The Mistake
A common practice in Google Ads accounts: a manager reviews the search terms report, sees foreign-language searches they don’t recognize, and adds them to the negative keyword list.
The reasoning — however unconscious — is that if the manager can’t read it, it must not be relevant.
The reality: if a foreign-language search appears in your account, Google’s algorithm matched it to your keywords because the underlying intent aligns. The searcher is looking for what you offer — they’re just expressing it in their native language.
Excluding it means turning away a buyer because you don’t speak their language.
Language is never a reason to negative. Intent is the only reason.
The Spanish Epoxy Buyer
A national epoxy floor coating supply store had Spanish-language searches appearing in its Performance Max account. ‘Resina epoxica para pisos’, ‘recubrimiento epoxic para suelos’, ‘pintura para pisos de garage’ — floor coating vocabulary in Spanish.
The professional floor coating contractor market includes a significant Spanish-speaking workforce.
These are real buyers with real purchase intent, searching in the language they’re most comfortable using. Their orders converted at rates comparable to English-speaking buyers.
Excluding those searches would have eliminated a converting customer segment entirely. The searches stayed. They convert.
The NGO Six-Language Reality
An international peacebuilding organization running Google Ad Grants across 10 campaigns serves a worldwide audience. Spanish, Chinese, French, Arabic, and Sanskrit-adjacent searches all appeared in the account.
Searches like ‘Indice de paz global’ (Spanish: global peace index) and ‘Fuerzas de paz de las naciones unidas’ (Spanish: UN peacekeeping forces) represent real mission-aligned audiences searching in their native language.
The intent is identical to the English equivalent searches.
For a global organization, excluding foreign-language mission searches doesn’t just waste budget — it actively turns away the organization’s own constituency.
The Restaurant Korean Search
A restaurant in a market with a significant Korean-speaking population may see Korean-language searches for nearby dining options.
Those searches are from people who want to eat at a local restaurant. They’re buyers. Language is not a barrier to purchase — it’s just how they search.
The same principle applies to any local service business in a multilingual market. The Spanish-speaking homeowner searching for HVAC repair in Spanish wants the same service as the English-speaking homeowner. If you can serve them, you should reach them.
How to Evaluate Foreign-Language Searches
The process is the same as for English searches: does the underlying intent match what you offer? Use a translation tool if necessary. Classify the intent.
- Matching intent — keep it. Foreign-language buyer searches for your product or service.
- Non-matching intent — exclude it. Foreign-language search for something you don’t offer.
- Unclear — research before deciding. Translate the full search and assess the intent.
The language is irrelevant to the classification. The intent is everything.
The Practical Note
Landing pages matter here. If a Spanish-speaking buyer clicks your ad and arrives at an English-only website, conversion rates will be lower than for English-speaking visitors.
Foreign-language search capture is most effective when the landing page can serve that audience.
That said: even an English landing page converts better than zero visibility. Don’t exclude buyers because your website isn’t translated yet. Keep the traffic, improve the landing page over time.
