Audience targeting in Canada and the US: plan by real audience
The short answer
Plan programmatic advertising in Canada by choosing sites for the audience they actually reach in Canada, not for a .ca domain or a Canadian head office. Check country popularity in Chrome UX Report data, read each site's language from its pages, cover English and Canadian French, and keep federal, Quebec and US state privacy rules in view.
Key takeaways
- A domain ending or a company address says where a site is registered, not who reads it; a US-based publisher can have a large Canadian readership.
- Chrome UX Report country data gives coarse popularity bands by country from real Chrome visits, useful as a signal of audience, not as a count of people.
- Canada is a two language market: Canadian Heritage counts 22.0 percent of Canadians as French-speaking, and 84.1 percent in Quebec.
- PIPEDA, Quebec's Law 25 and US state laws such as California's and Colorado's apply to personal information. A contextual site list chooses pages, while an audience data flow uses information about people.
- A site list chooses where ads may run; the buying platform's location settings still decide who sees them.
Why do domain endings and head office addresses mislead country targeting?
A site list for Canada can start from a filter for .ca domains or for publishers with a Canadian address. Both rules feel safe, and both can drop sites with real Canadian readers: a US news, recipe or review site can be popular in Canada, and some Canadian publishers run .com domains. A .ca rule drops those Canadian .com publishers and US sites with large Canadian readerships, while keeping .ca sites that few people visit.
Definition
- Audience-based market fit
- Judging whether a site belongs on a country's plan by evidence of where its readers are, such as country popularity data and the language of its pages, rather than by its domain ending or the location of the company that owns it.
The same problem runs the other way for US brands. A US plan built only from US-headquartered publishers can miss Canadian and international sites with large American readerships. In both directions, address is a clue worth recording, not a reason on its own to keep a site out.
| Signal | What it shows | What it does not show |
|---|---|---|
| .ca domain | The owner registered a Canadian domain | That Canadians read the site, or that most readers are in Canada |
| Head office address | Where the publisher is incorporated or based | Where its audience lives |
| Country popularity band | Relative popularity among Chrome visits from that country | Unique users, ad impressions or demographics |
| Language of sampled pages | Which language the site actually publishes in | Which country those readers are in |
| Local topics and place names | Editorial focus on a region | Audience size in that region |
How big is programmatic advertising in Canada and the US?
The two markets are measured by different surveys, in different currencies and with different methods, so their figures should be read side by side, never added. IAB Canada's 2025 Internet Ad Revenue Survey (opens in a new tab), released in June 2026, puts Canada's digital advertising market at CAD $21.1 billion for 2025, up 16 percent, on a basis comparable with the year before. In the US, the IAB and PwC report for full year 2025 (opens in a new tab) puts internet advertising revenue at US $294.6 billion, with programmatic revenue at $162.4 billion, up 20.5 percent.
| Buying method | 2025 share | 2024 share, earlier edition |
|---|---|---|
| Direct | 72.9 percent | 38.0 percent |
| Private marketplace (labeled programmatic assisted in the 2024 edition) | 22.4 percent | 47.8 percent |
| Open RTB | 4.6 percent | 14.2 percent |
What does Chrome UX Report country data show about a site's audience?
The Chrome UX Report (CrUX) is Google's public dataset of real Chrome user experiences. Its country dimension (opens in a new tab) is inferred from users' IP addresses, recorded with ISO 3166-1 country codes, and available only in the BigQuery dataset, not in the CrUX APIs. The BigQuery documentation (opens in a new tab) says new monthly data is released on the second Tuesday of the following month.
