Localize a market when it scores high on opportunity and existing reach, and low on the work a local version needs. Run a 4-week pilot in the top 3 markets before you commit the other 17.
TLDR: With 20 or more markets you cannot localize everything. Score every market on impact, reach and effort, localize the top few, and use a short pilot to prove the choice before you spend more.
Rule 1: Score each market on impact, reach and effort
Put your markets in one table. Give each a score from 1 to 5 on three columns.
| Market | Impact (revenue or audience potential) | Reach (do you already show up?) | Effort (translation, review, legal) | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Market A | 5 | 4 | 2 | Localize now |
| Market B | 4 | 2 | 2 | Pilot |
| Market C | 2 | 3 | 5 | Leave global |
Priority is simple: high impact, decent reach and low effort go first. High effort with low impact stays on the global feed. The scores are your judgment, so write down why each one is what it is.
Rule 2: Start with captions, not video
Effort is the column that wins or kills a market. A caption translation and a native check cost far less than reshooting video. Localize the words first, in every top market, and reuse the same visuals.
Only reshoot when a caption-only test shows the market responds. The same logic is in our guide on which assets to localize first.
Rule 3: Cap the markets that need local legal or brand review
Some markets carry extra review: regulated products, strict ad rules, or a local brand owner who must sign off. These slow everything down.
Count the approvers per market. If a market needs three sign-offs for every post, it needs a much higher impact score to justify localization. Otherwise it stays on the global feed until the process is lighter.
Rule 4: Prove it with a four-week pilot
Pick the top 3 markets from your table. For four weeks, publish localized posts there and keep a comparison of similar global posts.
Judge on one metric chosen in advance, such as engagement rate, link clicks or saves. In Mydrop's data, a 2% engagement post is normal and 7% is a good day, so decide your bar from your own history, not a headline number.
If localized posts beat the original by a margin you set beforehand, scale to the next five markets. If not, stop and reallocate the budget.
Keep localized posts on brand without doubling the workload
The hidden cost of localizing is not translation. It is the drift: local teams rewrite the caption, and the brand voice slips. Set one rule per brand: what must stay identical (name, offer, claim) and what may change (idiom, example, emoji).
Our localization quality index gives a way to score this. In Mydrop, you can keep each market's posts under its own brand and workspace, with approvals that route a local post to the right reviewer instead of one overloaded legal inbox.
A scoring example with a reasoned cut
Say you run 22 markets. After scoring, 3 land in "localize now", 6 in "pilot" and 13 in "leave global".
That split is normal. The 13 are not forgotten: they keep receiving your global posts with the right time zone and a translated first line where that is cheap. Review the table every quarter, because a market that grows into your top five should move up without a debate.
The point of the table is to make the decision visible. When someone asks why a market was not localized, you can show the score, not defend a gut feeling.
Fill in the table for your top ten markets this week
Open a sheet, list your ten biggest markets, and score them in 20 minutes. Pick three, set the one metric, and schedule the first four weeks of localized captions. If you want one calendar for every market, try Mydrop free.
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