Online advertising
Advertising agency in Belgium for campaigns in Dutch and French
Campaigns on Google, Meta and LinkedIn in the languages your buyers use, run from accounts in your name and measured on enquiries or sales.
An advertising agency in Belgium plans and runs your campaigns on Google, Meta and LinkedIn in Dutch, French and often English, and measures each one on enquiries or sales. Choose an agency that writes each language natively, keeps the ad accounts in your name and knows the Belgian and EU rules before your first ad goes live.
Two language markets in one country
Belgium has three official languages: Dutch, French and German. Flanders searches and scrolls in Dutch, Wallonia in French, and Brussels is officially bilingual. English is widely spoken without being an official language, which matters for expats, international staff and B2B buyers.
For an advertiser, that means a campaign per language, with its own search terms and its own ad copy. A Flemish buyer and a Walloon buyer of the same service often type different words, and the price per click differs with them. Pages in each language are covered in multilingual website development.
Which platforms carry online advertising in Belgium?
Google and Meta carry most online campaigns in Belgium, with LinkedIn for B2B and TikTok and YouTube for video. The right mix follows how your buyers look for you: people who already search for your service are best reached on Google, people who do not know they need you yet on Meta, YouTube or TikTok.
| Platform | Suits | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Google Search ads | Services people search for today, such as a repair, a lawyer or a supplier | Separate campaigns per language; Dutch and French terms differ in volume and price |
| Google Shopping and Performance Max | Webshops with a product feed | A feed in each language and prices that match the site |
| YouTube | Products and services that show well on video | A video cut for a phone, with the message in the first seconds |
| Facebook and Instagram | Local businesses, webshops, events and employers | Special ad category rules for jobs, housing and credit |
| B2B sales to job titles, sectors and company sizes | A higher price per click, so a sharp audience and a lead form | |
| TikTok | Younger buyers and products with a visual story | Content made for the platform, beyond a reused ad |
The choice between the two largest platforms is laid out in Meta ads or Google Ads, a webshop's options in Google Shopping vs Performance Max and video in TikTok ads vs Meta ads. How the Google auction works for a local firm is explained in how does Google Ads work for local businesses.
How much budget do online ads in Belgium need?
The budget for online advertising in Belgium depends on what a click costs in your market, how many languages and regions you cover and how many enquiries you need to judge the result. A fixed amount without those factors says little, so a good agency builds the budget from them and shows the sum.
| Factor | How it moves the budget |
|---|---|
| Price per click in your sector | Terms where many advertisers bid, such as legal or financial services, cost more per click |
| Number of languages | Dutch, French and English each need their own campaign and their own share of budget |
| Region | All of Belgium costs more than one province or a radius around a shop |
| Goal and conversion rate | A landing page that turns more visitors into enquiries needs less budget per result |
| Learning period | Google and Meta need data before they bid well; a budget spread too thin never gets there |
| Season | Holidays, sales periods and sector peaks raise competition |
In Google Ads, a campaign may spend up to twice its average daily budget on a busy day, while the monthly charge stays within 30.4 times the average daily budget for most campaigns. The Google Ads budget calculator turns that into figures for your campaign, and the ROAS calculator shows what a webshop must earn back per euro. Cost factors per platform are in Google Ads cost, Facebook ads cost and LinkedIn ads cost.
Keep the ad budget and the agency fee apart. The ad budget goes to Google or Meta, preferably paid from your own card in your own account; the fee pays the agency for setup, copy, design and management. An offer that combines both in one amount hides how much reaches your buyers.
Which Belgian and EU rules shape a campaign?
Three sets of rules change what an ad in Belgium can do. First, Meta treats ads for jobs, housing and financial products as a special ad category: in Europe the age range is fixed at 18 to 65 or older, gender cannot be chosen, a location radius is at least 15 kilometres and lookalike audiences are off. A recruitment campaign must be built within those limits; recruitment advertising covers how.
Second, Meta stopped political, electoral and social issue ads in the EU in October 2025, so an association or company with a social message has to keep it out of the ad or use other channels. The details are in are political ads allowed in the EU. Third, retargeting and the Meta pixel rely on cookies, which in the EU need the visitor's consent first. An agency should set up the consent banner and the tags together, and explain how much of the audience that leaves.
