Why are my Facebook ads in a different language, or showing in other states?

Why are my Facebook ads in a different language?

Because Meta translated them, or because you are looking at Meta's interface in another language. Meta's pages describe three translation features, and they overlap. Everything below is taken from Meta's pages as they read on 13 October 2026.

The current feature is set out on Meta's page About generative AI translations in Meta Ads Manager. The older two are on its pages about dynamic language optimisation and automatic language translation. Meta recommends using Text translations or dynamic language optimisation, not both.

Why are my Facebook ads in Spanish, French, Arabic or Chinese?

Because those are among the languages Text translations supports. Meta's page lists the pairs: from English into Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Bengali, Arabic, Indonesian and Italian, and from German or Spanish into English.

So an English ad with Text translations on can reach a Spanish speaker in Spanish and an Arabic speaker in Arabic, inside the same country you targeted.

Is it on by default? Meta does not say it is on for every ad. Its page on reviewing default-on creative features says a feature may be enabled by default when Meta predicts it will help performance, and it lists Advantage+ creative translations as one of the categories that can be. In practice that means you have to check each ad. Our post on Advantage+ creative enhancements covers the other features in that list.

Who counts as a Spanish speaker is Meta's prediction. Its page on audience language settings says the delivery system predicts language preference from signals such as location, groups joined, posts a person has written or liked, device and browser settings, and ads they have interacted with. Meta's pages do not explain how one preferred language is picked for a person who uses several.

How to switch translations off

Translations are set per ad. Meta's instructions for creating an ad with translations describe where the switches are, and its page on turning off Advantage+ creative enhancements gives the route into a published ad.

1. 01

   Open the ad's creative setup

   For a new ad, go to Ad creative and click Set up creative. For a published ad, tick it on the Ads tab, click Edit, and open the creative section from the side pane.
2. 02

   Go to the Translations step

   Meta describes three switches here: Text translations, Overlay translations and Voice translations. Expanding the language list lets you untick individual languages. Turn off the ones you do not want.
3. 03

   Open Review defaults

   Next to Advanced preview, Review defaults shows whether Advantage+ creative translations is on by default for this ad, with an Edit link to the place where you opt out.
4. 04

   Check the Languages section too

   An ad built with dynamic language optimisation keeps its extra languages in the Languages section of the ad. Meta's page does not give removal steps.
5. 05

   Preview, save and publish

   The preview has a drop-down for viewing the ad in each language. Then click Save, and Publish.

When the language is yours, not the ad's

• Your own interface language. Facebook's language settings page says the site appears in the language of your device when the account is created, that buttons and most text follow the Account language setting, and that the setting is separate on each device. If Ads Manager's own labels are in the wrong language, change it under Settings, then Language and region.
• The ad preview. With translations on, the preview can be switched between languages. Meta's pages do not say which language the preview opens in, so a translated preview may only mean the feature is on.
• Ads you see from other businesses. If you mean the ads in your own feed, those advertisers may have translations on, and Meta is predicting your language from the signals listed above. Meta's pages do not describe a viewer setting that stops ads being translated.

Why are my Facebook ads showing in other states?

Most often because of one switch. Meta's page How to reach people interested in your selected cities and regions says that when you select a city or a region, you may see Reach more people likely to respond to your ads turned on by default. With it on, Meta also shows the ad to people elsewhere in the same country who have shown interest in that place: by visiting it, searching for it, interacting with its Pages or ads, having friends there, or living in a nearby town. It does not cross the national border.

That is how an ad aimed at one state turns up in the next. Turn the switch off, in the Locations setting of the ad set, if you only want people in the area itself.

Three other things on Meta's pages explain delivery outside the area:

• What a location means. Meta's page About location targeting says it reaches people who live in a place, have recently spent time there or go there often. A visitor who has gone home can still count.
• Accuracy. The same page says complete accuracy cannot be guaranteed and that some impressions, messages or leads may come from outside your settings.
• Organic views and previews. People may see an ad organically and like, comment on or share it from outside the area, and Meta may show preview ads to people connected to the business wherever they are. Meta says preview impressions are not charged.

If you remember choosing between people who live in a place and people who are only visiting, that choice is not on Meta's pages today. Its developer reference says home and recent location together are the only option available. None of the Meta pages we read says when the narrower options were removed, so we have not given a date.

On Advantage+ audience, location and language are controls and not suggestions, as our post on Advantage+ campaigns in 2026 explains from Meta's Advantage+ audience page. Meta's page Use location targeting states the one exception: Meta will not go beyond your locations unless Reach more people likely to respond to your ads is selected.

How to check where and in what language an ad was delivered

• By country. In Ads Manager, select the campaign, ad set or ad, click the Breakdown icon and choose By delivery. Meta's breakdowns page names country among the delivery breakdowns.
• By region. Meta's reporting documentation lists region and, for the United States, DMA region beside country. It says the values come from a person's hometown, current city and where they tend to be when they use Meta's apps, so a region here is where Meta places the person, not a GPS reading.
• By language. Meta's page View ad creative performance says you can compare the languages within a campaign: tick the ads, select Reports, then View ad creative performance. The reporting documentation lists no breakdown by the viewer's language, so this report is the only route Meta describes.

Read the country and region rows before changing anything. If nearly all the spend is inside your area, the out-of-area comments you noticed may be organic views or previews, which the targeting does not control.

What to do about it

• Decide whether you want translations at all. Meta's own advice is that the ad and the landing page should match the languages you reach.
• Choose a language in the ad set only for the case Meta describes: reaching speakers of a language that is not widely spoken in your location. Otherwise Meta delivers to people it predicts can understand your creative.
• Check these as part of publishing the ad, then confirm with the country and region breakdowns after a few days of delivery.

Sources

• Meta Business Help Centre: About generative AI translations in Meta Ads Manager (undated, read 13 October 2026)
• Meta Business Help Centre: Create an ad using generative AI translations in Meta Ads Manager (undated, read 13 October 2026)
• Meta Business Help Centre: Create an ad using dynamic language optimisation (undated, read 13 October 2026)
• Meta Business Help Centre: About automatic language translation for ads (undated, read 13 October 2026)
• Meta Business Help Centre: Review default-on creative features in Meta Ads Manager (undated, read 13 October 2026)
• Meta Business Help Centre: Turn off Advantage+ creative enhancements in Meta Ads Manager (undated, read 13 October 2026)
• Meta Business Help Centre: About audience language settings (undated, read 13 October 2026)
• Meta Business Help Centre: Advertising in multiple languages on Meta technologies (undated, read 13 October 2026)
• Facebook Help Centre: Change your language settings on Facebook (undated, read 13 October 2026)
• Meta Business Help Centre: About location targeting in Meta Ads Manager (undated, read 13 October 2026)
• Meta Business Help Centre: Use location targeting (undated, read 13 October 2026)
• Meta Business Help Centre: How to reach people interested in your selected cities and regions (undated, read 13 October 2026)
• Meta for Business: Advantage+ audience (undated, read 13 October 2026)
• Meta for Developers: Basic targeting reference (undated, read 13 October 2026)
• Meta Business Help Centre: Navigate to breakdowns in Meta Ads Manager to understand ad performance (undated, read 13 October 2026)
• Meta for Developers: Insights API breakdowns (undated, read 13 October 2026)
• Meta Business Help Centre: View ad creative performance (undated, read 13 October 2026)