How do you plan French Canadian advertising inventory?
Part of US and Canada targeting
The short answer
Plan French Canadian advertising in three layers: language, geography and review. Confirm French from the articles themselves, check that a site's audience is in Canada rather than Europe, pair the list with province level location settings in the buying platform, and include francophone publishers outside Quebec, where Canadian Heritage counts more than half a million French speakers in Ontario alone.
Key takeaways
- Outside Quebec, Canadian Heritage counts 533,560 French-speaking people in Ontario and 231,850 in New Brunswick, 30.3 percent of that province.
- A page's French is easy to confirm; whether its readers are in Canada is a separate question that country popularity data answers and language tags do not.
- Chrome UX Report data has a country dimension but no language, province or city dimension, so province targeting belongs in the buying platform.
- OpenRTB 2.6 carries content language as a two letter code or a BCP 47 tag, the field that can distinguish fr-CA when a publisher fills it.
- Francophone minority community media are a distinct inventory pool: Canadian Heritage lists 131 community radio stations and newspapers.
Where do French-speaking Canadians live outside Quebec?
A French list planned only from Quebec publishers misses francophone communities elsewhere. Canadian Heritage's statistics on official languages (opens in a new tab), based on the 2021 Census and the measure of first official language spoken, show sizable French-speaking populations in several provinces. The same page puts the francophone share of the population of Canada outside Quebec at 3.5 percent in 2021, down from 6.1 percent in 1971.
| Province | French-speaking people | Share of province | Bilingual in English and French |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ontario | 533,560 | 3.8 percent | 10.8 percent |
| New Brunswick | 231,850 | 30.3 percent | 34.0 percent |
| Alberta | 72,203 | 1.7 percent | 6.1 percent |
| Manitoba | 38,378 | 2.9 percent | 8.3 percent |
| Nova Scotia | 27,935 | 2.9 percent | 10.3 percent |
| Prince Edward Island | 4,558 | 3.0 percent | 12.7 percent |
Two planning points follow from the table. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec in absolute terms, though it is a small share of the province. New Brunswick has the highest share, so a French plan there reaches a large part of the market. Canadian Heritage also lists 131 community radio stations and newspapers serving official language minority communities, citing the CRTC and Canadian Heritage for 2025, a pool of local French media that a list built from large national publishers can miss.
How do you tell a Canadian French publisher from one in France or Belgium?
A French language filter alone also pulls in publishers from France, Belgium, Switzerland and elsewhere. No single signal settles where a site's readers are. The table sets out what each common clue can and cannot show, so the planner can combine them.
| Signal | What it can show | Its limit |
|---|---|---|
| HTML lang attribute, such as fr-CA | The publisher's declared language and, if a region subtag is used, the intended variety | Self declared, and can be plain fr; the W3C describes it as declaring the default language of the page text, not the audience |
| Country popularity in Chrome UX Report | Whether the site is popular among Chrome visits from Canada, inferred from IP addresses | Country only, coarse bands, and smaller sites may not appear at all |
| Place names and local topics in sampled articles | Editorial focus on Canadian cities, provinces and institutions | Focus is not audience; a European site can cover Montreal |
| Publisher's stated location | Where the company is based | Says nothing about where readers are |
| Content language in the bid request | What the seller declares for the page, possibly as a BCP 47 tag such as fr-CA | Filled by the publisher or exchange, and can be missing or set only to fr |
What do bid requests and buying platforms say about language and province?
Once a French list is approved, delivery depends on fields and settings outside the list. The OpenRTB 2.6 specification (opens in a new tab) from IAB Tech Lab defines several language fields and a province level location field. Each is only as good as the data the seller sends.
| Object and field | Specification wording | Why a French plan cares |
|---|---|---|
| Content.language and Content.langb | Content language using ISO-639-1-alpha-2, or using IETF BCP 47; only one should be present | langb can carry fr-CA, separating Canadian French content when sellers fill it |
| Device.language and Device.langb | Browser language, in the same two formats | Describes the visitor's browser setting, not the page |
| Geo.region | Region code using ISO-3166-2 | Carries the province, so New Brunswick or Ontario delivery can be set apart |
| BidRequest.wlang and wlangb | Allowed list of languages for creatives | Lets a seller require French creative on French pages |
Google Ads handles language by surface. Its help page About language targeting (opens in a new tab) says that on the Display Network Google Ads may look at the language of pages or apps someone is visiting or has recently visited, and that on YouTube it uses the language preference a person sets, among other signals. The same page says that starting in September 2026 the campaign level language setting is removed for Search campaigns. Checked October 21, 2026.
