How to test paid media in a new market without burning your budget

Testing a new market with paid media should be a smart way to learn. But too often, tests can be rushed, underfunded, or poorly structured, leading to vague results and false conclusions. Markets get written off, not because the opportunity isn’t there, but because the test didn’t reveal it.

This guide is about how to avoid that. We’ll look at common pitfalls and how to design a paid media test that does what it’s supposed to: reduce risk, generate insight, and set you up to make better decisions about where – and how – to scale.

How international paid media tests can fall short

On the face of it, testing a new market with paid media sounds straightforward: pick a platform, translate your best-performing ads, set a modest budget, and see what happens. But this approach, while logical on the surface, often leads to underwhelming outcomes.

We see the same pattern repeated time and again, even by experienced teams:

• Campaign structures are copied and pasted from the home market, with little consideration for how users behave differently elsewhere
• Ad copy is translated, not localised – ignoring linguistic nuance, cultural context, or local triggers that influence buying behaviour
• Platform choices are made out of habit, not local relevance (Google and Meta are not omnipresent – and even where they are, usage patterns differ)
• Budgets are spread too thinly across too many channels or geographies, leaving no room for meaningful insight
• The results are inconclusive at best, and misleading at worst
• Websites and user journeys – from landing page to checkout – are overlooked, creating friction that kills conversions
• Data tracking is incomplete, inaccurate, or simply wrong – making optimisation guesswork
• Marketing objectives are vague or missing entirely, leaving teams without a clear measure of success

In other words, the test doesn’t fail because the product isn’t right or the market lacks potential but because the methodology was flawed. But the conclusion drawn is often that the market ‘doesn’t work.’

That’s a costly misunderstanding. You can end up walking away from genuine growth opportunities based on skewed signals, simply because the test wasn’t designed to reflect the reality on the ground.

For example, consider a B2C skincare brand from the UK running a Meta test in Germany. They translate their highest-converting UK ads into German and run them across the whole country with a modest £10K budget. CTR is low, conversions are minimal. Leadership loses confidence and pauses expansion plans. But they never asked:

• Was the messaging tone right for German consumers, who often respond better to factual product information than emotive lifestyle copy?
• Were the images reflective of local norms and aesthetic preferences?
• Would a regional test – say, in Berlin and Hamburg – have been more insightful than going national from the outset?
• Was Meta being used in the most effective way – for example, as part of influencer-led activity – or could other channels such as search have played a stronger role?

The point is that paid media testing only works when the test is designed for insight, not just activity. That means thinking differently about success metrics, localisation, targeting, and measurement, and grounding everything in local knowledge from the start.

What ‘high risk’ really means (and why it’s not the same for every brand)

‘High risk’ can be used as shorthand for ‘unfamiliar’ or ‘untested.’ But in practice, risk is relative. A market might be high risk for one brand and low risk for another, depending on:

• Market maturity: Are consumers already familiar with your category?
• Brand equity: Are you starting from zero recognition or piggybacking off global fame?
• Regulatory complexity: Will data, tax, or ad rules trip you up?
• Cultural variability: Will your messaging cut through or confuse?
• Platform divergence: Are the channels you usually rely on even relevant here?
• Competitive intensity: In paid media, competition shapes ROI – less crowded, non-English-centric markets are often cheaper to penetrate and can deliver stronger incremental returns.

Understanding risk means understanding where your assumptions might fail.

The case for testing, not scaling

The goal of a test is not to prove your existing strategy works. It’s to understand whether it needs adapting – and if so, how. You’re looking for signals: of interest, intent, barriers, and opportunities. A well-structured paid media test should be:

• Deliberately limited in scope: Narrow the focus to one or two cities, a specific audience segment, or a single product line. This keeps variables controllable and learnings sharper.
• Built around learning objectives: What are you trying to find out? Which messages land? Which audience segments engage? Which channel delivers meaningful volume at an acceptable cost? Set clear hypotheses and design the test to explore them.
• Focused on insight, not ROI: In new markets, you don’t yet have the infrastructure to optimise for ROI. And you shouldn’t try to. Instead, optimise for clarity – what’s working, what’s not, and why.

Too often, businesses structure their test as if it’s just a smaller version of a full campaign – replicating channels, ad sets, creatives and budgets at reduced scale. But a test like that doesn’t generate insight. It generates data without context.

