AdWords Translation: Language and Location Settings

‘AdWords translation’ does not simply refer to converting advertisements and keywords to a different language but also entails gearing the translation to the target location. Advertisement texts and keywords must be localized, which means that defining your exact target audience prior to getting started with the translation is essential. Once you have defined the target audience and translated the AdWords, the work is by no means completed. You still need to notify Google of who your new target audience is!

How Google determines the user location and language

In order to show your advertisements only to those people relevant to you, Google identifies the location and language of the users. Google employs four factors in determining the language appropriate a specific user.

1. Domain extension
   Is the user on Google.nl, Google.fr or Google.pt?
2. Interface language
   What default language has the user selected for the Google interface?
3. Keyword
   What language is the keyword in?
4. Ip address
   Google records the ip address of users and links this to a location.

Set AdWords language & location

Below is a step by step explanation of how to change the location and language settings of your translated campaigns in AdWords.

Set language

1. Log in to your AdWords account.
2. Click on the ‘Campaigns’ tab
3. Click the name of the campaign.
4. Click on the ‘Settings’ tab.
5. Click ‘Edit’ next to ‘Languages’.
6. Select target language or languages.
7. Click ‘Save’

Set location

1. Log in to your AdWords account.
2. Click on the ‘Campaigns’ tab
3. Click the name of the campaign.
4. Click on the ‘Settings’ tab.
5. Click ‘Edit’ next to ‘Locations’.
   • This allows you to target not only a country, but also specific areas of a country, such as cities, regions or postal codes.
   • You can also specify areas that you want to exclude.
   • Use ‘Advanced Search ‘ to target a radius around a location, or to add multiple locations at one time.
6. Click ‘Save’

Do you have questions? Please let me know. Naturally, we can also change these settings after the translation is completed.