This page is for insurers, banks, flexible-stay operators, coworking brands, and advisers that want customers who work online and change country. It is written for the business, not as a travel guide. The expensive mistake is buying “expats in a city” and then discovering the click came from a tourist, a local freelancer, or an employee posted by a company.
Foreign income, not a local job
There is no single official definition of a digital nomad. OECD work on remote-worker visas describes the term as a location-independent, technology-enabled way of working, and notes that income from foreign sources is what separates this group from cross-border workers and intra-corporate transferees. The same paper says definitions differ by country, and that estimating how many people fit the label is difficult. We do not quote a headcount.
Use that distinction in the brief. If the customer is sent by an employer to do a job in the host country, they belong on the corporate expats page. If they earn from clients or an employer abroad, and the host country is not where the work is delivered to a local company, they belong here. A person on a tourist stay may look identical in an ad platform and still be unable to sign a lease, open an account, or buy the policy you sell. The page has to say what legal stay the product requires.
Where a country offers a remote-work or digital-nomad status, it is generally a temporary permission to live there while working for a foreign employer or for oneself. It is not automatically a path to settlement, and it is not the same product as a local work permit. Do not describe a visa you do not advise on. Point immigration questions to a licensed firm for that jurisdiction.
Products that survive a change of city
The purchases that match this life are ones that still make sense if the person leaves: international health insurance, travel cover with a realistic length of stay, multi-currency accounts, tax registration for a person with no single workplace, and accommodation with a flexible end date. A long lease, a school place, and a local pension are usually the wrong offer unless you are explicit that the customer has stopped moving.
Health insurance campaigns should say whether the policy works if the person changes country mid-term, and whether a tourist stay is eligible. Property campaigns should separate a short furnished stay from a purchase. Someone comparing coworking passes is not an overseas buyer. Financial campaigns should say which non-residents the firm can actually onboard. A slogan about borderless banking that the compliance team cannot support will create enquiries the bank must refuse.
Why a country fence wastes the budget
The person researching next month’s city is often still in the previous one, or in their country of citizenship. Targeting only people physically inside the destination misses the search, and targeting everyone inside the destination includes residents who will never buy an international product. Search around the destination plus the constraint (visa evidence, insurance for leaving, opening an account as a non-resident) is usually a cleaner buy than an interest category called digital nomads.
Thailand, Indonesia, Portugal, Mexico, Colombia, and Georgia already separate remote workers or lifestyle arrivals from other foreign residents. Read them as briefing notes on city and language. They are not a league table of nomad destinations, and presence on this list is not evidence of demand.
Intent that is worth paying for
Commercial intent looks like a question with a consequence: can I be covered if I leave in six weeks, what documents does this stay require, can I rent without a local contract, which account can I open before I arrive. Cafe guides and “best neighbourhood” listicles are awareness. They are a weak lead unless that is the product.
Content earns the click when it answers one of those questions for one destination and states who the firm cannot help. Lead generation should not treat a newsletter signup from a tourist week as a sale. Paid social can introduce the product. It should not be the only proof that the person is allowed to buy it.
What to ask before you call it a lead
Ask where they are now, where they expect to be next, whether income is from their own clients, a foreign employer, or a local employer, how long they intend to stay, and whether the product requires a residence permit they do not have. If any answer makes them ineligible, the form should say so. That is a better outcome than a sales call that ends in a refusal.
Overlap is normal. A remote worker with a child is also an expat family, and the school calendar will dominate the decision. Someone who takes up local residence and a local job has left this segment. Update the landing page rather than keeping last year’s nomad creative on a settled-resident product.
Brief it as a moving target
Tell us the product, the stays you can legally support, and the countries where you are allowed to advertise it. Discuss your campaign or request a callback. We reply within one business day. We will not promise a cost per lead, and we will not invent a market size to justify the spend. The audiences hub is the index if this is only one of the groups you serve.