As a digital marketing agency, a lot of the work we do involves paid media - often social advertising with carefully curated targeting. A recurring request we see from our clients, often before we even get started, is asking that we distribute their digital ad budget so that it only targets the U.S. market. From a logical perspective, it makes complete sense to only target ads towards audiences in markets where you know you want to build a fan base of real people who you can re-engage for show promotion when the time comes. But, from an ad-buying perspective, there’s a little more nuance. Beneath the surface, there’s an advantage to targeting your ads to international audiences with cheaper cost-per-results and even potentially a Spotify algorithm “hack”. This may seem counterintuitive, but by targeting internationally, you can actually build your presence in your own country. Here’s how it works.

The idea is simple - create an ad that blends into its surroundings; an ad that, at first glance, doesn’t look like an ad.