Google Ads in Australia: how to launch a campaign and what changes

In short

• Should you write in American English for Australia? No: write in Australian English, and check spelling and vocabulary on the Australian results page.
• Is Google enough to cover Australian search? It dominates by a wide margin, but Bing keeps a visible share and desktop weighs almost as much as mobile (facts table).
• Is GST always added to the invoice? It concerns accounts with an Australian business address, and Google’s surcharge list does not mention the country.
• Can you advertise any gambling or health product? No: only sports betting and lotteries are eligible, and online pharmacy follows State-level rules.
• Is one calendar enough for the whole country? No: public holidays, daylight saving and seasons vary by State, and the seasons are reversed compared with Europe.
• Should you target the whole country at once? Not necessarily: if your offer is local, target the States and cities where it sells, then widen after a test.

Key takeaway: Launch Australia as a market of its own: a campaign in Australian English, keywords checked on Australian Google, a calendar by State, and the rules of your sector read before you spend.

Country fact sheet

Data verified on 14 October 2026. Each value was read on its source on the date shown. It may have changed since: the source prevails.

The method, step by step

1. Step 1 — Create a campaign dedicated to Australia

   One campaign per country and language keeps budgets, bids and reports readable. In the settings, pick Australia as the location and the “Presence” option: people in, or regularly in, Australia. Google’s help page on geographic targeting covers these options.

2. Step 2 — Choose the language of your ads

   Google has removed the language setting for Search campaigns: ads are now matched by their own language, and Google gives priority to ads in the language of the search term. So write ads, keywords and landing page in English, the national language, and plan one campaign, or at least one ad group, per language if you aim at several. Add another language only if a specific community is your audience and your site answers it in that language.

3. Step 3 — Rebuild your keywords on Australian Google

   A translated list, or one copied from another market, misses what people type in Australia. Start from Keyword Planner set to Australia, then open the Australian results page for each keyword: ads, comparison sites or articles? Should I Bid’s intent analysis does that reading for you and returns a score with a decision: Bid, Test or Skip.

4. Step 4 — Write the ads in Australian English

   Write for an Australian reader, not an American or British one. The Australian Government’s style manual says to check spelling against an Australian English dictionary: do the same for your ads, and have a native speaker review your headlines. Keep terms (delivery, returns, warranties) that apply in Australia.

5. Step 5 — Choose the area: the whole country or some States

   Australia has eight States and Territories, each setting its own public holidays. If your offer only sells or ships in some regions, target those. Otherwise, launch the whole country and read the reports by location before you concentrate the budget.

6. Step 6 — Plan for the invoice and the tax

   The Australia section of the “Taxes in your country” page names Google Australia Pty Limited and ties GST to the account’s business address. If your account is based elsewhere, read the section for your own country. No Australia-specific regulatory surcharge appears in Google’s list.

7. Step 7 — Check the rules for your sector

   Online gambling and health have rules specific to Australia, often tied to the State or Territory. Read them before you write an ad, not after a disapproval.

8. Step 8 — Set the calendar and start with a test

   Note the public holidays of the States you target and check the account time zone before you set an ad schedule. Start with a test budget, read the search terms, then add negative keywords before you scale up.

Language and copy: Australian English, with no official language

Australia has no official language in its Constitution, but English is the national language. The text of the federal Constitution names no language, as the facts table at the top of the page recalls, and the Department of Foreign Affairs presents English as the national language. For a campaign, the consequence is simple: English is the language your ads, landing pages and keywords must be designed in.

Australian English is not the same as American English. Spelling, vocabulary and phrasing can differ, and a keyword list copied from another English-speaking market keeps traces of it. The Australian Government’s style manual says to check spelling against an Australian English dictionary and recommends two references: the Macquarie Dictionary and the Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary. Have a native speaker review your ads, and compare them with the ones you see on the Australian results page.

Other languages are spoken at home, but Google does not recognize all of them. The Australian census names, after English, Mandarin, Arabic, Vietnamese, Cantonese and Punjabi as the most used languages at home, and the Department of Foreign Affairs says more than three hundred languages are spoken in homes. Google Ads recognizes several of them, but its list has no Cantonese as such, only simplified and traditional Chinese, and no Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander language. Since Google removed the language setting for Search campaigns, the language of the ad decides which searches it can reach, as the Google help page on ad language explains. Another language therefore calls for a campaign of its own, or at least an ad group, with ads, keywords and landing page in that language, and only if your site, your offer and your customer service answer in that language too.

