Google Ads in Turkey for Foreign Firms

Running Google Ads in Turkey as a foreign-owned business looks simple: open an account, add a card, write a few ads. The problems come later. Ads in English reach the wrong people, the account bills in a currency your finance team did not expect, or the agency that set it up still holds the only Admin login.

This guide is for international companies, foreign-owned businesses and founders who advertise to customers in Turkey. It covers the settings that are hard to change later: language, location, currency and billing, measurement and account ownership.

What does running Google Ads in Turkey involve?

Running Google Ads in Turkey means setting up a Google Ads account that bills in a currency available for your billing country, writing separate ads and landing pages for each language your customers use, targeting the cities or areas you actually serve, measuring real leads and keeping ownership of the account in your company's name.

Solya Agency: an Istanbul-based digital agency that provides Google Ads consulting and conversion tracking and analytics for businesses in Turkey, working in English and Turkish. The ad budget is paid directly to Google from the client's own account, and management fees are listed on the packages page.

Language: Turkish, English and Arabic are different campaigns

Many businesses in Turkey serve customers in more than one language: Turkish-speaking locals, English-speaking residents and visitors, and Arabic-speaking customers. Each group searches differently, so each needs its own ads.

According to Google Ads Help on language targeting, since September 2026 Google has been removing campaign-level language targeting for Search. Check the settings available in your account:

• Search campaigns move away from a campaign-level language setting. Search ads are now matched based on the language of your ads, and Google prioritises ads that match the language of the search term.
• Performance Max is split. The campaign language setting no longer applies to ads on the Search Network, but it still applies to channels such as YouTube, Display, Discover and Gmail.

In practice, this makes the language you write in more important than any setting:

• Separate ad groups by language to review keywords, ads and performance. Use separate campaigns with individual budgets when each language needs its own spending allocation (Google Ads Help: campaigns).
• A landing page in the same language as the ad. An English ad leading to a Turkish-only page may make it harder for English-speaking visitors to enquire.
• Native-checked copy. A machine translation that no one reads can promise something you do not offer. Arabic pages also need a right-to-left layout, not only translated text.

Location: Istanbul, districts or the whole country

Google Ads Help on geographic targeting describes three main options: an entire country, areas within a country (regions, cities or postal codes, depending on the country) or a radius of at least 1 km around a location. You can also exclude areas.

• Target where you can serve. If you deliver or visit customers only in Istanbul, a nationwide campaign spends budget on clicks you cannot convert.
• Check district options in your account. Search the location list for the districts you serve; where an area is not listed, a radius around your address is the alternative.
• Choose presence or interest deliberately. "Presence or interest" also reaches people who show interest in your locations. Google recommends it for Search campaigns, while "Presence" targets people in or regularly in your selected locations. Location targeting uses signals and does not guarantee exact geographic accuracy (Google Ads Help: location options).

Currency, time zone and billing

These settings matter most for foreign-owned companies, because some of them cannot be changed.

• Currency and time zone are permanent. Google Ads Help on account settings says both are set when the account is created and cannot be updated. To bill in a different currency, you have to open a new account.
• Payment options depend on the billing country. According to Google's page on billing options, your country and currency decide which payment methods and settings are available, such as automatic payments, manual payments or monthly invoicing.
• Taxes and surcharges. Google's page on taxes in your country states that accounts served by Google Turkey are subject to VAT at the Turkish standard rate, and its page on jurisdiction-specific surcharges lists a Turkey Regulatory Operating Cost. Rates can change, so read the current pages.
• Ask your accountant. Google says it cannot advise on tax matters. Before you create the account, ask your accountant which company should be the billing entity, which currency suits your books and how VAT and surcharges should be recorded.

Conversion tracking across languages

Measurement in a multilingual account follows the same rules as in any other account: track completed actions, not button clicks, and compare reported conversions with real leads. Our Google Ads conversion tracking checklist covers the setup step by step, based on Google's guide to conversion measurement.

Two points are specific to businesses working in several languages:

• Every language version needs the same tracking. A form on the English page that sends no conversion makes the English campaign look worse than it is.
• Keep the language visible in your reports. When campaigns or ad groups are split by language, you can compare conversions per language without extra setup.

Account ownership and agency access

The account should belong to your business, not to the person or agency that sets it up. Google Ads Help on access levels explains why this matters: only Admin users can give access, change other users' access levels, accept or reject manager account link requests and unlink manager accounts.

• Create the account in your company's name, with your own payment method, so the ad budget is paid directly to Google.
• Keep at least one Admin in your own team. Give the agency the access it needs, either as a user or through a manager account link that your Admin accepts.
• Review access regularly. Google's security best practices recommend giving each user only the access their work needs and removing people who no longer work on the account.

The same principle applies to Meta; see our guide on what to check before hiring a Meta ads agency.

Questions to ask before you launch

1. Which company will be the billing entity, and has your accountant confirmed the currency and tax treatment?

2. Which languages do your customers search in, and is there a landing page for each?

3. Which cities or districts can you actually serve?

4. What counts as a lead, and is it tracked on every language version of the site?

5. Who holds Admin access, and how is agency access removed when the work ends?

6. How is the budget planned? A budget should come from your targets and costs per lead, not a round number.

Red flags

• The account created in the agency's name, or paid through the agency without a clear breakdown.
• One campaign mixing all languages, with a single landing page.
• Promises of fixed results in a fixed time. No one controls the auction or your customers' decisions.
• Reports with clicks only, and no link to real enquiries.

Talk to us about Google Ads in Turkey

If you are planning Google Ads in Turkey, start with the settings you cannot change later: currency, ownership and language structure. Solya Agency works with businesses in Turkey in English and Turkish, and recommends a budget after analysing your targets. Send your website, the languages you serve and your main goal through the contact page to get a quote, or message us on WhatsApp, and we will plan the account structure with you.