Audit the language signals in your multilingual grant account

Step 1: List the signals Google now matches your ads on

Open a Search campaign's settings, confirm the language field has gone, and keep the table beside you for the rest of the audit.

Open your Search campaign settings and the language field is gone. Google's language-targeting help page says the field is removed from September 2026 and that Search ads now match on the language of the ads. Google reads the search term's language, the user's language settings and their preferences to infer which languages that person understands. A separate article covers what Google announced and when it takes effect.

By the last station you'll have four things: your last 30 days of search terms sorted by the language they were typed in, each ad group's ads, keywords and landing page agreeing on one language, one ad group named as the home for searches with no clear language, and a date to run the check again.

A common belief. A commonly repeated claim is that setting a Search campaign's language to Spanish or French keeps the ads in front of the people who speak it. Google's language-targeting page does not say that. The page puts the matching on the language of the ads, and from September 2026 there is no language field to set.

Step 2: Pull your search terms report and sort the languages out of it

Open the search terms report for the last 30 days and split the terms into one list per language you serve.

The search terms report shows how your ads performed when real searches triggered them. The search term is what the person typed; the keyword is what you added to the ad group. A separate article covers how that view reads on a grant account.

1. Set the window Open the search terms report and set the date range to the last 30 days.
2. Read the language of each term Mark every term with the language it was typed in.
3. Split the list Put the terms into one list per language community your organization serves.
4. Keep a third list Put the terms you cannot assign to either language in a list of their own. Station four deals with them.

Step 3: Check that each ad group's ads, keywords and landing page speak one language

Walk the ad groups one at a time and confirm the ads, the keywords and the landing page are all in the same language.

Google's Ads Developer Blog tells API users to focus on ad and landing page language, because Search ads will primarily use those signals alongside the user's language preferences. Both sit inside the ad group, so that is where you audit a bilingual account.

1. Open one ad group Start with the ad group that took the most terms on your first language list.
2. Read the ads Check the language of every headline and description in that ad group.
3. Open the landing page Follow the final URL each ad points at and read the language of the page that opens.
4. Scan the keyword list Move any keyword written in the other language into the ad group whose ads and landing page use it.

Often left behind. Translated ad copy with a final URL still pointing at the original page. The ad is in one language, the page the click lands on is in the other, and those are the two signals Search reads first.

Step 4: Decide which ad group takes the searches with no clear language

Trace the terms on your third list back to the ad group holding them, and read the language of that ad group's landing page.

Google's language-targeting page splits searches in two. Where the search has a clear language, Google prioritizes the ad or landing page that matches it. Where it does not, and the user understands several languages, Google prioritizes that user's most preferred language. Your third list from station two holds the searches with no clear language, so check it for your organization's name and any acronyms. A separate article covers the places to check in a grant account after AI Max.

1. Trace each unassigned term Work from the list of terms you could not place in either language, find the matching keyword, and note which ad group holds it.
2. Read that ad group's page Check which language its landing page is in. When several ad groups could match, Google weighs the landing pages, the ad group's keywords and the search term's meaning and context.
3. Name one owner Pick a single ad group for the ambiguous terms and keep its ads and its landing page in one language.

Step 5: Read the click-through rate at account level

Open the account-level view for the last full calendar month and read the click-through rate against 5%.

Under the Ad Grants account management policy, your account needs a 5% click-through rate each month, measured across the whole account, unless it uses Smart Campaigns exclusively.

1. Open the account view Read the click-through rate at account level rather than one campaign at a time.
2. Set a full month Read a complete calendar month rather than a rolling window.
3. Write the number down Keep the figure with the month beside it. Station seven reads against that number.

Where the 5% applies. A commonly repeated claim is that every keyword needs at least 5% click-through rate or the account is noncompliant. The account management policy puts the 5% monthly figure at account level, not on the keyword.

Step 6: Pause the keywords that fell to Quality Score 1 or 2

Add the Quality Score column to your keyword view, then pause or remove every keyword showing 1 or 2.

Ad Grants policy requires you to pause or remove any keyword at Quality Score 1 or 2. A Quality Score showing as a dash is exempt from that policy and is not monitored.

1. Add the column Put Quality Score into the keyword view so the number sits beside each keyword while you work.
2. Pause or remove the 1s and 2s Clear them out of whichever ad group they turn up in.
3. Leave the dashes alone Nothing is required there.

Step 7: Fix the date you repeat this next month

Put next month's date in the calendar now, beside the click-through rate figure you wrote down at station five.

The 5% click-through rate is a monthly account-level figure, so run this audit on the calendar month and read the number again once the next full month closes. Two things make it worth running sooner:

• A new landing page goes live in a second language. Give it ads in that language, since ad and landing page language are what Search reads first.
• Search terms start arriving in a language no ad group covers. The search terms report shows what people entered, so that shows up there first.

The audit ends with a date and a number

Two things come out of these seven stations: each ad group agreeing with its own landing page on one language, and the account-level click-through rate written down with the month you read it. Both sit on screens inside the account you already run.

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