If you try to communicate with others who don't understand the same language, you might find it tough to get your message across. Similarly, when advertising using Google Ads, you want your ads to appear to customers who can understand them. Learn how to Choose your location and language settings.
Language targeting lets you reach potential customers who use Google products and third-party websites based on the languages those customers understand.
Note: Starting in September 2026, the way language targeting works is changing for Search campaigns and the Search Network portion of Performance Max campaigns.
- Search Campaigns: The campaign-level language targeting setting will be removed. Search ads will automatically match based on the language of your ads.
- Performance Max Campaigns: The campaign-level language setting will no longer apply to ads shown on the Google Search Network. These will function like standard Search campaigns described above. However, the language settings you select will continue to apply to other channels within your Performance Max campaign, such as YouTube, Display, Discover, and Gmail. Shopping ads within Performance Max are not affected by language settings.
No action is required by advertisers for this change.
How language targeting works
Review the table below to compare the current and future states of language targeting in Google Ads.
| Today | Future | ||
|
User comprehension of creative and landing page
|
Check if the user understands the language of the creative and landing page. | ||
|
Campaign language setting
|
Check if campaign language setting matches a user language.1 |
_ |
|
|
Prioritization
Triggered when a user can understand your ad/landing pages in multiple languages.
|
For searches without a clear language, like brands, prioritize the user's most preferred language. |
||
| For searches with a clear language, prioritize the ad/landing page that matches this language. |
_ |
| Campaign language settings are no longer required. Language comprehension automatically aligns your ads with user language. | |
| We prioritize ads that match the user’s search term language. This gives you better control to ensure your most relevant creative is served. |
1User language(s) can be any of the languages the user set, regularly interacted with, or searched in.
How Google Ads detects languages
On the Search Network
Google Ads uses search term language, the user’s language settings, and preferences to understand which language the user knows, and attempts to serve the best ad available in a language the user understands.
AI-based ad group prioritization will ensure that ad candidates are prioritized in the most relevant language(s) for the user.
Example
Pat understands both English and Spanish. While her mobile browser is set to a Spanish interface, her other activity on Google strongly suggests she understands English too (for example, many of her queries may also be searched in English, such as "buy shoes online"). Therefore, she may be shown ads that are either English or Spanish, when the keywords match. Pat may also enter a query in Spanish and be served an ad in English.
On the Display Network
On the Google Display Network, Google Ads may detect and look at the language of pages or apps that someone is visiting or has recently visited, to determine which ads to show. This means that we may detect the language from either pages or apps that the person has already visited, or the page that she is currently visiting.
Example
Maya has visited several cooking blogs on the Google Display Network that are written in Japanese, and she views ads from campaigns targeted to people whose preferred language is Japanese. Japanese ads may also show when she reads other blogs on the Display Network that are written in English because of her browsing history.
On YouTube
Google Ads can show ads on YouTube based on the languages the person understands. This is determined by the language preference that someone sets on the YouTube homepage, and various other signals such as browser language, location, and browsing history.
Example
Sam lives in France and has his YouTube homepage set to French, but also visits websites and has Google searches in English. Sam may come across ads in both French and English as his activity suggests he can understand both languages.