Within each country, CrUX includes an experimental popularity rank (opens in a new tab): a relative measure based on an origin's total navigations, grouped on a log scale with half steps such as top 1,000, 5,000, 10,000, 50,000 and 100,000. A site in the Canadian top 10,000 is busy among Canadian Chrome visitors whatever its domain ending or address.
| Question | CrUX answer | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Do people in Canada visit this site? | Yes, as a popularity band | Country is inferred from the visitor's IP address |
| How many Canadians will see the ad? | No | Ranks are relative bands of navigations, not counts of people or impressions |
| Is a site with no Canadian band unpopular? | Not necessarily | Origins must pass a popularity threshold and be publicly discoverable to appear at all |
| Does it cover every device? | No | Chrome on desktop and Android is included; Chrome on iOS and other Chromium browsers are not, per the methodology (opens in a new tab) |
Used well, a country band is one line of evidence among several. A specialist Canadian publisher can sit below the threshold and still be the best site on the plan, so missing data should read as missing, not as zero.
How should a plan cover English and Canadian French?
Canada is a two language market, and the French audience is concentrated but not confined to Quebec. Canadian Heritage's official languages statistics (opens in a new tab), drawn from the 2021 Census, count 8,066,633 French-speaking people, 22.0 percent of the population, including 84.1 percent of Quebec's population, and 18.0 percent of Canadians as bilingual in English and French.
A plan for Canada should name the languages in the brief and check them on the sites themselves. Read the language of sampled articles, not the language of the homepage menu, since a bilingual site can publish uneven volumes in each language. Canadian French sites deserve their own review: a site from France may be in French and still have little Canadian readership, which country data can show.
Language also matters for the creative. The Office québécois de la langue française fact sheet on public and commercial signage (opens in a new tab) states that in Quebec, commercial advertising must be in French, and may also use another language provided French is markedly predominant. The sheet notes it has no legal value.
Which privacy rules shape audience targeting in Canada and the US?
Privacy law applies to personal information, so the first question is what data a campaign uses. A contextual site list chooses pages, not people. Audience segments, retargeting and cross-site tracking involve personal information and bring consent and opt-out duties. This summary is factual context from official sources, not legal advice.
| Jurisdiction | Rule | What the regulator says |
|---|---|---|
| Canada, federal | PIPEDA | Applies to private-sector organizations collecting, using or disclosing personal information in commercial activity; Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec have substantially similar laws (OPC (opens in a new tab)) |
| Canada, federal | Online behavioural advertising guidelines | Information used for behavioural advertising will generally be personal information; opt-out consent is reasonable only under stated conditions, and organizations should avoid tracking children (OPC (opens in a new tab)) |
| Quebec | Law 25 | Consent must be requested for each specific purpose, in clear terms and separately from other information; identification, location and profiling technologies must be disclosed and cannot be activated by default; transfers outside Quebec need a privacy impact assessment (CAI (opens in a new tab)) |
| California | CCPA | Consumers can ask businesses to stop selling or sharing personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising; businesses must honor opt-out preference signals such as Global Privacy Control (CPPA (opens in a new tab)) |
| Colorado | Colorado Privacy Act | In effect since July 1, 2023, with a right to opt out of targeted advertising and a universal opt-out mechanism requirement from July 1, 2024 (Colorado Attorney General (opens in a new tab)) |
How do you build a site list for Canada and the US step by step?
Six steps for a cross-border site list
- Write the markets and languages into the brief. For example: Canada, English and Canadian French; or the US and English Canada together.
- Collect candidates by topic first. Find sites that fit the brief's subject before any country filter, so strong foreign-based sites are not lost early.
- Read each site's language from its articles. Leave out sites mostly in other languages, and note the languages found.
- Check the country popularity band. Mark sites popular in the target country, record sites with no data as unknown, and lower only sites with no sign of a local audience.
- Keep the address as a note. A line such as US-based, popular in Canada tells the client why a foreign site is on a Canadian plan.
- Set geography in the buying platform. The list chooses sites; location targeting decides who sees the ad.
Google's advanced location options (opens in a new tab) default to Presence or Interest, which reaches people in or regularly in a location plus people who have shown interest in it; the Presence option limits ads to people likely to be in the location. A Canadian site list run with a loose location setting can still serve ads to visitors outside Canada.
