Bilingual Google Ads: run English and French without double work

Key takeaways

For bilingual Google Ads campaigns, the big 2026 change is that Google has removed the campaign-level language setting from Search campaigns. Search ads are now matched by the language of the ad itself, so your French copy and French landing pages do the targeting.
Keep English and French in separate campaigns or ad groups. Google doesn’t offer a language report, so your structure is the only clean way to see how each language performs.
Cut the workload by building one structure, one conversion setup and one set of negative lists, then adapting the copy, not by running two accounts.
If you have an establishment in Quebec, Quebec requires your ads, catalogues and websites to be available in French. Plan French first for that market.

Running bilingual Google Ads campaigns in Canada usually means one of two things goes wrong. Either the French side is a rushed copy of the English campaigns that nobody checks, or the account doubles in size and every change has to be made twice. Neither is necessary. This guide shows how to structure English and French Google Ads campaigns so each language gets proper copy and clean reporting, while you only maintain one plan. It also covers the September 2026 change to language targeting, which changes how French ads reach French searchers.

If you’re new to account structure in general, start with the Canadian Google Ads playbook, then come back here for the bilingual layer.

What changed with Google Ads language targeting in 2026?

Google’s help page on language targeting says that from September 2026 the campaign-level language setting is removed from Search campaigns. Search ads are matched on the language of the ads themselves. In Performance Max, the language setting no longer applies on the Search Network, but still applies to YouTube, Display, Discover and Gmail. Google says no action is required.

Before this change, many Canadian accounts relied on the language setting as a gate: the French campaign was set to French, the English one to English. That gate is gone for Search. Here’s how Google describes the new logic:

Google decides which languages a person understands using the language of the search term, their language settings and their preferences. Someone with an English phone interface who searches in French can be counted as understanding both.
For a search in a clear language, Google prioritizes the ad and landing page in that language.
For searches with no clear language, such as brand searches, Google prioritizes the person’s most preferred language.
When several ad groups are eligible, AI-based ad group prioritization ranks the candidates by the most relevant language.

The same page notes that language settings still apply to the other Performance Max channels, and that Shopping ads in Performance Max aren’t affected by language settings at all.

The practical effect: in Search, your copy is now your targeting. A French ad group with English headlines, or a French ad that points to an English landing page, sends Google a mixed signal. The cleaner each language’s ads and pages are, the more predictable the matching becomes.

Should English and French be separate campaigns or separate ad groups?

For most Canadian accounts, separate campaigns per language is the better default. It gives you a clear budget per language, clean reporting and room for different bids. Separate ad groups in one campaign work when budgets are small and you’d rather share one budget and bid strategy. Mixing languages in one ad group is the option to avoid.

Google’s language targeting page doesn’t describe a report that shows which language an ad was served in. That makes your structure the reporting layer. If English and French ads share an ad group, you can’t tell which language is converting.

Structure	Works well when	Watch out for
Separate campaigns per language (for example, “Search – Brand – EN” and “Search – Brand – FR”)	Each language has enough budget and conversions for its own bid strategy; you want budget control by language or market	More campaigns to manage; small French campaigns may have too little data for Smart Bidding on their own
Separate ad groups per language in one campaign	Budgets are small; you want one bid strategy to learn from both languages	You can’t cap spend by language; the bigger language can absorb most of the budget
Mixed-language ad groups	Rarely a good idea	No language-level reporting; mixed signals for ad matching; harder copy reviews

A common middle path: split brand and your top non-brand themes into separate campaigns per language, and keep lower-volume themes as language-specific ad groups inside shared campaigns. Revisit the split once you see where the conversions are.

Google says no action is required for the September 2026 change. If your account is already split by language, keep it that way: the split is what gives you language-level reporting.

How do you build bilingual Google Ads campaigns without doubling the work?

Build the structure once and adapt the language layer. The plan, campaign names, budget logic, conversion actions, negative lists and reporting are shared. Only the keywords, ads, assets and landing pages are language-specific. That way a change to strategy is one decision, applied to two sets of copy.

Here’s a workflow that keeps the second language from becoming a second job.

