To launch Google Ads in Brazil, create a campaign limited to the country, with ads, keywords and landing page written in Brazilian Portuguese, not European Portuguese. Prepare the account: Google asks advertisers in Brazil for a Brazilian tax ID (CPF or CNPJ), and rules govern gambling and political content. The sourced facts are in the facts table at the top of the page.
Key takeaway: Launch a separate campaign for Brazil, in Brazilian Portuguese, prepare the tax ID and the payment method before the first spend, and read the Brazilian Google results page of each keyword before you bid.
| Fact | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Official languages | Portuguese: the Portuguese language is the official language of the Federative Republic of Brazil (Article 13 of the Federal Constitution) | Federal Constitution, Article 13 (Planalto, official site of the Presidency of the Republic) |
| Languages Google Ads supports | Portuguese (code pt). Google's list has a single code for Portuguese: it does not separate Brazilian from European Portuguese. None of the country's indigenous languages is among the languages Google Ads supports | Google Ads API, language codes |
| Currency | Real (BRL): the real is the unit of the national monetary system; amounts are written preceded by the R$ symbol, and the centavo, one hundredth of a real, is written as a decimal after the comma | Law 9,069 (Real Plan), Article 1 (Planalto, official site of the Presidency of the Republic) |
| Search engines (share of searches) | Google 88.41%, Bing 9.63%, Yahoo! 1.54% (September 2026) | StatCounter Global Stats |
| Mobile vs desktop | Desktop 62.74%, mobile 36.58%, tablet 0.68% of page views (September 2026) | StatCounter Global Stats |
| VAT on Google Ads | Brazil's indirect tax reform: Google adds the CBS and IBS taxes to invoices and Nota Fiscals starting January 1, 2026. During the 2026 pilot period they are shown for reference only and are not applied to the total invoice amount; no action is needed on your Google Ads account. The Brazil section of the page does not name a Google company that invoices | Google Ads Help, “Taxes in your country” |
| Country VAT rate | Test year (taxable events from January 1 to December 31, 2026): CBS 0.9% and IBS 0.1% (state share). The same law sets other rates for the following years of the transition | Complementary Law 214 (IBS, CBS and Selective Tax), Articles 343 and 346 (Planalto) |
| Country-specific Google surcharge | No country-specific surcharge in Google's list: Brazil is not on it (the list names other countries) | Google Ads Help, “Jurisdiction-specific surcharges” |
| Online gambling | Allowed only for lotteries, horse racing and daily fantasy sports, and only for an operator licensed or authorized by the relevant Brazilian authorities | Google Advertising Policies, “Gambling and games” |
| Political and electoral content | Prohibited on Google platforms: political-electoral content as defined by Resolution 23,732/2024 of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), meaning ads featuring elections, political parties, federations and coalitions, elected positions, government proposals, legislative bills, the exercise of the right to vote and other matters related to the electoral process | Google Advertising Policies, “Political content” |
| Account tax ID (CPF or CNPJ) | Advertisers in Brazil must add their tax ID when creating their payments profile: the CPF (with date of birth) for an “Individual” account, the CNPJ to be verified for an “Organization” account. A very new CPF or CNPJ can fail verification until the Receita Federal has the data (3 to 5 days) | Google Ads Help, “Verify tax information in Brazil” |
| National Zumbi and Black Awareness Day (national holiday) | November 20, a national holiday declared by Law 14,759 of December 21, 2023 | Law 14,759 (Planalto, official site of the Presidency of the Republic) |
| Carnival (federal administration calendar) | Last edition: February 16 and 17, 2026 (Carnival) and February 18, 2026, Ash Wednesday, until 2 pm, listed as “ponto facultativo” (optional day off, not a public holiday) for the federal administration, not as national holidays | Diário Oficial da União, MGI Ordinance 11,460 (national holidays and ponto facultativo days) |
Data verified on . Each value was read on its source on the date shown. It may have changed since: the source prevails.
One campaign per country and language keeps budgets, bids and reports readable. In the settings, pick Brazil as the location. Google presents Presence or interest as the broad targeting, which also reaches people interested in the place without being there, and Presence as the choice when you only want people located on site.
Before the first spend, open the account's payments profile. Google asks advertisers in Brazil for their CPF (individual account) or their CNPJ (organization account). A very new ID can fail verification: allow a few days and check its status with the Receita Federal.