Fictional example
A Montreal furniture retailer's bilingual brief
A fictional furniture retailer, Maison Ardoise, wants display ads in Quebec and Ontario beside home design and renovation content, in French and English. The planner's first pass using only .ca domains returns a short list dominated by retailers and directories.
Starting from topic instead, the planner finds Quebec design magazines on .com domains, an Ontario renovation blog, and a US interior design publisher with a strong Canadian popularity band, noted as US-based, popular in Canada. A French site from France with no Canadian band is set aside. The location setting is switched to Presence before launch.
How does PlacementGraph match sites to a Canadian or US audience?
PlacementGraph treats audience as the test for market fit, with the United States and Canada as its main markets.
Guides in this hub
Every guide in the US and Canada targeting hub, each written to answer one question in full.
- FrameworkHow do you map a campaign's data flows before legal review?A worksheet to record each data flow in a campaign, who collects what and where it goes, so the privacy lead reviews facts. Built from regulator guidance.
- ExplainerHow do Alberta and BC privacy laws apply to advertising?How Alberta's and British Columbia's PIPA acts apply in place of PIPEDA, what they say about consent for advertising, and who enforces them. Facts only.
- ExplainerWhat rules govern alcohol advertising in Canada, and what do they mean for placements?Alcohol advertising in Canada: the CRTC Code, Ad Standards clearance, Ontario, Quebec and BC rules, and what they mean for placements and audience age.
- ExplainerWhat are the alcohol advertising rules in the US?US alcohol advertising rules in the sources' own words: TTB requirements, the 73.8 percent adult audience standard, state rules and how buyers check placements.
- ExplainerHow big is the Canada digital advertising market, and how should you cite it?Canada's digital advertising market size from IAB Canada's latest survey: 2025 totals, programmatic shares, forecasts and actuals, and why US data misleads.
- ExplainerWhat does the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards cover?What Ad Standards' Canadian Code of Advertising Standards covers, how consumer complaints are judged, and which of its 14 clauses touch digital placements.
- ExplainerWhat do Statistics Canada's internet usage figures tell planners?What Statistics Canada's Canadian Internet Use Survey says about Canadians online, how to cite it in a plan, and what its numbers cannot tell an advertiser.
- ExplainerCan cannabis be advertised in Canada, and where can a promotion run?Cannabis advertising in Canada: what the Cannabis Act prohibits, what informational and brand-preference promotion allow, and where open web ads stand.
- ExplainerWhat counts as cross context behavioral advertising under the CCPA?California's definition of cross context behavioral advertising, the opt out of sharing, contextual ads in the CPPA's examples, and the 2026 regulation dates.
- ExplainerWhat does the Colorado Privacy Act say about targeted advertising?What the Colorado Privacy Act's targeted advertising opt out covers, who must comply, the universal opt out rules in 4 CCR 904-3 and how the act is enforced.
- ExplainerHow does COPPA apply to programmatic advertising?COPPA programmatic advertising explained: who the FTC's rule covers, what makes a site child directed, the 2025 amendments, the coppa flag and contextual ads.
- FrameworkCross border advertising in Canada and the US: how should a plan disclose uncertainty?A framework for cross border advertising plans covering Canada and the US: disclose spillover, shared sites, geo accuracy and currency, then report by country.
- GlossaryWhat does a CrUX popularity rank actually measure?What a CrUX popularity rank measures in Google's words, how country ranks are built, why a bucket is not a reach count, and how often the data changes.
- ExplainerWhat rules govern direct to consumer pharmaceutical advertising in the US?US rules for direct to consumer drug ads in the FDA's words: brief summary, fair balance, the major statement, the 2025 enforcement push and placement rules.
- GuideHow do you plan francophone advertising outside Quebec?Plan francophone advertising outside Quebec: where Franco Ontarians and Acadians live, which minority French media serve them, and what bilingual law covers.
