Localization tactics

Created an Apple Ads max-conversion campaign targeting all countries except the US, with a few top-of-funnel keywords and a $2 target cost per install. Checked impression share by country and which countries produced paying users (India: impressions, no purchases; Netherlands, Canada, UK: impressions and sales). Cross-checked with Mo's Astro-based Claude skill listing keyword volume by country: Netherlands had the same popularity (~55) as the US but difficulty ~17 vs 60-something. Then stop the worldwide campaign and create a Netherlands-only campaign with more budget.

Used Subkeep (web app) to reset prices per country using its blended average index and sometimes the Spotify Index (Big Mac Index also available), rounded to clean numbers, pushed straight to App Store Connect. A/B test for 3 months: 50% of users in every country saw Apple's default prices, 50% the adjusted prices. US, Canada and UK prices unchanged.

Locales like Mexican Spanish and Vietnamese are also indexed in the US store. Keywords are not combined across locales ('bus' in one and 'times' in the other won't index as 'bus times'). When the US English title/subtitle are full, move a medium-popularity keyword from the 100-character keyword field into the title/subtitle of an unused locale (e.g. Vietnamese, where the app isn't translated) to boost its US ranking. Stop doing this once you actually target that country.

The US App Store indexes the English listing plus Spanish (Mexico), and now Russian and a few other localizations (about five sets). Fill each set's name, subtitle and keyword list: real translations if you localize, otherwise more English keywords. Each set is combined separately, so you can repeat a keyword between sets but not within one. Downside: users with that device language see that name.

Make the product available internationally to widen the creator pool. LATAM creators of similar quality cost ~$15/video vs ~$25 in the US. Companies use these markets as cheap testing grounds for new formats, then carry the winners to other markets. Start one market at a time with a test pool of 3-5 creators; for LATAM bring in a fluent Spanish-speaking manager. Europe and Asia (Korea, Japan, Singapore) are also picking up: high purchasing power, far less UGC, so audiences haven't seen the formats. Build a playbook per market that new managers can tweak.

Create posting accounts per country (Clover supports 20; set half TikTok/half Instagram, age, gender, bio, search terms per account). Relaunch proven videos there: replace on-screen text with translated text in the native TikTok font, or sub, dub and lip-sync the creator into the local language/dialect. Best countries: Spain, Germany, Australia; secondary Italy, Brazil. Can be automated: pull niche videos over 1M views, translate, remove captions, add translated overlay, publish, with optional human approval.

Before launch, localize the store listing for the ~12 top locales that the US store indexes (e.g. Mexico, Saudi Arabia/Arabic, Vietnam, Chinese) plus countries where keyword research expects demand (e.g. Japan). Add more languages as Apple Search Ads reveals new countries. Every store language is also added inside the app to keep both aligned. Translation done manually or with AI; screenshots localized with Appscreens.

For a newly launched app: max-conversion Apple Ads campaign in every country except the US, CPA goal ~$2, ~$100/day budget (spent quickly). Broad, exact and automated ad groups. Read spend and impressions per country to see where the main keyword has search volume (no ASO tool covers it) and decide which localizations to do; checked RevenueCat for sales by country.

Test ~500 ads per week; run the tests in countries with similar conversion rates but low CPMs (e.g. Indonesia) at ~$10/day instead of ~$1,000/day at US CPMs, then scale winners in the US.

The Spanish (Mexico) localization is indexed by the US App Store. Put the most valuable keyword in the US title, related keywords in the US subtitle, and more English keywords in the Spanish (Mexico) title and subtitle, even if the app isn't available in Mexico. This fits ~2-10 target keywords across the two title/subtitle pairs.

Years ago started with the Big Mac index itself, then evolved a custom index combining purchasing power with category-specific factors (what people pay to learn an instrument or drawing). Modeled one pricing strategy for all geos, rolled it out everywhere as a test, then optimized per geo over time and revisits as the app matures and reaches new audiences.

On the Japanese country manager's advice, replaced the minimal Western best-practice paywall with a long, colorful, scrolling one-pager: the company story, founders, values, and many user quotes/social proof.