Google is removing manual language selection from Search and Performance Max advertising campaigns. Previously, a media buyer could specify which language the ads should be shown in. Now Google will determine this automatically.
The change has already started rolling out.
How language targeting works now
Google will determine which language is suitable for the user. To do this, the algorithm takes into account the search query, ad text, keywords and landing page content.
That means it is no longer possible to select, for example, only Russian in the campaign settings and limit impressions to that language. An attempt to change language targeting through the API also results in a system error.
With PMax, the situation is slightly different: in Google Search, the selected language is no longer taken into account when serving ads. However, language targeting will continue to work on YouTube, the Display Network, Discover and Gmail.
What this changes for media buyers
The main problem — is less control over which language audience the traffic will go to.
This may have a particularly strong impact on setups in multilingual GEOs. For example, if you need to run traffic separately to Russian-speaking users in Germany or Spanish-speaking users in the US, previously the language could be set at the campaign level. Now Google itself will determine whether a specific setup is suitable for the user.
Therefore, the language of the ad and landing page becomes more important: if they do not match the language of the audience or search query, the algorithm may choose another language version or show the ad to a different audience than the media buyer intended.
