A Smart Approach to Local Market Entry: How Google Helped monday.com Crack the German Market
When Israeli high-tech companies aim to expand into global markets, their minds are often set on the U.S. and other English-speaking markets. However, non-English-speaking countries like Germany also represent enormous potential –if their unique characteristics are navigated correctly. monday.com, one of Israel's leading software companies, successfully tackled this challenge through a strategic partnership with Google
Germany is an attractive target market for Israeli tech companies for many reasons: a market of about 85 million people (plus another 25 million in other German-speaking countries), a GDP of around $3 trillion (third globally), economic stability with a AAA credit rating, and significant industrial power. However, entering it poses unique challenges.
"But entering the German market presents unique challenges, especially for Israeli companies. 'Germany can be a tough market to crack. Companies that are very successful in other markets struggle there and wonder why,' explains Anna Hohen, a Google partner in the German market. 'Beyond some general insights – like the fact that Germany is much slower in adopting new technologies and digital solutions – it's crucial to deeply understand the cultural context, thought patterns, and consumer behavior to act accordingly.'"
Cracking the German Market
The Israeli company monday.com, which developed an organizational operating system providing a variety of products to manage all aspects of work, operates in numerous international markets with customers in over 200 countries, including Germany. However, despite its existing activities, the company's marketing team identified significant untapped potential.
"We've been working in the German market for a long time and went through a lengthy process trying to figure out how to break through," says Or Hadar, Growth Marketing Team Lead at monday.com. “About two years before collaborating with Google, we specifically focused on Germany, but several attempts failed and partners didn't bring significant change.”
The main challenge, Hadar says, "was adapting our brand's essence to the unique German culture, and the specific priorities our customers expected from a tech provider."
The Joint Effort with Google
This is where Google, with its business partnerships team, came into the picture. "Many of our clients manage global operations with varying degrees of localization," explains Sefi Tsarfati, Head of Business Partnerships at Google Israel. "monday.com took this a step further, with dedicated teams for expansion in different geographies, starting with Germany."
According to Tsarfati, "Google's great advantage is its global network of over 130 different local partners, each specializing in a niche and region. This approach has given us the ability to 'tailor' a solution for each specific case." Tsarfati adds, "We're not looking for the big players, but for expert freelancers who are professional in their field. We don't aim for agencies, which, while easy to scale with, are less suited to the character of Israeli high-tech companies."
Google's partnership team joined forces with monday.com's marketing team and built a dedicated workshop for them with Timm Weber and Anna Hohen, experts in marketing strategy for the German market and strategic partners of Google who help international companies penetrate the local market. "The work leading up to the workshop, called Cultural Safari, included an in-depth investigation of industries in Germany, value systems, and trends, alongside user interviews and reviews that led to strategic insights and 'eureka' moments, giving us directions on how to improve awareness and performance in Germany," describes Hadar.
"We had an introductory kick-off call where they asked us questions to understand our challenges, opportunities, and difficulties," Hadar recounts. "From there, they embarked on research, which included interviews with our teams, our clients, potential clients, and competitors' clients, among others."
Surprising Insights and the Solution
The workshop, which lasted two days at monday.com's offices with about 60 employees from various departments, alongside Google representatives, yielded two key insights that surprised the monday.com teams. "The first insight was that in Germany, projects are often not completed on time," Hadar shares. "The cultural stereotype of Germans being 'precise and punctual' isn't as true as it once was. Timelines are sometimes worse than in Israel. On large national projects, they tend to run behind schedule and struggle to complete them on time."
The second insight, Hadar explains, "which is related to the first, is that Germany is drowning in bureaucracy. They have complicated rules and procedures. Seventy percent of offices in Germany still use fax machines. They're stuck in the past, and it's one of the biggest drags on the market. They are aware of the situation and joke about it internally."
From these insights, a new and particularly relevant marketing language was born for German users, positioning monday.com as the solution "to get things done" – precisely what Germans struggle with.
"Our 'Done' button, which is part of our branding, suddenly took on a new meaning – there's a significant pain point in the market, and monday.com has the solution to address it and help achieve goals," Hadar emphasizes.
Rapid Implementation and Long-Term Thinking
After the workshop in July 2024, monday.com decided not to waste any time. "We decided to take the project very seriously and, within two months, launched a campaign after filming, editing, and media selection."
Google continued to assist in the process. "Google's partner team connected us with a local media planner, who helped us focus our media buying and make it more relevant, something we hadn't done before," Hadar explains. "The results quickly followed. The campaign performed excellently; we saw a very significant increase in Top-of-Funnel metrics – the volume of brand searches compared to competitors and compared to the overall growth rate in search volumes in the field. In other words, our slice of the pie grew. We saw an increase after a year and a half of not being able to make a dramatic change."
The new creative managed to increase brand searches by 15% and improve the number of sign-ups by 16%. "We started seeing a lot more traffic. On the same advertising budget, we're bringing in 20% more accounts," Hadar reports with satisfaction.
More Than Just a Campaign: Operational Changes Leading to Deals
Beyond the immediate marketing success, the collaboration with Google led to strategic and operational changes. "Another insight we gained is that in Germany, great importance is attached to storing data on German soil, for reasons of user experience, data privacy, information security, and regulation. Therefore, we refined our messaging about the location and nature of our data storage, and were able to dispel doubts and concerns raised by potential local customers."
Current Growth and Future Expansion
Today, monday.com has over 9,000 paying customers in the DACH region (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) across various sectors. The success in Germany has led to another strategic decision: during the second quarter of 2025, monday.com will launch new offices in Munich, led by a regional VP. By the end of the year, the company plans to hire about 20 team members for the Munich office in various roles – sales, customer support, marketing, partnership management, and more, "understanding the crucial importance of having people on the ground who know the German culture and how to manage clients in the region," says Hadar.
Google's Unique Model for Supporting Global Growth
The collaboration with monday.com is an example of the unique model Google has developed to support Israeli companies seeking global expansion. "The basis for these support processes is the long-standing relationship Google has with its clients," says Tsarfati. "Google has been working closely with monday.com for over a decade, accompanying its growth worldwide. As a result, we approach every initiative with a close familiarity with the clients' needs, preferences, and DNA."
Furthermore, each such project involves three Google teams: the local team in Israel, the local team in the target country (including a partner scouting team), and the data analysis team that provides in-depth research on the industry and the local market.
"The very fact that monday.com saw that the method works and is expanding these initiatives to other markets with Google is the best testament to the project's success and its worthiness of continuation," notes Tsarfati.
Emphasizing the client relationship, Tsarfati states, "The goal is not for the client to remain dependent on us. We want the client to learn how to do it themselves. We and our partners serve as one-time consultants, with no obligation for continued engagement." Hadar says that on monday.com's part, "We specifically decided to continue working with Tim and Anna independently on additional projects, but this decision stemmed solely from our satisfaction with our joint work with them."
Looking ahead, for Israeli companies aiming to expand into new markets, the lesson is clear: with the right partner and precise cultural and marketing adaptation, even challenging markets like Germany can be cracked.
