Banner localization guide: what changes besides the words

Banner localisation (spelled localization in American English) means adapting a banner for one specific market, not just putting its words into another language. Besides the text, you may need to change date and number formats, currency and prices, units, the call to action and its level of formality, legal lines, imagery and cultural references, while the logo, brand name and core offer stay fixed. This guide takes each of those in turn with examples, then gives a checklist ordered by how much time you have and a way to brief a local reviewer.

Translation, localization and transcreation compared

The three terms describe increasing amounts of change. The W3C describes localisation as adapting content to the language, cultural and other requirements of a target market, and lists formats, currency, symbols, colours and legal requirements among the things it can involve. Microsoft's globalisation documentation describes transcreation as a form of translation that changes far more in order to keep the original intent, sometimes replacing everything.

Most banners need the middle column. Microsoft notes that transcreation takes more time and costs more than other forms of localisation, so it is mostly kept for slogans, headlines and campaigns.

What must stay the same for the brand

Decide the fixed points before anything else, and write them down.

• The logo and its lettering.
• Brand and product names, unless an official local name exists.
• The core offer and its facts: the same product, the same discount, the same deadline.
• Brand colours and typeface, as far as the script allows.
• Web addresses, social handles and promo codes.

Microsoft's terminology guidance suggests deciding for each product name whether it is translated, transliterated or left alone. Brands make the same choice for taglines: Mozilla's German marketing style guide keeps one English brand claim untranslated while translating other lines.

Dates and times

A numeric date is the easiest thing on a banner to misread. The W3C's example is 03/04/02, which a reader in the United States takes as month, day, year, a European reader as day, month, year, and a Japanese reader as year, month, day.

MDN's formatting examples show a single day written as 12/19/2012 in US English, as 19/12/2012 in British English and, in Korean, as 2012. 12. 19.

So "Sale ends 05/06" means 6 May to one audience and 5 June to another. The W3C suggests spelling out the month and using a four-digit year. On a banner, "Ends 5 June" leaves no room for doubt, provided the month name is translated.

Times vary as well. Microsoft's guidance notes that 12-hour and 24-hour conventions both exist, and that the days of the weekend differ by country. "Ends 9 pm" and "This weekend only" both deserve a local check.

Numbers, prices and currency

The comma and the dot swap roles between markets, and the currency symbol moves around.

The first four rows are MDN's renderings of the number 123456.789. The last two are Microsoft's example of one negative price in two euro countries.

Three checks follow for a banner.

• Separators. By the German convention, 1.500 € is fifteen hundred euros. An English reader could take the same figure for one and a half.
• Currency. Reformatting is not converting. Microsoft's guidance treats showing an amount in the right format as separate from making sure the amount is appropriate, which may need an exchange rate or a local price list.
• Tax. What a displayed price must include depends on the market. The European Union's Your Europe portal, for example, says buyers must be clearly told the total price, including all taxes and additional charges.

A translation tool that keeps prices and numbers exactly as they are, which is what BannerTranslate does, will not reformat them. Change them on the source banner for that market first.

Units and sizes

Unicode CLDR, the locale data that its maintainers say is built into all modern operating systems and browsers, lists the United States, Liberia and Myanmar under the US measurement system and the United Kingdom under its own, with metric as the world default. Microsoft adds that imperial units are still used alongside metric in several countries, for instance for distance in the UK.

On a banner this affects lines such as "Delivery within 10 miles", a bottle size or a temperature. Convert first, then round to a figure a local advertiser would use: 10 miles is about 16 km, but the offer may read better as 15 km if the business can honour it. Ask your reviewer which unit is customary for the product.

Calls to action and formality of address

Many languages make you choose how to address the reader: tu or vous in French, du or Sie in German. One brand can answer differently in each language.

Mozilla's published style guides show this. Its German marketing guide uses the informal du, describing it as less complicated, more emotional and more activating. Its French guide says the informal tu is to be avoided, and prefers the infinitive on buttons, Télécharger Firefox, to the imperative.

Three rules keep this under control.

1. Decide the form of address for each language and write it in the brief.
2. Keep it the same in the headline, the button and the landing page.
3. Leave room. The W3C cites IBM guidance giving an average expansion of 200 to 300 per cent for English text of up to 10 characters, which describes most buttons. See text expansion: why translated banners break.

Imagery, colours and symbols

The W3C's list of what localisation can involve includes symbols, icons and colours, and pictures that may be misread or seen as insensitive in another culture. Microsoft's guidance on images names the usual trouble spots.

• Photos and stock art. Marketing often shows people and places familiar to the audience. When the market changes, consider whether the picture should too.
• Flags and maps. Flags stand for countries, not languages, and borders and place names can be disputed.
• Religious and seasonal symbols. Christmas trees and Easter bunnies are tied to Christian holidays and may be unfamiliar or unwelcome elsewhere.
• Gestures. A hand sign that means approval in one place can mean something else in another.
• Colour. Microsoft says the effect of colour depends on several factors, culture among them, and that a new market may need a different palette.

Be wary of charts that assign one meaning to each colour in each country. The reliable test is to ask someone from the market what the picture and palette say to them. Seasons are simpler: a "summer sale" in July is a winter sale in the southern hemisphere.

Legal lines and regulated products

A disclaimer is not ordinary copy. Google's Legal requirements policy makes advertisers responsible for complying with the local laws and regulations of every area their ads target. Category rules change by country as well: Google's alcohol policy, for example, lists the countries where alcohol ads may run.