Province targeting has to come from the buying platform because the Chrome UX Report dimensions (opens in a new tab) are form factor and country, with country inferred from IP addresses. There is no language, province or city dimension, so a site's Canadian popularity band cannot say whether its readers are in Quebec or in New Brunswick.
What review routine catches problems in a French Canadian site list?
Three problems recur in French lists: European sites that rank well on topic, bilingual sites whose French section is thin or stale, and local francophone media left out because they are small. A short routine run on each candidate checks for them before the list goes to the client.
Six checks for each French candidate site
- Read five recent articles, not the homepage. Confirm they are written in French and dated within the campaign's season.
- Count the French share on bilingual sites. If most new articles are in English, the French section may be too thin to carry a French line item.
- Check the Canadian popularity band. Record the band, or record that no data exists, which is not the same as no audience.
- Note the geography in the articles. Mark whether coverage is Quebec, Acadian, Franco-Ontarian, Prairie or European, so the list can be split by province later.
- Look at the html lang value. Note fr-CA, fr-FR or plain fr as supporting evidence, never as the deciding factor.
- Match the creative. Confirm French creative exists for every French line item, and that the buying platform's location settings match the provinces in the brief.
What does a French plan look like for Acadian audiences?
Acadian communities in the Maritimes show why a French Canadian plan needs its own geography. The audience is concentrated in New Brunswick, with smaller francophone populations in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, and it is served partly by local French media that a list built from large national publishers can miss.
Fictional example
A Maritime cheese maker plans a French campaign
Fromagerie Aubelin, a fictional artisan cheese maker in New Brunswick, wants French display ads for Acadian readers in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia beside food, recipes, local news and community events. The first topic search for French recipe and food content returns mostly European sites with strong topic matches and no Canadian popularity band.
The planner keeps two Quebec food publishers with strong Canadian bands, adds Acadian community news sites whose articles cover Moncton, the Acadian Peninsula and Clare, and records two small local sites with no country data as unknown rather than dropping them. The list goes to the buyer with a note to set location to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia only, and to run French creative on every line.
How does PlacementGraph handle Canadian French in a site list?
PlacementGraph lists the United States and Canada as its main markets, in English and Canadian French.
Frequently asked questions
Does a fr-CA language tag prove a site is Canadian?
No. The W3C describes the html lang attribute as declaring the default language of the page's text, and the region subtag is the publisher's own choice. A Canadian site can use plain fr, and a tag says nothing about where readers are. Treat fr-CA as supporting evidence next to the articles and country popularity data.
Can a buy target French speakers in New Brunswick only?
By combining two things: a list of French sites with Maritime or Canadian audiences, and the buying platform's location setting for New Brunswick. OpenRTB 2.6 carries the province in the Geo.region field as an ISO 3166-2 code, so the platform can apply it when the seller sends it. Check how your platform uses it.
Does Chrome UX Report show how many French speakers visit a site?
No. Chrome UX Report has a country dimension inferred from IP addresses but no language dimension, and its popularity ranks are relative bands of navigations, not counts of people. Language has to come from the site's pages, and the visitor's browser language only appears in the bid request's Device fields.
Should a French campaign outside Quebec use Quebec publishers?
It can, when their articles fit the brief and the buying platform restricts delivery to the target provinces. A Quebec publisher's Canadian popularity band covers the whole country and cannot show which province its readers are in. Pair them with local francophone media in the target province, which carry local place names and events that a Quebec site may not cover.
Sources
- Statistics on official languages in Canada (opens in a new tab)Canadian Heritage, Government of Canada
- Declaring language in HTML (opens in a new tab)W3C Internationalization
- OpenRTB 2.6 specification (opens in a new tab)IAB Tech Lab
- About language targeting (opens in a new tab)Google Ads Help
- CrUX dimensions (opens in a new tab)Chrome for Developers
- Votre aide-mémoire pour faire des affaires en français au Québec (opens in a new tab)Office québécois de la langue française
Researched and written by PlacementGraph Research. Read how we research, source and update these pages. Corrections: diana@placementgraph.com.