- GuideHow do you plan French Canadian advertising inventory?Plan French Canadian advertising inventory: where French speakers live by province, how to tell Canadian publishers from European ones, and a review routine.
- How-toHow do regulated advertisers keep ads inside legal jurisdictions?How gambling, cannabis, alcohol and pharma advertisers keep ads inside legal jurisdictions: platform rules, location settings, site choice and delivery audits.
- ExplainerWhat is Global Privacy Control, and how does it reach the ad chain?Global Privacy Control explained for media buyers: how the signal works, which states require businesses to honor it, how it reaches bid requests, and checks.
- ExplainerWhich federal rules govern health data in advertising?US federal health data rules for advertisers: the FTC Health Breach Notification Rule, HHS tracking guidance, enforcement cases and the records to keep.
- ExplainerIs an IP address personal information?What Canada's privacy commissioner, the Supreme Court of Canada, California and Virginia say about IP addresses, truncation, hashing and geotargeting.
- ExplainerWhat does the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act mean for advertisers?Maryland's Online Data Privacy Act in its own terms: data minimization, the sensitive data rules, the under 18 targeted advertising ban, dates and enforcement.
- GuideHow do you plan multicultural advertising in Canada?Plan in language media for Canadian communities with 2021 Census language data: Mandarin, Punjabi, Tagalog, Arabic, publisher discovery, review and reporting.
- ExplainerWhat does Washington's My Health My Data Act mean for advertisers?Washington's My Health My Data Act for advertisers, in the statute's and AG's words: consumer health data, consent, sale authorization and the geofence ban.
- ExplainerWhat does New York's Child Data Protection Act mean for ad supported sites?New York's Child Data Protection Act, in force since June 20, 2025: who is a covered user under 18, the strictly necessary test and what it means for ad sites.
- ExplainerWhat did Canada's Online News Act change for news advertising?What Canada's Online News Act did, why news left Facebook and Instagram in Canada in 2023, who receives payments, and what it changes for news ad plans.
- ExplainerWhat rules apply to online gambling ads in Ontario, and what do they mean for placements?Ontario igaming advertising rules from the AGCO: the athlete ban, limits on celebrities and inducements, audiences to avoid, and what they mean for placements.
- ExplainerWhat does PIPEDA guidance say about online advertising, and what does it mean for contextual plans?What Canada's privacy commissioner says about online behavioural advertising under PIPEDA, its six opt-out conditions, past findings, and contextual ads.
- ExplainerCan prescription drugs be advertised to consumers in Canada, and what does that mean for placements?Prescription drug advertising in Canada: the name, price and quantity rule, reminder and help seeking messages, who reviews them, and what it means for ads.
- ExplainerHow does programmatic geo targeting decide where a user is?How buying platforms locate a device from IP, GPS and postal data, what the bid request carries, the limits near the border and the geo settings a list needs.
- GuideHow should a plan handle province targeting in Canada?How province targeting in Canada works in programmatic: language mix by province, provincial rules for regulated ads, geo accuracy limits and budget splits.
- ExplainerHow does Quebec's ban on advertising to children work?Quebec advertising to children: the Consumer Protection Act ban on ads aimed at under 13s, the three criteria the OPC applies, the exceptions and online scope.
- ExplainerWhat does Bill 96 require of advertising in Quebec?Bill 96 advertising rules for Quebec: what the Charter of the French Language requires of ads, the June 2025 predominance rules, exceptions and enforcement.
- ExplainerWhat does Quebec's Law 25 say that touches digital advertising?What Quebec's Law 25 says about profiling technology, consent, default settings and data sent outside Quebec, in the CAI's own words, with a dated timeline.
- ExplainerWhat counts as sensitive data in advertising?Sensitive data in advertising under California, Colorado and Connecticut law and Canadian guidance: the categories and which uses need consent.
- GuideHow do you plan Spanish language advertising in the US?How to plan Spanish language programmatic in the US: Census language data, US Spanish publishers, bilingual pages, Puerto Rico and Spanish suitability review.
