Marketing & search

Transcreation & SEO
campaigns that land abroad

A headline is not information. It is an effect — and translating it moves the words while leaving the effect behind. So campaign copy gets rewritten to do the same job in the new language, starting with the words that market actually searches for.

  • Headlines and ad copy rewritten
  • Keyword research per market, first
  • International SEO for your pages
  • Paid search and social campaigns
  • One message across every channel
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Send the campaign as it runs today — the page, the ads, or just the brief — and we will reply with a fixed price.

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    What we do on a campaign

    Usually all of it, because the parts only work together. Take whichever pieces you need.

    • Transcreation

      Headlines, taglines, ad copy and landing pages rewritten to do the same job in the new language. The idea survives; the sentence rarely does.

    • Keyword research per market

      Before a word is written, we find out what people in that market type and how they talk about the thing you sell. Those terms become the brief.

    • International SEO

      Page titles, descriptions, headings and structure written for each language version around its own terms — not translated from the English ones.

    • Paid and social campaigns

      Ads for search engines, ad platforms and social channels: written, built out per market, and run by us if you want them run.

    • The same line everywhere

      Landing page, ads and posts saying one thing rather than three. The wording lives in a termbase we maintain, so the next round matches this one.

    How a campaign gets built

    1. 1

      Send the campaign

      The landing page, the ads as they run, or nothing but the brief. Tell us the markets you are opening and what the campaign is meant to make someone do.

    2. 2

      Receive your quote

      A fixed price, a written scope — what we write, what we research, what we run — and a schedule we agree with you before you commit to anything.

    3. 3

      Research, then write

      Keyword research per market first, because it decides what the page should be called and what the ad has to promise. Then copy written by someone who writes ads in that language, revised by a second linguist.

    4. 4

      Launch and keep it in step

      Campaigns built out across search, ad platforms and social, with the same line on the page as in the ads. When the offer changes, the whole set changes with it.

    The keywords come first

    Most people expect transcreation to start with the copy. It starts earlier, with the words the market uses. A buyer in Hamburg searching for what you sell does not type the German for your English keyword — they type what Germans call it, which is sometimes a different word, sometimes a borrowed English one, occasionally a brand name that has quietly become the generic term. That vocabulary decides what your page or your product listing should be called, what the headline can promise, and what an ad has to say to earn a click. Write first and research afterwards and you spend the second half of the project bending finished copy around terms it was never built for.

    Then comes the rewriting, and it is writing rather than converting. A pun in English may become a rhythm in Spanish and a plain statement in German, because the reaction is the thing being carried across, not the sentence. Facts, product names, claims and legal wording stay exactly where they are — the licence is on the phrasing, and nowhere else.

    The last part is the one campaigns most often get wrong: the same line has to hold across the landing page, the ads, the announcement that goes out to the press and the social posts. When the ad promises one thing and the page it lands on says another, the campaign argues with itself, and no amount of budget fixes an argument. Keeping the copy, the search work and the ads in one place is what stops that happening.

    Different job: translating the site itself — the pages, the interface strings, the files — is localization, and it is its own service. This page is about the campaign pointing at it.

    Happy to be of service,

    Founder

    Two clients, in their words

    Our word on this is worth less than theirs.

    • A great experience

      Working with GB Translation is always a pleasure in every way. Response time is immediate, excellent quality, and they offer a wide range of services, in any language. They understand exactly what we need. Having GB by our side allowed us to take an exponential leap in our growth — they function as our translation department.
      Daniel SánchezCEO · Dani Voiceovers

    • More than satisfying

      GB Translation distinguishes itself through its reliability, quick response time and high-quality language services. We are very satisfied with our collaboration.
      Nicolas ZieglerConsultant · Brand Affairs AG

    Frequently asked questions

    Tap any question to see the answer!
    What is the difference between translation and transcreation?
    Translation carries the meaning across and keeps the sentence. Transcreation carries the effect across and will change the sentence to do it. For a contract you want the first, because every word is load-bearing. For a headline you want the second, because a headline is not there to inform anyone — it is there to make someone stop, and a faithfully translated joke stops nobody.
    Can you work from our existing English campaign?
    Yes, and that is usually how it starts. We treat the English as the brief rather than as the text: what it promises, who it is talking to, what it wants someone to do. Then we check that against how the new market searches and write from there. Sometimes the structure survives intact; sometimes the strongest line in English is the weakest one in German, and we will say so rather than translate it and hope.
    Why research keywords before writing rather than after?
    Because the terms decide the brief. What the page is called, what the headline can promise, what an ad has to say to earn the click — all of it follows from the words people actually type. Research afterwards and you are retrofitting a market's vocabulary into copy that was written around another one, which shows.
    Who runs the ad accounts?
    You own them, always. We work inside your accounts with whatever access you grant us, or we hand the campaigns over built and ready for your team to launch — your choice. Nothing is set up under our name, and nothing you paid for stays with us if we stop working together.
    Do we need a separate landing page per market?
    A page per language, yes — not the same page with a swapped headline. If the ads are written from that market's search terms and the page is not, the click arrives somewhere that does not answer it. We write both from the same research, which is the cheapest way to do it anyway.
    Can you keep the wording consistent across the channels?
    That is most of the reason to have one company do it. The line on the landing page, in the ad copy and in the posts is the same line, and it goes into a termbase we maintain, so the campaign you run next quarter still sounds like this one.
    Can you guarantee we will rank first?
    No, and nobody who does is telling you the truth — that outcome is not ours to hand over. What we control is the work: each language version built properly and written around the terms its market actually uses, ads that say something worth clicking, and a page that delivers what the ad promised.
    What does it cost?
    It depends on scope — how many markets, how much copy, and whether you want the campaigns run as well as written. Transcreation is priced as writing rather than by the word, because that is what it is. Tell us the campaign and the markets and you will have a fixed price and an agreed schedule before you commit, with no obligation.

    Taking a campaign into a new market?

    Send us the page and the ads as they run today. You will get a fixed price, and a straight answer on what would have to change for them to work in the new language.

    Get my quote