We are living in a global village, brought together by technology, but separated by language barriers. However, the last issue may no longer be an issue for long. At least, for marketers and business owners using Facebook to find new clients, it is no longer a problem in 2020. Now they have a new useful tool available: automatic translation for ad copy.
Looking for Clients beyond Your National Territory
If you are running a business that sells digital products and services, you can easily offer them to clients all over the world. There are no packaging and shipping costs involved as your client receives a download link as soon as they paid for the selected product.
However, although English is an international language, you should strive to address your prospects in their own native language. At least, you should do that until they become aware of your business and products. Your Facebook ads, especially, should attract the prospects’ attention by the mere fact that they are written in their language.
The Process of Translating Facebook Ad Copy
Until recently, you could manually translate your ad copy for international audiences. Throughout the entire process of creating your ad (headline, main text, and call to action) you see the option “Create in Different Language”.
Once you clicked on that button, you could select the desired language and start typing or copy/pasting the respective text. However, this meant that you needed to have the ad copy already translated in the foreign language you wanted to target.
Automatic Translation for Ad Copy – the Simpler Method
Now, things have changed. Once you start creating your ad, you will see the option “Add Language” and your ad copy is automatically translated by Facebook. At the present you can choose from 48 languages for your Facebook ads (quite enough even for large corporations, let alone SMEs).
You can review, edit or even remove the automatic translation for ad copy provided by Facebook. Thus, you can easily insert previously researched keywords for a specific language which you did not find in the translated text.
The Pros and Cons of Automatic Translation for Facebook Ads
This new feature comes as a welcome addition to the Ad Creator tools. For many businesses, it is great opportunity to expand lead generation efforts beyond their national (and language) borders.
However, automatic translation is far from an accurate and professional service. In many situations, specific phrases and keywords may be lost in translation (literally). Or, the translation may not provide the specific context of a certain sentence. Puns, rhyming words and other creative copywriting features may also be lost or unintelligible in the automatic translations.
Pro Tip: Check with Other Online Translation Tools
If you want to use the automatic translation for ad copy and perform your own checks, you should use a separate translation tool, such as Google Translate. This tool is permanently improved by independent contributors, who are allowed to rate and correct translations in their native language.
Another solution (although more time consuming) is to find businesses selling the same products and services as you in a specific country and copy the keywords they use for the main product categories.
Final Thoughts
Automatic translation for ad copy may not be 100% accurate. However, you must take into account the users’ excitement at seeing brands trying to communicate with them in their native language. Most of them will not be offended by your mistakes. Instead, they will comment with the accurate words and phrases for what you meant.
In time, you can build a dictionary of keywords and edit the automatic translation provided by Facebook to make it more readable to your prospects and followers.