Unable to Select South Korea and Korean Language in Microsoft Advertising

South Korea is a supported Microsoft Advertising market and geographic target, but Korean is not currently listed as an available ad language for standard Search campaigns; ask Microsoft Advertising Support to confirm an eligible language for Korea and review why the Korea target is absent from your China-registered account.

Direct answers

1. Can a Search campaign target South Korea? — Yes.

• In geographic data, the country is named Korea and its country code is KR.^1^
• Microsoft’s market-availability documentation includes South Korea as an advertising market.^2^
• Search for both Korea and South Korea in the location selector because the displayed name can differ from the market name.
• KR is a country code, not the numeric location criterion ID required by API or bulk operations. Microsoft publishes the current selectable location records and IDs through its geographical-locations file.^1^

Because Korea is missing from your UI, there is no supported alternative name or code that can simply be typed into that selector. The account must first expose the corresponding geographic criterion.

2. Is Korean supported as a standard Search campaign ad language? — No, not in the current documented list.

The Search and Shopping campaign language lists include languages such as English, Japanese, and Traditional Chinese, but do not include Korean.^3^

The separate documentation entry “Korean — KR” refers to Product Language, meaning the language of the Microsoft Advertising interface/customer record. It does not establish Korean as a Search ad-serving language.^4^

3. Can English ads and English keywords target South Korea? — The available documentation does not conclusively establish that combination.

Microsoft evaluates ad-language eligibility for a country before applying the configured location criteria.^4^ Therefore, selecting Korea alone is not sufficient unless the campaign has an ad language eligible to serve there.

Do not infer English eligibility from the Product Language table; that table concerns the interface, not ad delivery. Ask Support to confirm explicitly:

Is English an eligible Search campaign ad language for the Korea (KR) geographic market on this customer/account?

If Support confirms it, English ads and keywords can be tested, but they would primarily address English-language search demand rather than Korean-language queries.

Recommended configuration

After Support confirms an eligible language and restores or enables the location option:

1. Open the standard Search campaign and edit its campaign settings.
2. Under Locations, search for Korea and South Korea, then add the country-level result.
3. Set location intent to People in if ads should be limited to users physically located there. The broader alternative also includes people searching for or viewing content about that location.^5^
4. Under Languages, select only the language that Support confirms is eligible for Korea.
5. Review each ad group for its own language or geographic criteria. Ad-group language settings override campaign language settings, and ad-group geographic criteria can replace inherited campaign geography.^3^^6^
6. Save the campaign and verify that Korea appears among the included locations.

Why the options may be missing

The public documentation does not identify one definite cause from the information supplied. Campaign type matters—for example, Dynamic Search Ads use the website domain language rather than normal campaign/ad-group language settings, while Audience campaigns require All languages.^3^

China-registered advertisers may also be subject to additional rules or partner handling depending on their business and targeting setup, but this is a possible account-specific restriction, not a confirmed explanation for your account.^7^

Contact Microsoft Advertising Support and request an account-level review containing:

• Customer and account IDs.
• Campaign type and screenshots of the missing location/language lists.
• Confirmation that the required target is Korea (KR).
• Confirmation of which Search ad languages are eligible for Korea.
• Whether the China billing/registration country imposes cross-border targeting or agency-handling restrictions on this specific account.
• The current numeric geographic criterion ID for the country-level Korea target, if bulk/API setup is required.

References

1. Geographical Location Codes
2. Market availability for Microsoft Advertising and its features
3. Campaign Data Object - Campaign Management
4. Ad Languages
5. what ad distribution must i select so my ads show strickly to persons searching on my keywords - Microsoft Q&A
6. Show Ads to Your Target Audience
7. In China, can I directly register a Microsoft Advertising account to target a global audience, add funds, and receive tax invoices (fapiao) on my own? - Microsoft Q&A