Positioning localization as a core driver of global revenue

How localization becomes a revenue driver

Our Localization Revenue Report tracked the revenue impact of localization across four company stages. A big takeaway: up to 50% of growth is tied directly to localization.

So how does localization generate this kind of impact? Here are five ways it directly drives revenue:

• Market expansion: Reach new users by removing language barriers
• Strategic selection: Target markets where localization unlocks the most revenue
• Rapid testing: Validate demand fast with low-cost localization experiments
• Experience differentiation: Improve the user experience to boost conversion and loyalty
• Launch velocity: Ship across markets simultaneously and capture demand faster

1. Localization fuels growth when domestic markets plateau

Every successful company eventually exhausts its primary market's growth potential. The reasons can be many: your market share maxes out, competitors crowd the space, or customer acquisition costs rise. 

When that happens, you have two choices: accept stagnant growth or find new revenue channels. 

Joaquin Muñoz, Localization Manager at Life360, has seen this pattern play out:

The typical trajectory with many companies is, as you start to reach a plateau, where growth starts to stagnate in the domestic market, it starts to take off ideally in the international market. So, you can garner even more growth outside of the domestic user base, and that becomes your lion’s share of growth.

That's where localization becomes critical.

Localization opportunity #1: Domestic linguistic markets

Your domestic market likely has more growth potential than you think, if you speak the right languages.

Take the United States. Nearly 45 million people speak Spanish—almost as many as Spain's entire population of 49 million. Yet most US companies treat Spanish localization as an extra cost instead of what it actually is: access to millions of new customers without leaving home.

In this case, Spanish localization expands your business to millions more consumers in your home market.

This pattern repeats across markets:

• Canada has 7.5 million French speakers
• Switzerland has four official languages
• India has 22 regional languages

Put simply: Localization helps you fill these linguistic gaps in your domestic market and maximize revenue growth. And once you’ve filled these gaps, it’s time to look beyond your home territory.

Localization opportunity #2: International growth 

International expansion becomes your next growth lever after you've captured domestic linguistic markets.

With a good localization strategy, you add new revenue streams while maintaining existing ones. Launch in Germany, France, and Japan, and you've tripled your addressable market. Each market generates its own revenue while your core product stays the same.

But expansion without strategy burns your budget. The key is choosing markets where localization delivers the highest ROI. That means understanding where your product fits, where demand exists, and where competition is weakest. 

That's where strategic selection comes in.

2. Localization supports strategic, high-profit market selection

Most teams think of international expansion by asking “Where’s the biggest market?” instead of “Where will localization actually drive revenue?”

But market size ≠ revenue opportunity.

A market of 1.4 billion people in India or 215 million in Brazil doesn’t guarantee profitability if users aren’t ready for your product. 

Evaluating new markets through a localization lens reveals where customers are actually reachable—where language is the primary barrier instead of deeper structural issues. When you focus on regions where localization unlocks access to motivated buyers, growth comes faster and more predictably.

How localization reveals high-profit, high-readiness markets

Localization can help you uncover markets that look small on paper but deliver higher spending power and stronger revenue potential. 

With small-scale localization tests, you can quickly see which markets are truly ready to buy. These tests reveal what’s helping or blocking adoption by showing three key signals:

• Demand signals: Are people clicking, engaging, or showing interest in your brand?
• Language friction: Does translation alone significantly improve performance?
• Infrastructure readiness: Can users pay, onboard, and use your product/service without extra work?

When you analyze these factors together, it’s easy to spot markets where language is the only meaningful barrier and an opportunity for growth.

Case study: Life360 in the Nordics

The Nordic markets have a combined population smaller than Texas, yet they punched far above their weight in revenue generation. The region delivered outsized revenue for Life360 because localization unlocked customers who were ready to spend. As Joaquin Muñoz explained: 

Naturally, you don’t want to go after smaller markets because of their size. But sometimes, smaller markets, such as in the case of the Nordics, can have a higher net spend. Understanding that was the stepping stone for us to localize and go after this region a little bit more aggressively to see what kind of traction it generated.