To choose your keywords, start from what Australians really type. Our guide to choosing Google Ads keywords details the method: Keyword Planner set to Australia, then a read of the results page, keyword by keyword, to see whether the search leads to a purchase or just to information.

Search engines and devices: Google dominates, desktop counts as much as mobile

Google remains the engine to target first in Australia, and it dominates by a wide margin. The facts table gives its market share, Bing’s and Yahoo!’s. Bing keeps a visible share, far behind but not negligible: once your Google campaign is running, a separate campaign on Microsoft Advertising, Bing’s ad platform, may deserve a test. Do not launch it before you have measured your results on Google.

Mobile and desktop are almost level. That is easy to forget if you come from a market where the phone crushes the rest: your landing pages must work as well on a large screen as on a phone. For a B2B offer, look at the device reports first, because desktop can carry a large share of conversions. Tablets weigh little.

The same search does not show the same results page from one country to another. Open Australian Google before you bid on a keyword: number of ads, comparison sites, Shopping ads. The page itself tells you whether the click is worth its price. Our guide to search intent in Google Ads explains how to read it.

Billing and taxes: GST, Google Australia and no surcharge

The Australia section of Google’s “Taxes in your country” page names Google Australia Pty Limited and ties GST to the account’s business address. It says all Google Ads sales in Australia are subject to this goods and services tax, for accounts with an Australian business address. The GST rate, published by the Australian tax office, is in the facts table.

If your business is based outside Australia, the section for your own country is the one that counts. A European advertiser targeting Australia from an account with a European address is not in the case Google describes for Australia: read the section for your country on the same page, then ask your accountant how the invoice is treated. Google itself says it cannot advise on tax matters.

Google’s list of jurisdiction-specific surcharges does not mention Australia. Several European countries appear in it, with a supplement added to the invoice for ads served there; that is not the case here, as the facts table recalls. The price of a click depends on each keyword and its competition: we do not publish a country average, because we have no reliable measurement.

Ad rules: gambling, pharmacies and health

Online gambling is tightly regulated in Australia: only sports betting and lotteries are eligible. Google only allows their promotion for a licensed operator registered with an Australian State or Territory and certified by Google. Other types of online gambling may not be advertised. Google has also announced it is accepting certification applications for Australia again, after a period when they were not accepted: if you are eligible, check the state of that portal before you build a plan.

Health has its own rules, tied to the State. Google allows online pharmacies and telemedicine with limitations: LegitScript verification or, for a pharmacy, registration with its State authority. In Queensland, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory, what counts is ownership or control by a pharmacist registered with the Pharmacy Board of Australia. Ads targeting Australia cannot use prescription drug terms, either in the ad or on the destination page, and Google certification is required.

These rules follow the country you target, not where you are based. A campaign aimed at Australia must respect them even if the company is established elsewhere. For other sensitive sectors, reread Google’s advertising policies: they change often, and a disapproved ad costs time.

Calendar: State public holidays, reversed seasons and time zones

Each Australian State and Territory sets its own public holidays. Australia Day, in January, is a holiday everywhere. But Labour Day falls on different dates depending on the State, and the Melbourne Cup is a public holiday in the State of Victoria only, with regional exceptions. The exact dates for the current year are in the facts table. For a regional campaign, these gaps move the days of high or low demand: check them in Google Trends set to the State concerned before you set your budgets.

The seasons are reversed compared with Europe. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, summer covers December, January and February, and winter covers June, July and August. In the tropical north, the year is divided by rainfall rather than into four seasons. A European seasonal calendar shifted by six months is therefore not enough: measure when your searches peak, region by region.

The Australian financial year runs from July to June. The tax office says the tax return covers the income year from July to June. If you sell to professionals, check in Google Trends, set to Australia, whether your searches follow that rhythm before you spread your spend over the year.

Australia has three time zones, and daylight saving does not apply everywhere. Tourism Australia says the country is divided into three time zones, and the central bank says the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia do not observe daylight saving, unlike the other States and Territories. The gap with Europe therefore changes by State and by season. Before you set an ad schedule, check the account time zone, and think in the local time of the State you target rather than your office time.