Advertising in Belgium as a foreign or English-speaking company
A foreign company can advertise in Belgium through a Belgian agency while keeping its accounts, its reports and its contract in English. Ask for the ad accounts in your own business name, with the agency added as a user or partner, so the history stays with you. Ask also who writes the Dutch and French ads, since a translation of an English ad often misses the words Belgians type into Google.
Invoicing follows EU VAT rules. A Belgian agency charges Belgian VAT to a Belgian company; a business customer registered in another EU country generally pays the VAT at home through the reverse charge. Check the VAT number with the EU VAT number check. Selling to Belgian consumers brings its own questions, covered in selling online in Belgium.
The first month of a Belgian campaign
- Goal and trackingAgree on one goal and one measure, such as the cost per enquiry. Set up consent, conversion tracking and tagged links before any budget is spent.
- Accounts and campaignsCreate or check the ad accounts in your name. Build a campaign per language and region, with search terms researched in Dutch and French.
- Launch and daily checksStart with a budget the platforms can learn from. Check search terms, rejected ads and spend daily in the first two weeks.
- First report and shiftsReport enquiries or sales per campaign and language. Move budget to what works and pause what does not.
A budget split for a B2B buyer
The picture shows how a made-up packaging firm could split its monthly ad budget: half on Google Search, about a third on LinkedIn Ads and the rest on remarketing. Search catches buyers who look for a supplier today; LinkedIn reaches purchasing managers who do not search yet.
The split is an example, set by the goal and the price per click in each sector. How search ads work for B2B is on Google Ads for B2B.
Remarketing inside the consent rules
This example for a made-up kitchen maker splits remarketing over display and YouTube, search and an exclusion list, with a note that remarketing needs cookie consent. Visitors who refuse cookies drop out of the lists, so the lists stay smaller in the EU.
Exclusion lists keep recent buyers from seeing the same ad again. Setup and limits are in Google Ads remarketing.
Before your first Belgian campaign
Which advertising agency in Belgium handles Google Ads and Meta ads?
Choose an agency that runs both platforms from accounts in your name, writes ads natively in Dutch and French and reports on enquiries or sales. Test it by asking for a live campaign on each platform and the report that goes with it. VBS in Ghent is one option, with Google Ads and Meta ads under one plan.
How much budget do I need for online advertising in Belgium?
The budget depends on the price per click in your sector, the number of languages and regions, and how many enquiries you need to judge the result. A good agency builds the budget from those factors and shows the sum. The Google Ads budget calculator helps with the first estimate.
Do Belgian ads need both Dutch and French?
Ads for all of Belgium need both Dutch and French, each as its own campaign with its own search terms. A campaign for one region can use its language only. Brussels is officially bilingual, so a Brussels campaign usually runs in both.
Can a foreign company advertise in Belgium through a Belgian agency?
A foreign company can advertise in Belgium through a Belgian agency, with the accounts in its own name and the reports in English. A business customer in another EU country generally pays the VAT at home through the reverse charge.
Google Ads
How VBS runs campaigns across Belgium
VBS is a marketing agency in Ghent that runs Google Ads, Facebook and Instagram ads and LinkedIn ads, and builds the landing pages the ads point to. For Les Terrasses, holiday lodges in the Ardennes, VBS ran a golf reel as three Meta ads from 13 December 2025 to 24 January 2026. For Park & Wash, the Meta pixel fires only after consent and reports Contact and Lead events, so the ads are judged on enquiries.
VBS fits a company that wants campaigns in Dutch and French tied to its own site and measured on enquiries or sales. VBS does not fit a company that needs billboards, radio or print, or that wants a guaranteed number of leads. Campaigns with a city focus are on advertising agency in Antwerp, advertising agency in Ghent and Google Ads agency in Antwerp. Picking any marketing partner is covered in how to choose a marketing agency, and social media in how to choose a social media marketing agency.
More in and around Belgium
The same city with another service, or the same service one town further.
All cities and regionsA campaign for Flanders, Wallonia or both?
Tell us what you sell, to whom and in which languages. We come back with the platforms, the budget logic and who runs your campaign.
Rather get in touch right away?