We’ve seen a number of our clients recently broaden the geographical targeting of their paid Search Engine Advertising (SEA) programs to include non-US markets. To help those of you who might also be considering making the leap to the international field, we’ve put together a few good-to-know tips about international paid search.

When it comes to international SEA programs, there are two important factors to keep in mind: the global search landscape and language.

Google dominates the search landscape in the United States, and is also strong internationally. According to comScore’s analysis of the US search marketplace, Google captures more than 60 percent of all search activity, while Yahoo holds just over 20 percent and MSN is close to 10 percent. According to e3internet’s Global Search Report 2007, Google captures nearly 90 percent of all search activity in Israel and more than 80 percent in the United Kingdom (UK).

However, Google is not the dominant search engine in every country. In China, Baidu holds nearly 60 percent of the total search market share while in Russia, Yandex holds more than 50 percent of the search market.

In order to gain the most from an international SEA program, focus on the search engines that lead the market in your target countries. In the US, it pays to advertise on the two or three largest search engines so you reach the broadest audience. In the UK, your resources may be best spent exclusively on Google, but in other countries Google may not be a factor at all.

Ideally, your keywords and ad copy will be developed in the native language of the country you want to target, by someone who speaks, reads, and writes that language. Literal translation is not effective.

Remember to use local dialects and spellings. Even if you are only expanding to the UK, you must realise that there are differences in English that can have an effect on your click through rates.

If you can’t run a native language ad, still set your account to display to that native language. If your language setting is English only, you’ll be targeting too small a segment, and as a result will not get many impressions. At the very least, your English ad can be displayed in the search results for a native language search. It may not get as many clicks as a native language ad would, but it’s better than nothing.

The trick with international paid search is that it can’t seem “international.” You have to reach your customers on their terms and in their words. Even over the Web, people want to do business with the guy down the street.