How Immigrant Communities Choose a Local Business (and Why Your Ads Miss Them)

A woman moves to a new town and her water heater dies. She does not open a laptop and compare ten companies. She sends a message to a cousin, a coworker, a neighbor from church. Someone answers with a name and a phone number. She calls.

Your business may have been a perfect fit for that job. You will never know it, because the decision happened in a chat you were not part of, and your English ad never had a chance to speak.

This article is about how that kind of decision tends to work, and where a local business can show up in it. One honest note first: there is no public study that tells you how a particular immigrant community searches for, chooses or pays a local business. So this is not a list of statistics about any group. It is a framework built on the trust signals that research does measure, and a set of questions you can test against your own customers.

Key Takeaways

• Trust usually does the work that a polished ad cannot. A name from someone the customer knows, a review that sounds like a neighbor and a person who answers the phone all count more than a slogan.
• Reviews matter for everyone: in BrightLocal's 2026 survey, 80% of US consumers said they are more likely to use a business that replies to all of its reviews (BrightLocal, 2026, via PinMeTo, accessed Oct. 2026). A reply in the customer's own language is part of that proof.
• A phone call that reaches someone who understands the customer usually beats a web form, because the call is where trust is tested.
• An English-only campaign cannot show you the customers it never reached. Look at your own calls, reviews and messages to find them.

Who Gets Asked First

When a customer is new to a country, a city or a neighborhood, a search engine is rarely the first stop. People often start with someone who has already been through the same problem: a relative, a friend, a coworker, a group chat, a community page. The question they ask is short. "Do you know a good mechanic?" "Who did your roof?"

That matters for two reasons. First, the person who recommends you is putting their own reputation on the line. A recommendation is a personal risk, so it carries more weight than any ad. Second, the recommendation is usually a name and a number, not a link. The customer then checks that name somewhere: on Google Maps, on Facebook, on a review site, sometimes by simply calling.

Treat this as a pattern to test, not as a fact about any one community. Next time a customer books, ask how they heard about you, write the answers down and read them later. You may find that many of your best customers came through a person, not a click.

If that turns out to be true, the job of your marketing changes. It is no longer only "get found." It is "be easy to verify once someone has been given your name."

What a Review in the Customer's Own Language Signals

Once the customer has your name, reviews are the next checkpoint. Research on reviews in general is clear about their weight. BrightLocal's 2026 survey of 1,002 US adults found that 41% now always read reviews when browsing for a business, and 85% are more likely to use a business after reading positive reviews (BrightLocal, 2026, via PinMeTo, accessed Oct. 2026). The survey covers US adults as a whole, not any single language group, and the PinMeTo page that reproduces it sells local presence software, so read it as a general signal.

Here is the part the survey cannot tell you, and it is only a reasoned inference. A review written in Spanish, Portuguese or another language tells a reader something an English review cannot: that someone who speaks like them walked in, was served and came out satisfied. It answers the unspoken question before the customer asks it: "Will they treat someone like me well?" A page full of English-only reviews can answer that question less clearly.

So make the review easy to write in any language. Google's own help page tells owners they can ask for reviews with a link or a QR code, and it prohibits offering discounts or free goods in exchange for reviews (Google, Business Profile Help, accessed Oct. 2026). The page for creating that link says you can share it through email, WhatsApp message or Facebook post (Google, "Create a Google link or QR code to request reviews", Business Profile Help, accessed Oct. 2026). For a customer who lives in WhatsApp, a link sent there after the job is far easier than a request at the register. Say plainly that they can write in whichever language they like. Our guide on how to get Google reviews for a local business covers the full process and the rules.

Then answer what you receive. Google notes that the person who wrote the review is notified when you reply (Google, "Manage customer reviews", Business Profile Help, accessed Oct. 2026). A short reply in the language of the review tells that person, and everyone reading after them, that a real human reads this page. Keep replies professional and short, and never use one to push a promotion, which the same Google review guidance advises against.

Why the Phone Call Matters More Than the Form

A contact form asks a stranger to type their problem into a box and wait for an unknown person to answer. For a customer who is not fully comfortable writing in English, that is a big ask: a form leaves no room to explain, ask a question back or hear a friendly voice.

A phone call, or a WhatsApp message, is the opposite. It is where the customer finds out whether you are real. The start of that conversation can decide the job. If the voice on the line understands the customer, explains the next step and treats the problem as important, the customer's guard comes down. If the line rings out, goes to a voicemail in one language or puts the customer through a menu, the trust the recommendation and the reviews built can disappear.

There is a technical side to this too. Google's guidelines ask for a local phone number where possible and say the phone number must be under the direct control of the business (Google, "Guidelines for representing your business on Google", Business Profile Help, accessed Oct. 2026). A number that rings at a real desk also works as a trust signal.