Pix requires a prepay account, a billing address in Brazil and the Brazilian real as currency. Boleto is, according to Google, unavailable for new accounts, except on monthly invoicing. For the exact list for your case, use Google's payment options tool.
Start from Keyword Planner set to Brazil and Portuguese, not from a list written for Portugal. For each idea, note the words your Brazilian customers really type. Our guide on how to choose Google Ads keywords covers the method.
For each keyword, open the Google results page from Brazil, in Portuguese, and look at the ads, the pages that rank and the local block. The Should I Bid intent analysis does this reading keyword by keyword and returns a Bid, Test or Skip verdict.
Have the ads and the landing page written, or at least reviewed, by a native speaker of Brazilian Portuguese. Show prices in reais and give clear, precise information in Portuguese about features, price and warranty, as the Consumer Defense Code requires.
Online gambling and political and electoral content have rules specific to Brazil. Read the Google policy pages for your sector before you write, and have your commercial promises reviewed by a Brazilian lawyer.
Run a capped test budget, read the search terms report and add as negatives the searches with no buying intent, with and without accents. Then compare your keywords in Google Trends set to Brazil around the holidays and Carnival before you adjust your budgets.
For Search in Brazil, language is decided by your ads and your keywords: write them in Brazilian Portuguese. Google removed the language setting from Search campaigns: ads are now matched to searches based on their language, and Google prioritizes the ones that match the language of the search term. To reach your audience, you keep the geographic location. The facts table at the top of the page gives the official language of the country and the code Google Ads recognizes: a single one for Portuguese, with no distinction between Brazil and Portugal. Making that distinction is up to you, in your copy.
Brazilian Portuguese is not European Portuguese, and a keyword list does not move from one to the other without a review. According to Wikipedia's article on Brazilian Portuguese, a train is a trem in Brazil and a comboio in Portugal, rush hour is hora do rush, among other forms, in Brazil and hora de ponta in Portugal, and spelling differs too, with aterrissagem on one side and aterragem on the other for landing. Grammar changes as well: Brazil mostly uses estar with the gerund to say that an action is in progress, where Portugal rather uses estar a with the infinitive.
Rebuild the keyword list in the terms Brazilian internet users type, instead of reusing the one from another country. Start from Keyword Planner set to Brazil and Portuguese, note the possible words for each idea, then open Google from Brazil to check that each search shows buying intent rather than articles or definitions.
Think about accents, especially for your negatives. Google Ads Help on negative keywords says that a negative keyword with an accent and the same one without count as two different negative keywords, and that negatives do not apply to close variants. Portuguese is written with accents and cedillas, so add both forms when a search with no buying intent shows up in the search terms report. Our comparison of negative keyword tools helps you manage those lists over time.
Have the ads and the landing page written by a native speaker of Brazilian Portuguese. A machine translation does not judge tone, word choice, or the form in which your customers type your brand and product names. The other languages in Google's list, such as English or Spanish, only make sense to speak to visitors or residents who read them: create a separate campaign or ad group then, with ads and keywords written in that language. The list below sums up the points to review for each keyword idea.
Google dominates search in Brazil, and the facts table at the top of the page shows the share of Bing and of Yahoo!. A Google Ads campaign only reaches searches made on Google: it covers neither Bing nor Yahoo!. Keep that in mind before you set volume goals, and read each engine's share as an order of magnitude, not as a promise of clicks.
The table ranks desktop ahead of mobile in page views in Brazil, but that figure measures page views, not customers. StatCounter publishes the split of page views by type of device: it says nothing about who clicks an ad in your sector, or who buys. After the first days, read the device report of your own account before you raise or lower bids for a type of device.
Open your landing page on both types of device, and read the Brazilian Google page from Brazil. Ads, ranking pages and local results change with the country and the language: a result seen from France or Portugal tells you nothing about Brazil. Our guide to search intent in Google Ads explains how to read that page.
Also look at who already advertises in Brazil before you choose your messages. Our guide to the Google Ads Transparency Center explains how to filter ads by country, and the one on who bids on your keywords compares the other methods. Have what you find translated if you do not read Portuguese: an ad you cannot understand teaches you nothing.
