In our last article, we looked at the options in Google Ads to allow you to target certain groups of users (who) through audiences. In this article, we take a closer look at the options available related to location targeting (or where).

Manage That Ad Spend

Most businesses do not benefit from having their ads displayed to every user, world wide. In fact, when you are paying by the click (PPC), it’s better to target your potential customers' location very carefully. This is where geotargeting comes in.

This feature allows you to display your ad only to customers in a specific location or set of locations. The locations you choose will depend on your type of business. For example, a coffee shop is likely to have a more restricted set of locations than say, a web shop that ships to Europe.

Use geotargeting to increase the chances of your ad being seen by people who are most likely to use your product or service. This is one of the key ways in which you can make efficient use of a limited advertising spend.

Location Setup For A Google Ad Campaign

Target locations for Google Ads are set up by campaign. Options for the choice of location include:

Country
Region
City
Post Code

As you search for specific locations, Google will give you details about the reach for that area. The reach is simply the number of people that could see your ad based on the geography that you selected.

For each location, you can choose to include or exclude it from your ad campaign. In addition, you can choose to include surrounding areas for the location you have selected.

Advanced Settings For Location Based Google Ads

Radius

The Radius option on Google Ads allows you to select a distance (miles or km) around a certain location in which ads will be displayed.

For example, for a restaurant, you could target a radius of 15 miles around the town in which you are located. Your ad would then only be displayed to potential customers searching in that area.

Bulk Editing

Use the bulk locations tab in Google Ads to type or paste in up to 1,000 locations at a time. Ensure that each batch of locations is located in the same country.

Analysis of Location Based Google Ad Campaigns

Google provides all the standard information related to ad performance (clicks, impressions, cost per click etc) for each of the locations you specified.

You can run the Search Terms Report to see which keyword searches are triggering your ads. For example, if you run a coffee shop in Dublin but your ads are triggered by searches for “coffee shop Belfast”, you can exclude the word “Belfast” from future searches. This is done through the use of negative keywords.

Fine tuning of your campaign over time is an important part of managing your ad spend. We will look at other easy to continuously improve your campaigns in later articles.

Location Based Google Ads - A Checklist

Before you run your campaign, take a look through the following points and see if they are relevant for your business.

Identify where your customers are. If you only ship to certain locations, target those locations. If you're a local business, adjust your campaign based on the radius settings mentioned above.
Exclude locations where it makes sense. For example, if you cannot ship to certain counties, ensure your ad is excluded from those areas.
Use Google Trends to research areas that are most interested in your product or service. Google trends can get quite specific in terms of location e.g. city.
Try to include the name of your target location in your ad. When the ad text matches the users search terms, the ad text will be bolded and stand out more on the page.
Set up location extensions and call extensions in your ad. These will display the address and telephone number for your business along with your ad.

Note that by default, Google will include people who are searching about your target location (not just those based in the target location). Review the Campaign Settings > Advanced Location Settings > Target and select “People in my targeted location”.

Summary

As you can see, there are multiple options to consider when deciding where your ad should be displayed. Getting this wrong can mean a lot of unnecessary spend when ads are shown to people outside of your target area. Careful ongoing management of your campaign is important to ensure that you fine tune the settings to maximize your ad spend.

If you are interested in running a Google Search Ad campaign for your business but you're not sure how to get started, please reach out to us here.

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