Questions to answer before you spend another dollar on ads:

• Who answers the phone, and in which languages can that person run the whole first conversation, including price and schedule?
• What happens to a text message or a voicemail in a language nobody on the team speaks?
• Can a customer reach you on WhatsApp, and does someone actually check it?
• Is the first thing the customer sees on your site a form, or a way to call you?

None of these are advertising problems, but they decide whether an ad dollar becomes a customer.

What an English-Only Campaign Never Sees

Here is the uncomfortable part. If your ads, website and Google Business Profile are all in English, your reports will look fine. What they cannot show is the customer who was never reached: the one who searched in another language, saw a competitor's page in that language and called them instead. That customer leaves no trace in your data.

Language is a real signal for a search engine, and for the customer. Google says it determines a page's language from the visible content, not from code-level attributes or the URL (Google Search Central, "Managing multi-regional and multilingual sites", accessed Oct. 2026). A page written in one language is a page for that language, and Google does not turn it into a page for another one. If you want to be found by someone who thinks in Spanish, there has to be Spanish on the page. A translation tool bolted onto the browser does not create that.

On the buying side, one global study points in the same direction, with a clear limit. CSA Research surveyed consumers in 29 countries in 2020 and found that 76% of online shoppers prefer to buy products with information in their native language, and 40% will never buy from websites in other languages (CSA Research, 2020, accessed Oct. 2026). That study is global, from 2020 and about online shopping. It does not describe any US community or any local service. Use it as a reason to test your own market, not as a verdict.

For the full picture of language and ad structure, read our posts on marketing to multilingual customers, which covers the Census and media data, and on Spanish language Google Ads, which covers the campaign setup. This article stays on the decision itself.

The Neighbors Are Also Your Competitors

Immigrant customers are not only an audience to be reached. They are also a community with its own businesses. The Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy reports that immigrants owned 18.5% of US employer firms in 2021 (SBA Office of Advocacy, 2024, via SBE Council, accessed Oct. 2026). Census data from the same year counted 406,086 Hispanic-owned employer firms, 7.1% of the national total (U.S. Census Bureau, 2024, accessed Oct. 2026).

Those figures describe business ownership, not how customers choose. But they carry a practical lesson: in many neighborhoods, the competitor next door may already speak the customer's language, know the family and be on the group chat. You are not competing against an empty field. You are competing against someone who is easy to trust. That is the bar.

A Simple Way to Find Out for Yourself

You do not need a big research budget. A short routine gives you more than any national survey can:

1. Ask every new customer how they found you. Look for names of people, groups and places, not only "Google."
2. Read your reviews, your messages and your voicemails for language. Count how many are in a language other than English and what the customer asked.
3. Call your own business from a phone that is not on your contact list and see what happens, in each language you claim to serve.
4. Look at your Google Business Profile as a stranger would. Do the photos show real people? Do the hours, services and service area match your site? Does the profile match what a recommendation would have promised?
5. Search for your own service in the other language and see who shows up. Those are the businesses the customer will compare you with.

If you decide to go further, start small: one service page written for that customer, a small separate ad group and a phone line that is ready for it. The step-by-step version is in the Spanish language ads guide. If you serve a city with a large Spanish-speaking population, the page for Houston shows how we look at a local market. For the search side of being found, see our SEO service page.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do immigrant customers choose a local business?

There is no single answer, and no public study describes every community. A useful working model is a chain of trust: a recommendation from someone they know, a check of reviews and the profile, and a call or message that shows whether the business can understand them. Test that chain against your own customers by asking how they found you.

Do immigrant customers search for local businesses on Google?

Some do, but for a customer who was given a name, search is often a step to verify it. For that reason, your Google Business Profile, your reviews and the language on your page matter even when the first contact came from a person.

Should I get reviews in Spanish or other languages?

Yes, if your customers speak them. Tell happy customers they can write in the language they prefer, and reply in the language of each review. Never offer a discount or a gift in exchange for a review, because Google prohibits it.

Is a contact form enough for a customer who is not fluent in English?

It is rarely the best option on its own. A phone number that someone answers, and a WhatsApp option you actually check, give the customer a way to explain and ask questions, which is where trust forms.

Do I need to translate my whole website?

Not as a first step. Start by checking who answers the phone and what your reviews and Google profile say. Then publish one well-written service page for the language you want to reach, instead of machine translating everything.

Your Next Move

Customers who are new to a place often choose through people they trust, verify through reviews and a profile, and decide on the first conversation. A business that is easy to verify and easy to talk to in the customer's own words has a real advantage, and an ad that only speaks English cannot create it.

Start with the cheapest step: ask your next five customers how they found you.

Tell me which city you serve and what languages your customers already use when they contact you. I'll tell you where a better first impression would pay off most, and what the smallest useful fix looks like. Free diagnosis, no deadline: send a message on WhatsApp.