Write one campaign plan. List themes, match types, budgets and goals in a single document or sheet, with an EN and FR column for every theme. The free PaidMedia.ca Campaign Planner is a good place to sketch this.
Use a naming convention with the language at the end. For example, “Search – Roofing – Toronto – EN”. Consistent suffixes make filtering, bulk edits and reports quick.
Research French keywords separately. Don’t just translate your English keyword list. People in Quebec, New Brunswick and Ontario may use different words for the same thing, and English loanwords are common in some categories. Check French search terms in your search terms report rather than guessing.
Adapt the ads, don’t machine-translate them. Write French copy from the same message brief (offer, proof points, call to action), then have a fluent Canadian French speaker review it. French often runs longer than English, so short headlines need rethinking, not just shortening.
Match every ad to a landing page in the same language. A French ad that lands on an English page is a poor experience and, after September 2026, a mixed signal for ad matching.
Share what doesn’t depend on language. One set of conversion actions, one audience strategy, one set of location targets per market, and shared budgets where they make sense.
Make negative keyword lists per language. Keep a shared list for terms that are the same in both languages, plus an EN list and an FR list. See the negative keyword lists every Canadian account should start with.
Review both languages in the same weekly session. Look at EN and FR side by side, by theme. Differences in conversion rate often point to copy or landing page problems, not bidding.

The biggest time saver is the message brief. When English and French copy both start from the same brief, a change in offer is a single update that both writers follow, instead of two separate rewrites that drift apart.

How should French ads and landing pages be set up now that copy decides matching?

Keep each ad group fully in one language: keywords, headlines, descriptions, sitelinks, callouts and the final URL. Then check that Google’s automation can’t pull the other language in. Text customization draws on your landing pages, and Final URL expansion can swap in other pages from your site, so both need guardrails.

Check AI Max settings by language

If you use text customization (part of AI Max for Search), Google generates extra headlines and descriptions using your landing page, site content, existing ads and keywords. Google says it supports all languages in Google Ads. Because it leans on your landing page, a French ad group pointing to a French page has the best chance of producing French assets. Check the ad-level asset report for responsive search ads to see what was generated.

Final URL expansion can send traffic to other pages on your site that are relevant to the query and themed to the ad group. Google’s help page doesn’t say whether it considers page language. To be safe:

In French campaigns, add URL exclusions (or rules) for your English sections, for example any URL containing “/en/”.
In English campaigns, exclude your French sections, for example “/fr/”.
If you need tight control, you can turn Final URL expansion off in campaign settings. Turning off text customization also turns off Final URL expansion.

Also note Google’s point that pinned responsive search ad assets aren’t used if Final URL expansion picks a different URL. If you pin a required French disclaimer or legal line, check how expansion interacts with it.

Set up Performance Max asset groups by language

For Performance Max, the language setting still matters on YouTube, Display, Discover and Gmail. Keep it set to the language of the campaign’s assets. Build separate asset groups (or campaigns) for English and French, each with its own headlines, descriptions, images with text and videos, and each pointing to a same-language final URL. On the Search Network, Performance Max now behaves like a Search campaign, so the same “copy decides matching” logic applies there.

Cover brand searches in both languages

Brand searches are the classic case of a search with no clear language. Google says it will favour the person’s most preferred language in those cases. That means a French-speaking customer whose settings lean English may see your English brand ad. Make sure both language versions of your brand campaign are live, with full asset coverage, and that each landing page offers a clear language switch.

What are the Quebec French-language rules for online ads?

The Quebec government’s page on business obligations says businesses must make their catalogues, advertising and websites available in French, and that commercial signage must be in French or give French clear predominance. If your business has an establishment in Quebec and targets Quebec customers, plan French versions of your ads and landing pages from the start.

This is the main Canadian twist on bilingual advertising. A few practical points for paid media teams:

French is not an add-on for Quebec. If you serve Quebec customers from a Quebec establishment, treat French ads and French landing pages as a requirement, not a nice-to-have.
Signage rules tightened in June 2025. The Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) notes that since June 1, 2025, French must be clearly predominant in signage visible from outside a premises, including how trademarks are displayed. That rule is about physical signage, but it often shapes the creative your brand team hands you, such as storefront imagery in display and video ads.
Customers have the right to be served and informed in French. The OQLF lists this among businesses’ obligations. If your ad leads to a form, chat or phone line, make sure the French path works end to end.

This section is a practical summary, not legal advice. Language obligations depend on your business’s situation. For anything beyond the basics, check with the OQLF or a lawyer who works on Quebec language law.

Quebec isn’t the only French-speaking market. Francophone communities live across Canada, including in New Brunswick, Ontario and Manitoba. Don’t use location as a stand-in for language: target by market, and let the language of your ads do the language work.

How should location targeting work alongside language?

Set location by where you can serve customers, and language by your copy. Don’t build a “French = Quebec only” rule into your targeting unless the business only serves Quebec in French. Use the same location targets for both language versions of a campaign so the comparison between English and French stays fair.