The bottom line: Localization drives revenue when it informs market selection. 

By choosing markets with strong readiness indicators—high digital adoption, mature payment infrastructure, strong purchasing power, and cultural affinity for your product/service, every dollar spent on localization generates more revenue, faster.

3. Rapid localization testing allows low-risk market entry

The old playbook for international expansion looked something like this:

Conduct extensive market research → Build a business case → Get executive buy-in → Commit six figures to a full market launch → Cross your fingers

The problem? By the time you realize a market isn't performing, you've spent the money and missed opportunities elsewhere.

That’s where rapid localization testing comes in clutch. 

Instead of committing six figures to a full market launch and hoping it works, you test markets quickly and cheaply with small-scale localization projects. You learn what works, double down on winners, and cut losses fast.

Paula Hunter, Senior Localization Program Manager at Remitly, explains how rapid localization testing works:

A lot of companies think you have to go all-in or nothing. But I think you can invest very little money just to run some experiments, like translate a marketing flyer, an FAQ, or something small. Measure the engagement and see what happens.

How to test new markets with rapid localization?

Let’s see what rapid localization testing looks like in practice.

Spend $2,000 to localize a few landing pages and run targeted ads in a specific region. Within two weeks, you know:

• Are people clicking?
• Are they engaging?
• Are they converting?
• What's the cost per acquisition?

If the results are positive, double down on your expansion strategy. If the results are negative, you've lost $2,000 instead of $100,000. And you've learned something about market fit that informs your next test. Both outcomes create value.

Joaquin Muñoz shares how modern localization technology (more on this later) makes it easy to test fast and scale.

With our modern tooling, like machine translation and AI, you can test at a much less risky price point. By integrating an AI translation tool with a linguist post-edit, or machine translation, it's a low-risk and low-touch campaign to get a greater outcome.

4. Localization turns user experience into a competitive advantage

User experience is one of the strongest revenue levers in any market, and localization amplifies it. When users struggle to understand your product’s features, navigate its interface, or grasp its value, they leave—usually for a competitor who made things easier.

A localized user experience removes this barrier and becomes a differentiator in two ways: 

• One, it reduces friction to drive immediate conversion
• Two, it creates emotional resonance to build long-term loyalty

Here’s proof: According to our Localization Revenue Report, 51% of companies report improved customer satisfaction as the top benefit of localization, while 44% report increased revenue as a direct result.

The data reveals a compounding effect: better user experience drives satisfaction, which drives revenue. Let's break down how this works.

How localization reduces friction and increases conversion

Cognitive load kills conversion. When users have to mentally translate content and second-guess their understanding, they don’t stick around. Localizing the user experience eliminates this friction. Your users understand you instantly without spending too much time on translation. 

Let’s say users see messaging, guidance, and error handling in their native language throughout their journey. It automatically becomes easier for them to understand value, complete onboarding, resolve issues, and finalize a purchase. 

In short: When users can interact with your brand in their native language without friction, they resonate better and convert faster.

Cultural adaptation drives loyalty and long-term revenue

Reducing friction drives immediate conversion. But cultural adaptation creates something deeper: emotional connection for long-term loyalty.

When you adapt the entire experience for users in a new market, they feel your product was built for them, not translated for them. This deeper localization looks like:

• Using culturally appropriate examples
• Adapting workflows to local preferences
• Adjusting visual design for different reading patterns
• Respecting local conventions around dates, currencies, and measurements

A frictionless user experience brings in new customers, but a culturally relevant experience retains them for the long term. 

5. Localization accelerates launch speed and agility

In competitive markets, timing can be a huge edge. 

The company that launches first captures market share, gains recognition, and sets the benchmark. The company that launches second fights an uphill battle.

A strong localization infrastructure allows you to launch products, features, and campaigns across all markets simultaneously in days or weeks, not months. As a result, you can capture revenue opportunities worldwide before your competitors. 

In fact, for 51% of respondents in our research, the biggest risk of not investing in localization is falling behind competitors.

