Google Ads Removes Language Targeting from Search Campaigns

Google is changing how language targeting works in Search advertising. Starting in late September 2026, advertisers will no longer be able to set languages at the campaign level for Search and AI Max for Search campaigns. Language selection is gradually shifting from manual campaign settings to Google’s automated systems. For companies operating across multiple language markets or using separate campaigns for different languages, this means less manual control and a need to review campaign structures. What Is Google Changing? Currently, Google Ads allows advertisers to specify the languages spoken by their target audience. Following the update, this option will disappear for Search campaigns. Google will automatically determine which ads to show based primarily on: the language of the ad; the language of the search query; the user’s language settings; other signals indicating which languages the user may understand. As a result, language will no longer be a separate manual targeting parameter in Search. Instead, language selection will become part of Google’s automated process for choosing the most relevant ad at auction time. What Will Happen to Performance Max? The changes to Performance Max will be more limited. For ads served on Google Search, campaign-level language settings will no longer determine targeting. Language matching will work in the same way as it does for standard Search campaigns. However, advertiser-selected language settings will continue to influence other Performance Max channels, including: YouTube; Display; Discover; Gmail. Shopping ads within Performance Max will also remain unaffected by campaign language settings. How Will Google Determine the Right Language? Google already uses significantly more signals than a user’s interface language. For example, if a user’s browser is set to Spanish but they regularly search Google in English, Google may determine that the user understands both languages. When several relevant ads are eligible to serve, Google will use AI-driven ad and ad group prioritization to identify the most relevant option based on the user’s context and language signals. For advertisers, this represents an important shift: control over language targeting is moving away from campaign settings and toward ad creative, landing pages and Google’s automated systems. Why Does This Matter for Multilingual Campaigns? For international and large businesses, language targeting is often an important part of the advertising account structure. For example, a company may have separate campaigns for Ukrainian, English and Polish audiences. Previously, language could also be explicitly specified at the campaign level. Following the update, Google will rely much more heavily on the content of the ads and signals about the user. This could make ad delivery less predictable, particularly when: a market is served in several languages; the website has multiple language versions; ads in different languages are running across similar campaigns; the same audience uses several languages when searching; the business has strict language segmentation requirements. Companies with complex advertising structures should therefore evaluate not only their campaign settings but also how clearly language is defined across their ads, landing pages and account structure. What Should Advertisers Do? Google says no action is required for existing campaigns. However, advertisers should still prepare for the change in advance. Review Multilingual Campaign Structures Analyze how your campaigns are currently divided by language and market. If language segmentation is critical to the business, assess whether the current structure will remain sufficiently controllable after the change. Review Ad Creatives Ad language is becoming one of the key signals Google uses to determine relevance. For each market, advertisers should therefore have clearly structured ad creatives in the appropriate language and avoid unnecessary language mixing. Review Landing Pages Users should land on a page in the appropriate language after clicking an ad. For multilingual websites, check: availability of separate language versions; consistency between ad and landing page language; URL structure; quality of localization; whether users are being automatically redirected to a different language version. Strengthen Performance Monitoring Once the change is rolled out, advertisers should monitor campaign performance more closely. Particular attention should be paid to: search queries; impressions and clicks by language segment; conversions; cost per lead or purchase; traffic quality; the share of irrelevant impressions; user behavior across different language versions of the website. This is particularly important for large businesses, as even a relatively small shift in traffic distribution between language audiences can affect the performance of substantial advertising budgets. Changes to the Google Ads API The update also affects the Google Ads API. Google recommends stopping the use of language criteria when creating or updating Search campaigns through the API. Existing language criteria can remain in campaigns, but they will no longer affect targeting for Search. Attempts to add or modify CampaignCriterion.language for a Search campaign will result in a ContextError.OPERATION_NOT_PERMITTED_FOR_CONTEXT error. This error will not apply in the same way to Performance Max because language settings can still influence ad delivery outside of Search. Less Manual Control, Greater Reliance on Automation The key change is not that Google is eliminating language matching. Instead, it is changing how language relevance is determined. Previously, advertisers could explicitly define a campaign’s language. Now, Google will determine which languages a user is likely to understand and select the appropriate ad based on available signals. For Google, this is another step toward greater automation in advertising campaigns. For advertisers, it means fewer parameters that can be controlled manually. Businesses with multiple communication languages, international operations and significant advertising budgets should pay particular attention to this change. In such accounts, language structure can directly affect traffic quality, ad relevance and media efficiency. Conclusion: Starting in late September 2026, Google will automatically determine language relevance for Search campaigns instead of relying on advertiser-selected campaign-level language targeting. As a result, control over language communication will increasingly depend on ad quality, campaign structure, landing pages and the signals Google uses during the auction. For businesses, this means going beyond campaign configuration and establishing a consistent language structure across the entire advertising ecosystem — from the ad and landing page to the conversion. Read this article in Ukrainian.