Google Ads Ditches Manual Language Targeting for AI-Driven Prioritization
Google Ads is making changes to its language targeting feature, which will impact how ads are displayed in different languages. Starting September 2026, campaign-level language targeting will be eliminated from Google Search and Performance Max campaigns.
This means that if a user searches for something in German, the advertising platform will give higher priority to ads and websites that are also written in German. Ginny Marvin, ads product liaison at Google, explained that the system takes into account ad creative and landing language, as well as user signals such as language preferences.
The update will use enhanced ad group prioritization to select the most relevant ad language based on the user's search context when there are multiple eligible campaigns or ad groups. Marvin emphasized that this change is not a translation of ads, but rather a way for the system to automatically prioritize ads in the correct language.
Advertisers do not need to restructure their campaigns, but it is recommended that they review them to ensure that ad creatives and landing pages are clearly structured in the intended languages. Google also suggests stopping including language criteria in new and updated Search campaigns when sending Google Ads API requests.