Google asks advertisers in Brazil for a Brazilian tax ID, as soon as the payments profile is created. According to Google's help page on tax verification in Brazil, an Individual account confirms its CPF and date of birth, an Organization account has its CNPJ verified, and Google may also ask to re-verify the CPF of an existing account. The facts table sums up the rule. The page does not say what applies to a company based outside Brazil: ask Google support before you budget, and ask your accountant.
If verification fails, the cause is often the ID itself. Google advises checking the status of the CPF with the Receita Federal, making sure the date of birth entered matches its records and the right format, and waiting a few days for a very new ID. So do not plan a launch on the same day you create the account if a deadline presses you.
In Google's page on taxes, the Brazil section talks about the indirect tax reform, not about a company that invoices. The page explains that Google introduces the CBS and IBS taxes on invoices and on Nota Fiscals, which it names next to invoices, and that they are shown for reference only, not added to the total, during the pilot period. No action is needed on the account. The section does not name the Google company that issues the invoice: read it on your account's invoice.
The law sets test rates for this first year, and other rates for what follows. The complementary law that creates the IBS, the CBS and the selective tax gives, for the test year, one rate for the CBS and one for the IBS: they are in the facts table. It sets other rates for the following years of the transition. Ask your accountant what is recoverable in your case, and read Google's page again before a big spend.
Google adds no regulatory surcharge specific to Brazil. The list of jurisdiction-specific surcharges names other countries and does not name Brazil. So your test budget has no local markup to plan for on that item, unlike what you would see in the countries on that list. Because the page can change, read it again before you set a big budget.
Write your prices in reais, the way Brazilians read them. The Real Plan law makes the real the national monetary unit, says that amounts are written preceded by the R$ symbol and that centavos are written as a decimal after the comma. Your ads and landing page should follow that notation, decimal comma included. The billing currency of your Google Ads account is a separate matter: it is chosen when the account is opened.
Pix is possible under three conditions, according to Google. The help page on payment methods says that Pix can be used if the account is on the prepay setting, has a billing address in Brazil and has the Brazilian real as its currency. To use it, you add funds from the billing summary, pick Pix, enter the amount, then scan the QR code from your banking app or copy the code shown.
Boleto is not open to new accounts for now. The same page says it is temporarily unavailable for new Google Ads accounts in Brazil, that customers who already pay by card, Pix or Mercado Pago cannot pay by boleto either, and that this change does not apply to accounts on monthly invoicing. If your finance team counts on boleto, check it before you build your payment calendar.
Bank cards add to that list. Google accepts certain credit cards and debit cards with the Visa, Mastercard or China UnionPay logo, on postpay as well as prepay, and does not accept prepaid cards for postpay. Brazil is not on the list of countries where prepay is unavailable.
For the exact list for your case, use Google's payment options tool. The page says the available methods vary with the country, the currency and the payment setting, that some may be unavailable while Google reviews the account's eligibility, and that some cannot be used with a currency other than the country's. Ask your finance lead to validate the payment method before the launch.
Google regulates gambling country by country: in Brazil, the list of allowed products is short. Google's page on country-specific rules lists, for Brazil, lotteries, horse racing and daily fantasy sports, provided the operator is licensed or authorized by the relevant Brazilian authorities. Sports betting and online casinos are not listed there for Brazil, although they are listed for other countries: do not assume they are allowed. If you work in this sector, read the whole page, including how to apply for certification, before you launch anything.
Political and electoral content is prohibited on Google platforms in Brazil. Google's page on political content lists Brazil among the regions where political ads are restricted, and describes the ban by pointing to a resolution of the Superior Electoral Court: elections, political parties, federations and coalitions, elected positions, government proposals, legislative bills and the exercise of the right to vote. If your message touches one of those subjects, read that page before you write, and do not assume that a public-interest topic will be accepted.
The Consumer Defense Code also governs your ads and your pages. According to the text of the law, the offer and presentation of a product or service must give correct, clear, precise, conspicuous information in Portuguese, notably about features, price and warranty. Information or advertising that is precise enough binds the supplier and becomes part of the contract, and misleading or abusive advertising is prohibited. In practice, a price, a delivery promise or a warranty you advertise must be found unchanged on your page, in Portuguese. That text covers relations with consumers: have a Brazilian lawyer review your case, this page is not legal advice.
