Google Ads agency in Montréal
Our office at 14 place du Commerce, on Nuns' Island, runs Google Ads accounts for Québec and Canadian e-commerce brands. Here an account is managed in two languages, in Canadian dollars, against national and US advertisers.
What the Québec market changes in an account
Greater Montréal combines three things that rarely occur together. People search in French and in English, sometimes on the same day for the same need. Bidding is contested by national and US advertisers with mature accounts and large budgets. And the Charter of the French Language governs the language of commerce and advertising.
That leads to concrete setup rules. Campaigns (and asset groups) are single-language, with ads and landing pages in the customer's language, without relying on Google's language setting, which is removed from Search campaigns starting in September 2026: mixing them dilutes quality scores and makes reporting unreadable. Landing pages exist in both languages, not just the ads. Budgets, bids and reporting all stay in Canadian dollars, with no intermediate conversion that distorts how margin reads.
An account transplanted from France fails on all three at once. Budgets calibrated on French click costs leave the learning phase too late, ads written for a French reader land flat, and reporting in euros hides how the exchange rate affects real profitability.
The per-language structure, platform by platform (Search, Performance Max and Meta), is set out on our page Bilingual advertising in Québec: structuring an account in French and English.
What we run from the office
Search and Shopping structured by language and by purchase intent. Merchant Center configured for Canada, with the taxes, delivery times and carriers actually in use. Profitability tracked in Canadian dollars, by product line margin rather than blended return on ad spend.
The Verdun office shares a time zone with our Québec clients, so bid and budget decisions happen during their working day rather than the next morning. The French office works the same accounts with the same methods, which brings an e-commerce account history few agencies this size can offer.
Measurement and compliance
Québec's Law 25 requires explicit, off-by-default consent for any tracker that identifies, locates or profiles a visitor. Advertising pixels and analytics tools are covered. An account sending conversions without valid consent exposes the advertiser, and a poorly implemented consent layer quietly removes part of the conversions from reporting.
We check the full chain first: consent banner, consent mode, enhanced conversions, and agreement between what Google Ads reports and what analytics sees. That comes before any bidding work on an existing account.
The overall framework (Law 25, advertised price, feed price) is set out on our page Advertising compliance in Québec and Canada.
The Québec rules that touch an account, with sources
Pricing: in Québec an advertised price must include all mandatory charges except sales taxes, and in the Canadian Merchant Center Google forbids GST and QST in the price attribute, shipping included. A French feed migrated as is breaks on both points. We set out the two rules in our articles "All-inclusive pricing in Quebec ads (s. 224.1)" and "Merchant Center Canada: submit prices excluding tax". Shipping follows its own zone rule: see "Canada shipping in Merchant Center: zones by FSA".
Language: Google structures its feeds by language, not by country, which means two feeds for an fr-CA and en-CA store, and it removes language targeting from Search campaigns in September 2026. The bilingual structure of an account has to be rethought accordingly: see "One or two Merchant Center feeds in Canada" and "Targeting French and English in Google Ads in Québec".
Data: the Meta pixel profiles visitors within the meaning of Law 25, and since September 22, 2023 sending personal information outside Québec requires a prior privacy impact assessment, which covers any pixel or conversion API hosted outside Québec. The test on a Shopify store and the documentation to produce are in our articles "Meta pixel and Law 25: a four-step Shopify test" and "Data outside Quebec: the privacy impact assessment".
Bilingual operations
- Separate French and English campaigns
- Single-language campaigns, ads and pages in the customer language
- Landing pages available in both languages
Québec framework
- Copy reviewed against local language requirements
- Law 25 consent verified before optimisation
- Messaging adapted rather than transposed from France
North American competition
- Starting budget calibrated on Canadian click costs
- Long tail and negatives worked continuously
- Weekly governance in a high cost market
Common questions
Should French and English campaigns be separated?
Yes, as soon as there is volume in both, but without relying on the campaign language setting. According to Google's help page, that setting is removed from Search campaigns starting in September 2026 and no longer applies to the Search Network portion of Performance Max: ads are then matched on the language of the ads, and Google prioritizes the ad that matches the language of the search term when it is clear. The setting remains active on YouTube, Display, Discover and Gmail. Separation therefore happens in the account structure: single-language campaigns (or asset groups), with ads and landing pages in the same language. Splitting costs some volume per campaign and makes the account readable.
What monthly budget does it take to start?
It depends on the category and average order value, but the practical threshold is whatever gets campaigns out of the learning phase in weeks rather than months. Canadian click costs generally run above French ones in comparable categories, which pushes that threshold up. We size it against your catalogue before proposing a structure.
Do you work with brands outside Québec?
Yes, across Canada, and on accounts selling to both Canada and the United States. Those are distinct markets in cost, competition and tax treatment, and they deserve separate campaigns rather than a single North American target.
Is pricing in Canadian dollars?
Yes. Fees are billed in Canadian dollars before tax, with GST and QST added. Performance reporting uses the same currency, from media budget through to margin.
Have your account reviewed
A first conversation establishes what is actually blocking growth: account structure, measurement, margin, or simply not enough search volume. We say so even when the answer is that there is nothing to gain right now.