Google Ditches Manual Language Targeting for AI-Powered Ads

Google Ads is set to undergo a significant change in September 2026, as the platform will no longer allow advertisers to manually adjust language targeting. According to Google, this update aims to simplify language targeting and reduce redundancy, while also eliminating potential setup errors.

The current manual setting for language targeting will be removed, and instead, Google's enhanced AI-driven ad and asset prioritization will automatically select the most relevant ad language based on the user's search context. This means that advertisers no longer need to manually set language criteria for their campaigns.

For existing Search campaigns, language criteria can still be removed for cleanliness, although it is not strictly required. For Performance Max Campaigns, the campaign-level language setting will no longer apply to ads shown on the Google Search Network, but will continue to function as normal for other channels within the campaign.