Other sectors have rules of their own at Google. Health, finance, alcohol, regulated products: open Google's advertising policy page for your sector and look for the mention of Brazil before you write. A rejected ad delays the launch and skews your first results.
A law made the National Day of Zumbi and Black Awareness a national holiday, and the facts table gives its date. It is a day when your customers may not be working, and when your team, your carriers or your customer service may be away. Check in your own data how demand behaves around it.
Carnival is not a national holiday in the federal calendar. The ordinance of the Ministry of Management that sets the calendar of the year, published in the Diário Oficial da União, lists the two days of Carnival, and Ash Wednesday in part, as ponto facultativo, not as a public holiday. The table gives the last edition. That text only covers federal bodies: it says nothing about private companies.
Holidays specific to a state or a municipality exist too. The same ordinance says that the federal administration observes, locally, the holiday of the state's date magna, set by a state law, and some holidays declared by a municipal law. If you target a big city or a specific state, look at its local calendar before you set your budgets.
Do not guess the effect on your searches: measure it. Open Google Trends set to Brazil, compare your keywords around those dates over several years, and note whether demand rises, drops or shifts. Then decide whether to strengthen, cut or pause your budgets, depending on what you deliver and on who answers your customers on those days.
Do not copy a campaign written for Portugal. The same word, the same phrasing or the same spelling can differ between the two countries, and Google does not warn you: its list has a single code for Portuguese. Review each ad with someone who speaks Brazilian Portuguese.
Choose Presence if your offer is only delivered in Brazil. Google Ads Help on geographic targeting generally recommends the broad Presence or interest targeting for Search, but says Presence makes sense when you only want to reach people located on site or your sector is sensitive. For an offer limited to the country, clicks from people who are not there can cost you money without becoming customers.
Do not assume Brazil is set up like your home country. Tax ID, Pix, boleto, CBS and IBS taxes: those points have precise Brazilian rules. Go through them with your accountant and your finance lead before you open the account, not on launch day.
Reading the Brazilian Google page keyword by keyword is the job of Should I Bid. Its intent analysis reads the Google results page in the country and language you choose, among 50 countries, including Brazil and Portuguese, then returns a Bid, Test or Skip verdict with a score out of 100, and recommends negatives. An analysis can also target a big city of the country, as an optional setting. Vision generates keyword ideas from a product or a page, without sorting them: the analysis does the sorting. The tool works with credits, one credit per keyword analyzed: see pricing.
Create a dedicated campaign that targets Brazil. Write ads, keywords and landing page in Brazilian Portuguese, because Google matches ads based on their language. Prepare the payments profile with the tax ID asked of advertisers in Brazil (CPF or CNPJ), choose the payment method, check the rules for your sector and write your prices in reais. Then run a capped test and read the search terms report.
Yes, for a campaign that targets Brazil. Vocabulary, spelling and some phrasing differ between the two countries: trem in Brazil, comboio in Portugal, for example. Google offers a single code for Portuguese and does not make that distinction for you. Rebuild your keywords from Keyword Planner set to Brazil, and have the ads and the landing page reviewed by a native speaker.
Google says advertisers in Brazil must add their tax ID when creating their payments profile: the CPF for an individual account, the CNPJ for an organization account, which has to be verified. If your company is based outside Brazil, that page does not detail your case: read the section of your country in Google's page on taxes, ask Google support and consult your accountant.
Pix is possible if the account is on prepay, has a billing address in Brazil and the real as currency. Boleto is, according to Google, temporarily unavailable for new accounts in Brazil, except on monthly invoicing. The credit and debit cards Google accepts add to that list. Check your case in Google's payment options tool before you plan the payment.
Online gambling is allowed only for a few products, listed by Google for Brazil, and only for an operator authorized by the Brazilian authorities, after certification. Sports betting is not listed there for this country. Political and electoral content is, for its part, prohibited on Google platforms in Brazil. Read both of Google's policy pages before you write your ads.
Yes. Should I Bid reads the Google results page for the country and language you choose, among 50 countries, including Brazil and Portuguese. It checks that page against your offer and returns, for each keyword, a Bid, Test or Skip verdict with a score out of 100. It reads Google, not Bing. You can try it with free analyses, no credit card needed: see pricing.