- ExplainerHow are sports betting advertising rules set in the US?How US sports betting advertising is regulated: state rules such as New York's, the AGA code's 73.6 percent standard, audiences to avoid and geo restriction.
- ExplainerWhat does the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act mean for advertising?How the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act treats targeted advertising, why its small business rule differs from volume tests, and how the AG has enforced it.
- ChecklistWhat should a US brand check before advertising in Canada?A checklist for US brands advertising in Canada: CAD budgets, Quebec French, price and green claim rules, email consent, privacy and which publishers to know.
- ExplainerHow big is the US digital advertising market, and what do the figures measure?US digital advertising market size from the IAB and PwC report: 2025 totals by format, programmatic revenue, what the survey measures and how to cite it.
- ExplainerWhich state privacy laws affect advertising, and what do they actually say?The 19 US state comprehensive privacy laws in force in October 2026, how they define targeted advertising, and their opt-out signal and teen rules, sourced.
- GuideHow do you plan US websites for a Canadian audience?How to plan US websites with a Canadian audience: the evidence of Canadian readers, how to confirm Canadian impressions are for sale, and how to label sites.
Frequently asked questions
Should a Canadian campaign exclude US websites?
Not by default. A US-based publisher can have a large Canadian readership, which country popularity data can show, and leaving it out narrows reach. Include US-based sites that show a real audience in Canada, label them clearly, and let the client decide if a brief truly needs Canadian-owned publishers only.
Is a .ca domain proof of a Canadian audience?
No. A .ca domain shows where the owner registered the site. Some .ca sites have small audiences, and some popular Canadian publishers use .com. Treat the domain as one clue and check country popularity data and the language of the site's articles before deciding.
Does contextual advertising avoid privacy law in Canada?
Choosing sites by content does not itself require personal information, but measurement, frequency capping, audience layers and tracking pixels can. Quebec's regulator and the federal privacy commissioner focus on how personal information is collected and used.
Do I need separate French and English site lists for Canada?
Separate lists let the buyer pair each list with the right language creative and report on each audience. A bilingual publisher can appear on both if it publishes enough in each language. Check the language of sampled articles rather than trusting the site's menu.
What are the types of targeting in marketing?
In programmatic buying, targeting types include contextual targeting, which chooses pages by their content; audience targeting, which uses data about people such as interests or a brand's own customer lists; location targeting by country, province or city; and language targeting. Choosing sites by content does not itself require personal information, while audience layers, measurement and tracking pixels can.
Sources
- 2025 IAB Canada Internet Ad Revenue Survey and 2026/27 Forecast (opens in a new tab)IAB Canada, June 2026
- 2024 IAB Canada Internet Ad Revenue Survey and 2025 Forecast (earlier edition) (opens in a new tab)IAB Canada, October 2025
- Internet Advertising Revenue Report, Full Year 2025 (opens in a new tab)IAB and PwC, April 2026
- CrUX dimensions (opens in a new tab)Chrome for Developers
- CrUX metrics (opens in a new tab)Chrome for Developers
- CrUX methodology (opens in a new tab)Chrome for Developers
- CrUX on BigQuery (opens in a new tab)Chrome for Developers
- Statistics on official languages in Canada (opens in a new tab)Canadian Heritage, Government of Canada
- Affichage public et commercial (fact sheet) (opens in a new tab)Office québécois de la langue française
- PIPEDA requirements in brief (opens in a new tab)Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
- Guidelines on privacy and online behavioural advertising (opens in a new tab)Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
- Principaux changements apportés par la Loi 25 (opens in a new tab)Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec
- Frequently Asked Questions (opens in a new tab)California Privacy Protection Agency
- Colorado Privacy Act (CPA) (opens in a new tab)Colorado Attorney General
- About advanced location options (opens in a new tab)Google Ads Help
Researched and written by PlacementGraph Research. Read how we research, source and update these pages. Corrections: diana@placementgraph.com.