• Use the legal line approved for that market, not a translation of the one from home.
• Check age marks, "terms apply" wording and any health or financial claim with whoever is responsible for compliance.
• If nobody can confirm the wording, hold that version back.

This guide is not legal advice.

Cultural references, humour and wordplay

Puns, rhymes, idioms, sports metaphors and nods to local holidays rarely survive translation. This is where transcreation earns its cost. Mozilla's French guide puts it plainly: if something cannot be translated, do not translate it, and find another way to express the same intent.

Microsoft's example is a car brochure that keeps the product photos but might stress luxury where the original stressed performance. For a banner, that can mean a new headline, not a translated one. Brief the writer on what the reader should feel and do, not only on the words.

Layout, longer text and right-to-left scripts

Localisation also changes the shape of the text. Translations from English usually run longer, and the W3C notes that many non-Latin scripts have taller characters and need more space between lines. Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and Urdu read from right to left, which can call for a mirrored composition, as the guide to right-to-left banners explains.

A prioritised checklist

If you have one hour

1. Write the do-not-change list: logo, names, URL, code.
2. Replace any numeric date with a written month.
3. Check the price format, currency and units, and fix them on the source banner.
4. Translate the text and choose the form of address. The steps are in how to translate a banner.
5. Have one reader of the language check the headline, button and legal line.

If you have one day

1. Do everything above.
2. Make a market version of the master with the local price, date, units and legal line.
3. Write a short glossary and brief a reviewer who knows the market.
4. Check that the landing page matches the banner in language, price and offer.

If you have one week

1. Commission a transcreated headline and call to action.
2. Review imagery and colours with the local reviewer, and replace what does not fit.
3. Get legal sign-off for each market.
4. Record every decision on a one-page market sheet for the next campaign.

For the wider process, see running a multilingual banner campaign or browse the resources hub.

How to brief a local reviewer

A reviewer can only answer the questions you ask. Send the original and the localised banner side by side, the do-not-change list, the form of address you chose and the landing page link. Then ask six questions.

1. Does each line mean what the original means?
2. Would a local brand say it this way, at this level of formality?
3. Are the date, price, numbers and units written as you would expect?
4. Does anything in the picture, colours or symbols look odd, dated or offensive here?
5. Is any letter wrong, cut off or badly broken across lines?
6. What is the one thing you would change first?

Ask them to label each point as an error, a risk or a preference. Choose someone who reads the language every day and knows the market.

Once the market version of the master is right, the words are the quick part. With BannerTranslate you can translate a banner into up to 5 languages at a time, chosen from 46, and each version keeps the banner's pixel size, imagery, logos, colours and layout. The output is a flat image drawn by an AI image model, so every version still goes to the reviewer before it is published.

FAQ

What is the difference between translating and localising a banner?

Translation changes the words. Localisation adapts the whole banner to one market, which can also mean changing date and number formats, currency, units, the call to action, legal lines and sometimes the imagery. A translated banner can be correct in language and still wrong for the market.

What is transcreation, and when does a banner need it?

Transcreation recreates a message for another market instead of translating it line by line. Microsoft's documentation says it is mostly used for content such as slogans, headlines and campaigns. A banner needs it when the headline depends on wordplay, humour or a cultural reference.

Do countries that share a language need different banners?

Often, yes. MDN's examples show American and British English writing one date as 12/19/2012 and 19/12/2012, and CLDR lists the two countries under different measurement systems. Prices and legal lines can differ too, so treat each country as its own market.

Should I convert prices or only reformat them?

That is a business decision first and a formatting job second. A converted price needs an exchange rate or a local price list, while a reformatted one only needs the right separators and symbol position. Whichever you choose, the banner and the landing page must show the same figure.

Can an AI tool localise a banner for me?

It can do the words. An AI image translator redraws the text in another language, but decisions about price, date format, imagery and legal wording remain yours. Make those changes on the source banner, translate it, then have a reader check the result.

Sources

• W3C: Localization vs. Internationalization – the definition of localisation and the list of what it can involve.
• W3C: Date formats – the 03/04/02 example and the advice to spell out the month.
• W3C: Text size in translation – expansion figures for short text and taller scripts.
• Unicode CLDR Project – what CLDR is and where it is used.
• Unicode Technical Standard 35, Part 2: General – measurement system data by territory.
• MDN: Intl.NumberFormat – number and currency examples for Germany, India, Japan and Egypt.
• MDN: Intl.DateTimeFormat – one date in US English, British English and Korean.
• Microsoft Learn: Format numbers – separators, grouping and the Netherlands and France price example.
• Microsoft Learn: Format currency values – symbol placement, yen decimals and formatting versus conversion.
• Microsoft Learn: Format dates and times – 12-hour and 24-hour time, and weekend differences.
• Microsoft Learn: Units of measurement – metric, US customary and imperial units.
• Microsoft Learn: Images, icons, and colors – flags, maps, symbols, gestures, photos and colour.
• Microsoft Learn: Transcreation – what transcreation is, when it is used and the car brochure example.
• Microsoft Learn: Manage terminology – deciding how product names are handled.
• Mozilla: German Firefox marketing style guide – informal address and a brand claim kept in English.
• Mozilla: French Firefox marketing style guide – formal address, infinitive calls to action and untranslatable references.
• Your Europe: Pricing, payments and price discrimination – total price including taxes and charges.
• Google Advertising Policies: Legal requirements – responsibility for local laws where ads are targeted.
• Google Advertising Policies: Alcohol – country list for alcohol advertising.