Seven principles for running a smart, low-risk paid media test

1. Start with the business case, not the media brief

It’s tempting to leap into channels, formats and budgets. But step back to ask yourself why you are testing this market at all:

• Is there a strategic hypothesis you’re trying to validate?
• Do you suspect a product-market fit?
• Are investors or senior leadership pushing for geographic diversification?

Unless you’re clear on the purpose, your media plan could become an expensive fishing expedition.

2. Think in signals, not sales

In new markets, conversion rates are often low – not because there’s no demand, but because the funnel isn’t optimised yet. So look for intent signals:

• CTR on different messaging angles
• Behaviour on landing pages
• Search interest or brand queries
• Drop-off points in the funnel

You’re not trying to hit target CPA on day one. You’re trying to understand whether it’s worth building the infrastructure to try.

3. Don’t start with Google by default

Google isn’t a universal constant. In China, it’s irrelevant. In Korea, Naver is more dominant. In Japan, Yahoo! Japan still holds surprising sway. In Germany, privacy norms can make Meta targeting trickier.

It’s a mistake to assume your home market mix will map cleanly elsewhere. Platform share, audience habits, and ad formats all vary. That’s why local expertise is essential. Local In-Market Experts can flag platform quirks, user preferences, and ad norms that global media teams might miss.

4. Messaging that works at home doesn’t always travel

Even when marketers localise their ad copy, they can miss the subtleties. For example:

• What emotional tone works in that market? Have you considered how humour varies by culture?
• What’s the right balance of functional vs aspirational messaging?
• Are there local pain points your offer solves but your standard messaging ignores?
• Do your visuals feel global… or just generic?

Your message might be clear but does it land? This is where testing with multiple creative angles – shaped by local insight – can yield much stronger learnings.

5. AI can help but it won’t spot what’s off

AI tools are great for speeding up campaign build: keyword research, draft ad copy, audience persona generation. But there are drawbacks:

• AI doesn’t understand cultural nuance or context
• It repeats bias baked into its training data
• It can make errors sound authoritative

Use it to explore, but never to finalise. Always run AI output past someone who lives in the market. LIMEs, again, are invaluable here. They’ll tell you if your lovingly ChatGPT-written German strapline inadvertently makes you sound like a toothpaste brand from the 90s.

6. Budget small, plan big

A market test is not a scaled-back campaign but a tool for future decision-making. That means:

• Spend only enough to generate statistically useful signals
• Focus spend in one or two geos, not an entire country
• Test a few variables properly, rather than too many poorly

You’re trying to learn so keep your ambitions focused.

7. Measure like you mean it

In unfamiliar markets, your usual measurement stack might not cut it. Cookie rules differ. Tracking may be patchy. Data may be delayed. Set up for:

• Geo-specific UTM tracking
• Funnel event tagging (not just final conversions)
• Channel-level breakdowns
• Clear segmentation by messaging theme

If you don’t trust your data, you can’t trust your decisions. A messy test is worse than no test at all.

What good looks like

Let’s say you’re a UK-based home fitness brand thinking of entering Poland. Instead of launching a full campaign, you:

• Run Meta ads in Warsaw and Kraków only
• Test two messaging angles: ‘low-cost at-home convenience’ vs ‘train like a pro’
• Work with Polish LIMEs to craft ad copy that feels natural, not translated
• Track micro-conversions: video views, email signups, site engagement
• Spend £5K over 4 weeks for the purpose of the test (in practice, most of Oban’s ongoing work is at a higher investment level, but the principle remains)

You don’t break even but you learn that:

• The ‘train like a pro’ message flops
• CPCs are low, but conversion intent is higher in Kraków
• A specific visual motif performs best

Now you’ve got insight. And you’ve avoided making expensive mistakes further down the line.

How LIMEs help you test for reality, not theory

You can A/B test formats all day, but if your messaging never resonates – or if you’re on the wrong platform altogether – you’re testing in a vacuum. That’s why local expertise matters. LIMEs help shape:

• Channel selection
• Messaging angles
• Ad copy and visuals
• Expectations around behaviour and conversion
• Interpretation of results

They make sure you’re testing what’s actually relevant, not what’s easy to replicate from HQ.

Thinking of testing a new market? Talk to us

Paid media is a powerful way to test international growth, but only if your test is set up to tell you something meaningful. At Oban, we combine smart media strategy with deep local insight, so you’re not flying blind. If you’re thinking of testing a new market, let’s talk.