A country targeted in a language it does not speak

The campaign looks fine. It has budget, keywords and ads. It just serves almost nowhere, or serves to a small group who read English in a German speaking country, and the advertiser wonders why the country underperforms.

The reverse also happens: a country added on purpose without the language its people search in.

The check reads each campaign's country and language targeting.

Checks that weigh money or clicks judge what they find on your own account's numbers, not on one figure applied to every account, so what counts as a problem on a small account is not the same on a large one. Checks on settings read how the account is set up.

When there is too little to go on, the check says so instead of guessing. A finding always comes with the rows behind it, so you can read the evidence before you decide.

1. In Google Ads, open each campaign, then Settings, then Locations and Languages.
2. List the countries and the languages targeted.
3. For each country, check that at least one targeted language is spoken there.
4. Look closely at neighbours in the alphabetical list, such as Austria and Australia.

If the country was a mistake, remove it. If it was meant, add the language people there search in, and ads written in it.

Check the locations report after the change to see where the campaign actually serves.

• Location targeting

The checks next to this one in Location and scheduling, each with its own page.

• Buying clicks from people who are not in the country
• Counting walk-ins while no ad shows an address
• Counting walk-ins without a radius round the shop
• Local Services and Search running side by side
• No language chosen, so every language is chosen
• Serving around the clock