Export has long been a source of growth for Hong Kong’s economy and, of late, leading businesses have been turning to AI to boost their international expansion.
From rising brands to unicorns, businesses are using AI to grow at home and abroad.
That shift comes on the heels of Hong Kong's digital export growth, which ranges from mobile apps to cross-border e-commerce, and is projected to reach a whopping $73.8 billion by 2030.
While a massive opportunity, businesses will have to navigate fluctuating markets and evolving customer preferences. And AI has emerged as a game-changer for thriving in that complex environment.
Companies of all sizes — from rising brands to unicorns — have used AI in marketing to grow at home and overseas. And they have done so in three strategic ways. Here’s how you can put those AI-powered marketing strategies to work for your business.
1. Be highly relevant to customers on a large scale
For a business to expand and thrive internationally, it’s important to connect with customers in their own languages and cultures. But being relevant in multiple, different markets can be challenging without the help of AI.
Take, for example, the online travel agency, Klook. It was reaching customers globally in 14 languages via more than 100,000 ad creatives. And it was constantly refreshing the creatives to stay relevant to changing travel interests while optimising them to improve Ad Strength and campaign performance.
That was a massive undertaking and Klook needed scalable solutions. So it partnered with Google to put AI to work.
With the Google AI-powered Text Ads Generator tool, Klook could quickly create thousands of ad headlines and travel product descriptions in different languages. The tool also improved the Ad Strength quality to a rating of “Good” or higher by 50%.
Klook also used responsive search ads, a Google AI-powered ads solution, to serve the improved ad creatives that closely match customers’ search terms. The result was a 115% increase in conversions.
2. Grow a high-intent user base efficiently
To break into a market and grow sustainably, reaching a wide audience of people who will become your customers is important. And you can nurture a high-intent user base with AI-powered ads solutions.
Fintech player Futu Holdings, for instance, used the power pairing of Search and Performance Max to successfully launch and expand its online trading platform, Moomoo, across markets such as Australia, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore.
With broad match, it was able to capture high-intent queries such as stock codes from customers looking to invest. And with the Google AI-powered Performance Max, it could find more converting customers — from first-time investors to those looking to switch investment platforms — across all of Google’s channels, including YouTube and Gmail.
Additionally, Moomoo used Ads Data Hub to analyse its user segments, identify customer needs and come up with relevant offers and services to deepen its relationship with customers.
3. Generate demand in existing and new markets
Whether it’s growing in a market where your business is established or expanding into new markets, the ability to generate demand is critical. And for global fintech platform Airwallex, Google AI made that possible.
Airwallex helps businesses simplify their global payments and financial operations. It has a suite of offerings and wants to help customers easily identify the products that best suit their needs. So it used Demand Gen.
The Google AI-powered solution creates ads with the perfect combination of high impact visuals, messages, and placements, and serves them on YouTube and Google’s most immersive, visual surfaces to catch customers’ attention. The ads are also served to the most relevant potential customers, such as people who’ve made a past purchase, visited your brand’s website or watched videos on its YouTube channel.
Airwallex also tapped into its first-party remarketing lists and used Target CPA bidding to further optimise its Demand Gen campaign for conversion. As a result, brand search volume for “Airwallex” surged by 30% and its cost per acquisition dipped by 24%.
And with more than 20% of its leads now coming from Demand Gen, Airwallex is rolling out this success formula to other markets.
Indeed, with AI-powered marketing, the world is your oyster. Expanding your business internationally may require you to work through complex environments, but with AI-powered ads solutions and marketing strategies for your brand, you’re well-placed to unlock new growth.