Targeting by State, city or postcode

Google says the types of targetable locations vary from one country to another. Postcodes, cities, regions: some types do not exist everywhere. For Australia, type the name of a State, a city or a postcode in the settings and see what Google offers; the targets table of the Google Ads API lists the available locations country by country. Because public holidays, daylight saving and some health rules depend on the State, targeting by State is a good reflex when your offer is local.

If your offer is national, start wide and let the reports decide. Launch the country, look at performance by location, then split the campaigns that really differ: calendar, offer, competitors. Avoid multiplying campaigns before you have enough data to judge each one.

Whoever bids in Sydney does not necessarily bid in Perth. The ads shown can vary from one location to another: check on the results page, city by city, or look at who bids on your keywords before you set a bid ceiling.

Pitfalls specific to Australia

Five mistakes are easy to make when you launch Australia from abroad. Avoiding them costs less than fixing them after the first clicks.

A test costs little compared with clicks that carry no buying intent. Launch the clearest keywords, let the search terms speak, then exclude what does not convert, with the help of the negative keyword tools compared on this site. To find starting ideas from a product or a page, Vision generates them, and you then have them analyzed on Australian Google.

• Copying American or British English ads without reviewing them for an Australian reader.
• Applying a northern hemisphere calendar, seasons included, or a single public holiday calendar for the whole country.
• Neglecting desktop, when it weighs almost as much as mobile in page views.
• Advertising gambling or health products without checking the State rules and Google certification.
• Looking for GST in the wrong place: it depends on the account address, and Google’s surcharge list does not mention Australia.

FAQ

How do I launch a Google Ads campaign in Australia?

Create a dedicated campaign that targets Australia (“Presence” option), rebuild your keywords from Australian searches, write ads, keywords and landing page in Australian English (Google matches ads by their language), then check billing and the rules of your sector. Finally, set your calendar around the States you target: public holidays, daylight saving and seasons differ there. The detailed steps are higher up on this page.

Does GST apply to my Google Ads spend in Australia?

It depends on the business address of your account. Google says all Google Ads sales in Australia are subject to GST for accounts with an Australian business address. If your account is based elsewhere, read the section for your country on Google’s tax page and ask your accountant: Google does not give tax advice. The rate is in the facts table.

Can I advertise betting or medicines in Australia?

Only with conditions. For gambling, only online sports betting and lotteries are eligible, with a State or Territory licence and Google certification. For health, online pharmacies and telemedicine follow State-level rules, with no prescription drug terms in the ad or on the landing page. Check Google’s rules before you write.

Should I target the whole country or some States?

It depends on your offer. If you sell or ship everywhere, launch the whole country and read the reports by location before you concentrate the budget. If your business is local, target the States concerned: their public holidays, daylight saving and some health rules differ. Google says targetable location types vary by country, so check what it offers for Australia.

Does Should I Bid analyze keywords on Australian Google?

Yes. Should I Bid reads the Google results page for the country and language you choose, among 50 countries: for Australia, pick the country Australia and English. Each keyword gets a score out of 100 and a decision, Bid, Test or Skip, with the evidence read on the page. The pricing page explains how credits work: one credit per keyword analyzed.

Sources

• Google Ads Help: Target ads to geographic locations — Google
• Google Ads Help: Location target types by country — Google
• Google Ads Help: Ad language and how ads are matched to searches — Google
• Google Ads API: language codes — Google
• Google Ads Help: Taxes in your country (Australia section) — Google
• Google Ads Help: Jurisdiction-specific surcharges — Google
• Google Advertising Policies: Gambling and games — Google
• Google Advertising Policies: Update to the gambling policy for Australia — Google
• Google Advertising Policies: Healthcare and medicines — Google
• Australian Constitution: full text — Federal Register of Legislation
• Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: About Australia — DFAT
• Australian Bureau of Statistics: Cultural diversity, Census — ABS
• Australian Government Style Manual: Spelling — Style Manual
• Australian Taxation Office: How GST works — ATO
• Australian Taxation Office: Preparing your tax return (July to June income year) — ATO
• Fair Work Ombudsman: Public holidays by State and Territory — Fair Work Ombudsman
• Bureau of Meteorology: Solstices, equinoxes and the seasons — Bureau of Meteorology
• Reserve Bank of Australia: Daylight saving by State and Territory — Reserve Bank of Australia
• Tourism Australia: Australian time zones — Tourism Australia