Google Ads tests AI translation for Search campaigns
It builds a new campaign in the target language and leaves the original alone. It also copies your budget one-for-one, currency and all.
· 2 min read · 1 source
Source: Google Ads Help: About the AI campaign localization tool for Search campaigns (beta) (no publish date on page; checked Oct 7, 2026)
Google Ads has a beta tool that takes an English Search campaign and builds a translated copy for a new market. It translates headlines, descriptions, sitelinks, callouts, and keywords. For images with text on them, it strips the text and adds the translated message as supplemental text assets.
The original campaign is never touched. Localizing creates a brand-new, independent campaign, and by default it publishes paused.
The detail I'd tape to my monitor: budgets and bids are copied exactly, with no currency conversion. Google's own example is a $100 USD budget that stays a $100 USD budget in the new campaign. Fine for a test. For a real launch, set a budget and bids that fit the new market's costs before anything goes live.
For landing pages, you either install a Google JavaScript snippet that translates page text for people who click your ad, or bulk find-and-replace your URLs (example.com/en to example.com/fr).
What we know
- The source language must be English (US). Targets: Dutch, French, French (Canada), German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Spanish (Spain), and Spanish (Latin America and Caribbean).
- The review table shows the original asset, the translation, a "Translation back" column re-translated into English, and translation notes. You can add global instructions such as "Do not translate the brand name."
- The original must be active or paused. Removed, draft, experiment, and shadow campaigns aren't supported.
- Three ways in: select a campaign in the Campaigns table, go to Tools and then Localization, or apply a localization recommendation.
What we don't know yet
- How widely the beta is available. Google doesn't say.
- When PMax support arrives. The help page says Performance Max support starts September 2026, a date that has already passed, but the rest of the page still says Search only.
- Whether translated keywords keep their match types and negatives.
- What the translation snippet does to page speed, SEO, or conversion tracking.
What I'd do
Treat the output as a first draft. Change the budget in the setup step (Google asks for the new campaign's location and budget there), and before you un-pause, reset bids for the new market, have a native speaker read the keywords and the Translation back column, and use the global instructions box to lock your brand and product names. If you use the snippet, check that your conversion tags still fire on the translated page.
Jerry Quin
Jerry Quin is the pen name of a paid media practitioner who has managed Google Ads accounts at an agency for 10 years. He writes about Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, ChatGPT Ads, and the rest of paid media and digital marketing, from what's rolling out to what he'd actually do about it.