Google’s advanced location options page explains the two choices. “Presence or interest” is the default and reaches people who are in, regularly in, or have shown interest in your locations. “Presence” limits ads to people likely to be in or regularly in those locations. For local service businesses, Presence is usually the safer choice because a lead from outside your service area is wasted spend. Location exclusions default to Presence.

For a national brand, a simple pattern is:

English and French campaigns both target Canada (or your service provinces), using the same location options.
Quebec-specific offers or regulated messages get their own campaigns with Quebec targeting, in French first and English if you also serve English-speaking customers there.
Location-based bid adjustments, if you use them, are applied the same way in both languages.

For home services in particular, see how this plays out alongside Google’s other lead products in Local Services Ads vs Search for home services in Canada.

How do you measure English vs French performance?

Use your structure. Because the language is in every campaign or ad group name, you can filter or label by “EN” and “FR” and compare cost, conversions and cost per conversion side by side. Keep the conversion actions identical across both languages so the numbers mean the same thing.

A few things make the comparison more reliable:

Use the same conversion actions on English and French pages. If the French thank-you page fires a different tag, or none, French will look worse than it is. Test both paths.
Label campaigns by language so you can roll up results in one view.
Check consent banners in both languages. A French consent banner that’s harder to read or accept can change how much of the French traffic is measured. Our guide to conversion tracking in Canada, consent and CASL covers the setup.
Expect GA4 and Google Ads to disagree. If you compare language versions in GA4 by page language, the totals won’t match Google Ads exactly. Why GA4 and Google Ads numbers don’t match explains why.

Give the smaller language enough time before you judge it. A French campaign with a few conversions a month will swing a lot week to week. If it doesn’t have enough volume for its own bid strategy, consider the shared-campaign, separate-ad-group setup until it does. Our article on broad match and Smart Bidding covers how much data automated bidding needs to work well.

Bilingual campaign checklist

Run through this list when you launch a French version of an account, and again each quarter.

Every Search ad group is in one language only: keywords, ads, assets and final URL.
Campaign and ad group names end in EN or FR, and labels match.
French keywords come from French research and search terms, not a straight translation.
French copy was written from the shared message brief and reviewed by a fluent Canadian French speaker.
Every French ad points to a French landing page, and every English ad to an English page.
AI Max text customization assets have been reviewed in the asset report for both languages.
Final URL expansion has URL exclusions for the other language’s site sections, or is turned off.
Performance Max campaigns have the language setting matched to their assets and separate asset groups per language.
Brand campaigns run in both languages with full asset coverage.
Negative keyword lists: one shared, one EN, one FR.
Conversion actions fire on both language versions of every form and thank-you page.
For Quebec: French ads and pages are in place, and the French customer path (form, chat, phone) works end to end.

Frequently asked questions

Do I still need to set a language in Google Ads Search campaigns?

No. According to Google’s language targeting help page, the campaign-level language setting is removed from Search campaigns from September 2026, and Search ads are matched by the language of the ads. Google says no action is needed. The setting still matters for Performance Max on YouTube, Display, Discover and Gmail, and for other campaign types that still offer it.

Will my French ads show to English searchers?

They can, if Google is confident the person understands French. Google uses search term language, language settings and preferences to decide which languages someone understands. For a search in a clear language, it prioritizes ads and landing pages in that language. Keeping each ad group fully in one language makes that matching more predictable.

Can I use machine translation for French Google Ads?

You can use it for a first draft, but don’t publish it unreviewed. Ad copy depends on tone, offers and short character limits, and Canadian French differs from European French in vocabulary. A fluent reviewer catches errors that would otherwise run at full budget. Also review any French assets that AI Max text customization generates.

Do Quebec’s French-language rules apply to online ads?

The Quebec government says businesses must make their advertising, catalogues and websites available in French. How that applies depends on your situation, such as whether you have an establishment in Quebec. Treat this as a reason to plan French versions first for Quebec, and check details with the OQLF or a lawyer. This isn’t legal advice.

Should I target French campaigns to Quebec only?

Only if you serve French-speaking customers only in Quebec. French speakers live across Canada, and Google now matches Search ads by language anyway. In most cases, give both language versions the same location targets and let the copy handle language. Use Quebec-only campaigns for Quebec-specific offers.

Sources: Google Ads Help: About language targeting; Google Ads Help: About ad group and asset group prioritization within a Google Ads account; Google Ads Help: Choose your location and language settings; Google Ads Help: About advanced location options; Google Ads Help: About text customization in Search campaigns; Google Ads Help: About Final URL expansion in Search; Quebec.ca: Obligations en matière de langue française; OQLF: Principales modifications à la Charte de la langue française

Platform details as of November 2026.