Google Ads Drops Language Targeting, Favors Query Language

Google Ads has announced that it will be removing language targeting from Search and Performance Max campaigns in September 2026, nine months past its initial deadline of December 2025. The company first mentioned this plan a year ago, when it stated that the language targeting setting would be removed from Search campaigns by the end of 2025.

According to Ginny Marvin, Ads Product Liaison at Google, the campaign-level language targeting setting has become redundant as the system already understands and handles language automatically. The system checks an array of signals including the language of the ad creative and landing page, search term language, and user's language settings and preferences.

Google will begin favoring ads and landing pages whose language matches the search term itself. This means that for searches with a clear language, the system will prioritize the ad or landing page matching that language.