Joaquin gained this competitive edge by using Lokalise’s AI-assisted workflows to launch Nordic languages in just a month during the holiday season. 

This timeline would have been impossible with traditional localization. But tapping into that seasonal demand in multiple new markets simultaneously meant Life360 generated revenue it would have otherwise missed entirely.

How localization accelerates global launch speed

Modern localization technology shortens launch timelines from months to weeks by removing the friction that slows global rollouts. 

Instead of managing translation files manually and juggling contributors across time zones, you move toward a synchronized, automated workflow that mirrors the pace of product development. 

• Automating translations: AI translation models handle 80–90% of string-level work instantly, so linguists can focus on fine-tuning high-impact content.
• Syncing updates instantly across teams: As soon as a developer pushes a code update or a designer adjusts a layout, your localization platform updates source content automatically.
• Enabling cross-market collaboration: Localization platforms bring everyone into a single workspace. With this shared context and collaboration tools, global teams can work in parallel rather than sequentially. 

Here’s how global launches fare with vs. without localization:

How to build infrastructure for scalable localization

To achieve the speed, agility, and strategic impact described above, companies need robust localization infrastructure.

This infrastructure has two critical components: 

• Organizational setup
• Localization platform

Let’s break down each component in detail.

Where localization should sit in your organization

Localization teams positioned close to executive leadership and budget decisions influence which markets to enter and when. This organizational placement determines whether localization drives revenue or remains a tactical function. 

As Joaquin Muñoz, Localization Manager at Life360, explains: 

My goal usually is to be aligned with or be a part of a team that's closer to decision-making. This team will ultimately make the call for what our strategy is, what we are going to be localizing for, and which locales we're going to target. That's a real opportunity to have a conversation and provide insights from a localization standpoint.

Our data validates this approach: companies with higher revenue invest more in localization infrastructure. 

94% of companies earning $100 million to $1 billion report medium-to-high localization maturity. They've moved beyond tools and built organizational foundations where localization informs market selection, revenue planning, and product roadmaps.

How localization teams can collaborate across departments

Localization teams have a cross-functional visibility advantage that other departments lack. Because localization touches product, engineering, marketing, sales, and support, they see connections others miss. This bird's-eye view lets localization teams spot opportunities for the entire organization.

Smart localization teams use this visibility to share intel across the company, like:

• Usage patterns from product teams
• Cultural insights from marketing
• Customer feedback from sales

When localization operates as a connector, the entire organization becomes more globally sophisticated. 

Product teams design for international markets from day one. Marketing creates campaigns that work across cultures. Sales understands what messaging resonates in different regions.

Using localization technology to your advantage

Your organizational setup creates a foundation. But you still need technical infrastructure to execute localization at speed and scale. You can't move fast with spreadsheets and email threads.

According to our research, some of the biggest challenges that block revenue growth through international expansion are managing external contributors, centralizing everything, and manual workflows.

How modern localization platforms help in scaling your setup

Modern localization platforms like Lokalise solve these problems by turning your localization processes into a fast-paced, automated setup that moves at the speed of product development. 

Here's how platforms like Lokalise address each challenge:

• Managing contributors: Real-time collaboration brings translators, developers, designers, and product managers into one workspace where they work in parallel without version control issues or coordination delays.
• Centralizing content: Direct integration with code repositories (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket) and design tools (Figma, Adobe XD, Sketch) means translations sync automatically when code or designs change. This eliminates manual exports, imports, and handoffs.
• Design-stage localization: Connect your design tools like Figma, Adobe XD, and Sketch with your localization management system to let translators and reviewers see design mockups and translate content accordingly while development happens in parallel.
• Eliminating manual workflows: AI capabilities automatically select the best translation engine (ChatGPT, Claude, DeepL, Google Translate) for each content type, creating contextually aware translations without human intervention for 80-90% of strings.

At the end of the day, successful global brands don't treat localization as an afterthought. They build robust infrastructure—both organizational and technical—to drive revenue through localization.

If you’re looking to do the same, try Lokalise for free for 14 days and see how it can boost your bottom line.