you look at the raw numbers, this is not a negligible target group. In Germany alone, there are:
• over 750,000 Poles
• over 500,000 Romanians
• over 600,000 Italians
• over 400,000 Croatians
• Over 380,000 Bulgarians
• Over 350,000 Greeks
• Over 1.4 million Turks
• In addition: 22.3 million people with a migrant background and 11.8 million foreign residents
These people live and work in Germany, so it's only natural that they use German-language online shops. However, when it comes to news, sporting events, or similar topics, many of them understandably want to read these in their native language, so they are happy to switch to the corresponding websites. These visitors should not be excluded, especially since you would lose them for your own campaign.
The bottom line is that there are good reasons why advertising banners also appear on websites in other languages. Retargeting only addresses people who have already browsed the online store. It is simply not effective to filter out these mostly bilingual visitors—other criteria such as the number of products viewed, categories, etc. play a more important role in the analysis. So don't be alarmed if you find your ads among Polish soccer reports in the near future—it's all perfectly normal.
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