XPATIC/Google Ads
Google Ads for expat audiences
Search does something paid social cannot. It catches people at the moment they have already decided they need help, and searching in English in a country that does not speak it is a signal in itself.
The language of the search is the targeting
Someone in Málaga typing "English speaking lawyer" has told you three things in four words. Where they are, what they need, and that they are not a native Spanish speaker. No audience construction required.
That is the fundamental difference between search and social here. On Facebook you build an audience and then create demand. On Google the demand already exists and the query itself does the filtering.
The trade-off is volume. Far fewer people search for these terms than could be reached on social, which is why search rarely carries a campaign on its own in these markets. It carries the highest-intent slice of it.
They have already decided they need help
The language of the query does the filtering
High intent, but a smaller pool than social
The settings that decide whether this works
Two Google settings cause most of the wasted spend in expat campaigns, and both are defaults.
The first is location targeting. Google distinguishes between people who are in a location and people who have shown interest in it. For an expat campaign the second option floods you with people researching a move from another country, who may be a fine audience for a relocation firm and are useless to a local dentist.
The second is how broadly Google is allowed to match a query to your keyword. Left wide open, an English-language campaign in a Spanish market will happily spend money on Spanish-language searches that have nothing to do with your audience. Negative keyword work is not a tidy-up job here, it is a core part of the build.
What people actually search for
Expat search behaviour has patterns that domestic campaigns never encounter.
"English speaking" prefixed
The single most valuable pattern. Attached to lawyer, dentist, accountant, mechanic, vet and almost everything else.
"British" or "UK" attached
British lawyer, UK pension advice, British dentist. Often signals someone wanting home-country familiarity, not just language.
Named local procedures
NIE, residencia, carte de séjour, fiscal number. Searched in English by people trying to understand a local process.
"In Spain" and "abroad"
Wills in Spain, tax when living abroad, healthcare in Portugal. Research-stage, but high value when captured properly.
Problem-led queries
Something has gone wrong and the search reflects it. Highest intent, lowest volume, worth paying for.
Home-country brand names
Searching for a bank, insurer or provider from home while living abroad. A reliable indicator of who they are.
How we run it
- Location set to presence onlyNot presence or interest. This single change removes most of the wasted spend in a typical expat search campaign.
- Negatives built before launchLocal-language terms, job seekers, tourists and DIY researchers excluded from the start rather than discovered over a month of spend.
- Query patterns, not guessesBuilt around how expats actually search, which is different enough from domestic behaviour that transplanting a keyword list does not work.
- Landing pages that match the querySomeone searching for an English-speaking lawyer should not arrive on a general homepage. Pages built per query cluster.
- Offline conversions fed backWhich leads became clients returned to Google, so bidding optimises against revenue rather than form fills.
Questions about Google Ads
Is there enough search volume to be worth it?
For high-value services, usually yes. Volume is much lower than paid social, but intent is far higher and the cost per acquired client often compares well. For lower-value services it can struggle to justify itself on its own.
Should I run search or social?
Most campaigns in these markets run social for volume and search for intent. Search alone rarely fills a pipeline here because the pool is small. Social alone misses the people who have already decided and are actively looking.
Do I need a separate campaign for each country?
Yes. Query patterns, competition and cost vary significantly between markets, and merging them means one market subsidising another without you being able to see it.
What about people searching in the local language?
That is a domestic campaign, and usually a different agency's job. Our campaigns target English-language queries, which is what isolates the audience.
Can you work with an existing Google Ads account?
Usually. If there is already spend history and conversion data in there it is generally better to restructure than to start clean, because the account history has value.
See what this looks like for your business
A few questions about what you sell and where, then a call to work through the search picture and what leads are likely to cost.
hello@xpatic.com