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Google Ads language targeting is gone: what Arabic and English campaigns should do now
Google Ads language targeting no longer applies to Search: Google removed the campaign setting in late September 2026. Ads now match on the language of your ads and landing pages, plus each user's known languages. For Arabic and English campaigns in the UAE, keep each ad group in one language, keywords to landing page, and check your search terms.
As of 20 Oct 2026, the campaign-level language setting no longer decides who sees your Google Search ads. Google announced that it would remove the setting from Search, AI Max for Search and the Search part of Performance Max from late September 2026 (Google Ads Developer Blog, 13 Aug 2026). If you manage campaigns through the API, older Search campaigns still return the languages you once picked, but Google says they are no longer used for targeting.
In the UAE, that matters more than it does in most markets. Audiences here split across Arabic and English, plus many other languages, and plenty of business owners still believe ticking "English" kept their ads away from everyone else. When it did not, the cost showed up as leads the sales team could not talk to. This guide covers what changed, how Google now chooses the language of your ad, what stayed the same, and what to check this week.
What changed in late September
Google's help page keeps it short. For Search campaigns, "the campaign-level language targeting setting will be removed" and ads will match on the language of the ads themselves. For Performance Max, the setting stops applying to ads on the Google Search Network but still applies to YouTube, Display, Discover and Gmail. Shopping ads inside Performance Max are not affected by language settings at all (About language targeting, Google Ads Help).
Google's line for advertisers is that no action is required. Strictly, that is true: nothing breaks, and nobody has to rebuild a campaign. But a setting many people relied on now does nothing, and the job it was meant to do has moved to your ad copy and landing pages.
This change was a long time coming. Google first planned it for the end of 2025, covering Search only. Ginny Marvin, Google's Ads Product Liaison, confirmed the new September date on LinkedIn on 14 August 2026, with Performance Max added (PPC Land, 14 Aug 2026).
How Google Ads language targeting works now
Google decides in two steps. The first has not changed: can this user understand the language of your ad and your landing page? Google counts a language as one the user knows if they set it, regularly interact with it, or search in it. On Search it reads the language of the query, the user's language settings and their preferences.
The second step is the tiebreaker, and this is what changed. Until now, when a user could understand your ads in more than one language, their preferred language decided. Now Google picks like this:
- Searches with a clear language. Google prioritises the ad and landing page in the same language as the search. An Arabic query should get your Arabic ad, if you have one that is eligible.
- Searches without a clear language. For queries like brand names, Google prioritises the user's most preferred language.
Inside your account, Google uses its AI-based ad group prioritisation to choose which ad group enters the auction. According to Google's help page, relevance there is judged from the meaning of the search term, all the keywords in the ad group and the landing pages within it. Google's advice is to structure ad groups by theme, so it is clear which one should match (About ad group and asset group prioritization, Google Ads Help). Language is now part of that theme.
Brand names and mixed queries
A lot of UAE searches are not clearly in one language. People type a developer's or clinic's name in English letters, mix an Arabic word with an English one, or write Arabic in Latin script. My reading of Google's rule is that many of these will count as having no clear language, so the user's preferred language decides which of your ads shows. If you only have an English ad for your brand terms, an Arabic-preferring user may still see it. Google says it checks that they can understand it first.
Tourists and expats
Marvin also explained what happens when people travel. The system "primarily relies on the user's language preferences, which remain consistent when they travel" (MediaPost, 11 Sep 2026). A visitor from Moscow or Mumbai searching in Dubai keeps the languages Google already linked to them. If you sell to tourists or recent arrivals, your ads and landing pages are now the main way to reach them in their language.
What did not change
Several things stayed exactly as they were, and the first two catch people out:
- There are still no language exclusions. Leaving a language unticked never blocked it. Google says that has always been the case. You cannot exclude Hindi, Russian or Arabic speakers now either.
- Google does not translate your ads. If you want Arabic searches to get an Arabic ad, you still have to write one.
- Ads can still cross languages. Someone can search in Arabic and see your English ad if Google thinks they understand English. Google's own example is a bilingual user who searches in Spanish and gets an English ad.
- Reporting is the same. There is no new report showing which language served or how each language performed.
- Separate language campaigns keep working. If you already run one Arabic and one English campaign, you do not need to restructure.
Who it affects in the UAE
Single-language accounts will notice very little. These are the ones that should check their setup:
- Accounts that used English as a filter. If the language setting was your way of keeping out searches you could not serve, it never did that job, and now it is not even a signal.
- Bilingual accounts with mixed ad groups. An ad group with English keywords, an Arabic ad and an English landing page sends mixed signals. Google has to work out which language you meant, and the user may land on a page they cannot read.
- Performance Max campaigns. The Search part follows the new rules, while YouTube, Display, Discover and Gmail still use the language you selected.
- Anyone using the API or scripts. Google's developer blog says new attempts to add or change a language setting on a Search campaign return an error. Agency tools that set languages need updating.
When I audit UAE accounts, the language setting is often treated as a filter: "English" ticked, and an assumption that this kept out everyone else. It never worked that way. If your sales team gets leads they cannot talk to, the fix was always in the ads, the landing page and the qualifying step. With the setting gone, that is now the only place to fix it.
What to do now
- Read your search terms report. Look through the last 30 days for queries in Arabic script and in languages you do not serve, and compare them with the weeks before late September. This is the quickest way to see whether anything shifted.
- Make every ad group one language. Keywords, ads and landing page in the same language. If you serve both Arabic and English, split them into separate ad groups or campaigns.
- Send each ad to a page in the same language. Google checks whether the user understands both the ad and the landing page. An Arabic ad that lands on an English page mixes the signals and loses anyone who reads only Arabic. A translated headline on top of an English page is not an Arabic page.
- Write brand ads in both languages. For searches with no clear language, the user's preferred language decides. Give Google an eligible ad in each language you serve.
- Add negative keywords for recurring wrong-language searches. There are no language exclusions, so blocking words that keep bringing in people you cannot serve is the closest substitute.
- Qualify on language in the form or WhatsApp. Add a preferred-language field, or ask in the first WhatsApp reply, and send qualified leads back through Google Ads Data Manager so bidding learns from real outcomes.
- Leave Performance Max language settings in place. They still control YouTube, Display, Discover and Gmail.
- Update scripts and API tools so they stop sending language settings for Search campaigns.
The same thinking runs through my Google Ads location targeting lesson: settings like this are signals, not hard walls. That is how I run Google Ads management for UAE accounts: clean ad group structure first, then bids and budget.
What I'd watch next
Three things. First, whether Google adds any language reporting, because right now you cannot see which language served without checking search terms by hand. Second, how well Google handles mixed Arabic and English queries, which is where I expect the most wrong-language matches. Third, whether wrong-language leads rise in your CRM in October and November. Without a language field on your form, you will not be able to tell.
Frequently asked questions
Has Google Ads removed language targeting?+
How does Google decide whether to show my Arabic or English ad?+
Can I exclude a language in Google Ads?+
Do I need separate Arabic and English campaigns now?+
Does the change affect Performance Max?+
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