Targeting Ads to Selected Geographic Location
When it comes to advertising on AdWords, consider the real estate adage: “Location, location, location!” Regardless of how great your ad is, it probably won’t perform as well if it doesn’t appear in the right places. Reach your customers where they are and where your business can serve them by using AdWords location targeting.
AdWords location targeting allows your ads to appear in the geographic locations that you choose, as well as additional areas that AdWords suggests. Location targeting helps you focus your advertising on the areas where you’ll find the right customers, and can increase your return on investment (ROI) as a result.
You can set and then adjust your location targeting settings at any time using the methods listed below. Click an option for more details:
Target entire countries
Targeting your ads to a country or multiple countries is a good idea if you provide products and services to those large areas. Targeting entire countries also allows you to receive more exposure than you would by targeting individual cities or regions within a country.
You might target entire countries if you run a national business, have an e-commerce site that ships all over the world, or your service area covers an entire country.
Example
If you sell surfboards online and ship to all regions of the U.S. and Canada, you could target both countries.
Who could benefit from national and international location targeting:
- An online retailer that ships worldwide
- A business that ship products to all regions in one or more countries
- An international business selling to several countries that share a common language
Who might not benefit from targeting entire countries:
- A business that doesn’t serve all regions or cities. In this case, you might target individual regions or cities, which will be explained in the next section.
Here’s how to target a country:
- Sign in to your AdWords account,
- Click the Campaigns tab,
- Click the name of the campaign that you’d like to edit,
- Click the Settings tab,
- Click Edit next to Locations,
- Enter the name of the country that you’d like to target,
- Click Add to add the location,
- Click Save to save your settings.
Target Areas Within a Country
If your business doesn’t serve all regions or cities, or you’d like to focus your advertising efforts on certain areas within a country, you’ll want to choose more precise targeting. Depending on the country, you can target regions, Nielsen® DMA®s (metro areas), cities, or postal codes. See location targeting options by country.
Example
If you run a bakery in San Francisco, you can target your ads to the city of San Francisco to attract local customers when they search for baguettes on Google.com.
Who could benefit from targeting areas within a country:
- A small local business
- A business delivering unique advertising messages to selected areas
- A business promoting special offers only in selected locations
- A business trying to measure the success of ads in selected regions
- A business selling products only in selected regions or cities
Who might not benefit from targeting areas within a country:
- A business that is trying to reach most of the regions in a country, with just a few exceptions (say, all of the U.S. except for Alaska). In this case, it might be better to target the whole country, and then exclude the other areas.
Tip: Airport targeting
You also have the ability to target potential customers in more than 350 airports around the world, so you can reach travelers who are interested in the products and services that you offer. You’ll be able to show your ads to customers in airports on their mobile or tablet devices, or when they indicate their location of interest as an airport on their desktop devices.
To target an airport, enter the full airport name along with the name of the country (e.g. San Francisco International Airport, United States). If that doesn’t work, try using the airport code.
Airport targeting is available for locations where there is high-quality data. Not all airports may be included at this time, but they may be included in the future. See the full list of airports that you can target in AdWords (select “Airport” as the Target Type).
How to target an area within a country:
- Sign in to your AdWords account.
- Click the Campaigns tab.
- Click the name of the campaign that you’d like to edit.
- Click the Settings tab.
- Click Edit next to Locations.
- Enter the postal code or name of the location that you’d like to target. Note: If you’re entering a city name, add the country name as well. You don’t want to target Paris, France, if you’re trying to sell cowboy hats to customers in Paris, Texas.
- Click Add to add the location.
- Click Save to save your settings.
Target a radius around a location
If you run a delivery service or your local business relies on foot traffic, then radius targeting (also known as proximity targeting or “Target a radius”) would help target your ads to customers within a certain distance around your location. Radius targeting helps you identify an area around your business to target, rather than choosing individual cities, regions, or countries.
Example
If your business is a movie theater in Philadelphia, you can target your ads to an area within a 10- mile radius around your theater, so only your likeliest movie fans will see your ad.
When you target a radius, you’ll be able to target the cities and/or regions within the radius that you’ve chosen in your settings. AdWords will show you a list of locations that are contained within the radius, also known as ‘Locations within this target’. You can review these locations to make sure that you’ve captured the areas that you expect to target.
How to target a radius around a location Best practices for selecting a radius
For best results when selecting a radius, see the suggested tips for desktop and mobile-only campaigns below.
Desktop campaigns (campaigns that target people using desktop computers):
- Minimum radius: AdWords suggests setting a minimum radius of 10 miles/20 kilometers for your location target. If the radius is smaller than the recommended distance, your ad might not reach customers because it doesn’t sufficiently cover a full city or region. When a city or region is only partially covered, it might not be targeted at all. Be sure to check which locations are included in your radius to make sure that you’re able to reach the cities or regions that you plan to target.
- Add all: AdWords suggests that you select Add all instead of adding the radius target for all desktop campaigns. The Add all option will give you much more clarity in seeing the individual locations that would be included in the radius.
- Locations within this target: If you want to refine the list of areas that you’d like to reach, you can target only certain locations or exclude some locations from the Locations within this target list.
Mobile-only campaigns (campaigns that target people using mobile devices):
- Minimum radius: AdWords suggests setting a minimum radius of 10 miles/20 kilometers for your location target. However, mobile devices with full internet browsers, such as Android devices or iPhones, can be targeted with more accuracy than desktop computers or laptops, so targeting down to 1 mile/1 kilometer is possible. Find out more about creating campaigns that target only mobile devices with full internet browsers.
- Add all: AdWords suggests that you select the radius target instead of Add all for all mobile-only campaigns where the radius target radius is less than 5 km/3 miles.
Location targets within each country
Some AdWords target types aren’t available in all countries. See available target types for each country.
You can also see a downloadable list of all available location targets and their unique names in the AdWords API help center. Click the country name to see the targetable locations within each country.
Tip
- If you own an e-commerce company, target all the locations you ship to, not just where your business is physically located.
- It’s a good idea to keep your language and location targeting settings consistent. For example, if you’re targeting users in France, you may also want to target the French language, and be sure that your ads are written in French. Find out more about how language targeting works.
Location targeting suggestions
You may have noticed that when you edit your location targeting settings, AdWords suggests other locations that you might want to target. You can review these suggestions to see if they make sense for your ad campaign.
- Locations that enclose: Enclosing locations are larger areas that contain the location you’ve selected. You might consider adding this larger enclosing location if you want to reach a larger audience.
- Related locations: Related locations may be near the location that you’ve entered, have a similar name, or enclose a location that has a similar name. Related locations can be added to or excluded from your campaigns.
- Nearby locations: Next to the name of a location, you may also see a Nearby link. Nearby locations are, as you might have guessed, locations that are nearby that you may also consider adding to or excluding from your campaigns.
Targeting multiple locations in bulk
If you’d like to target multiple locations in bulk, AdWords allows you to add a list of up to 1000 location targets at a time, rather than adding each location one-by-one.
How to add multiple location targets in bulk:
- Sign in to your AdWords account.
- Click the Campaigns tab.
- Click the name of the campaign you wish to edit.
- Click the Settings tab.
- Click Edit next to “Locations” and click Advanced search.
- Click Bulk locations.
- In the box, paste or type the names of up to 1000 locations that you’d like to target, and add locations from one country at a time. See the list of targetable locations.
- Select the country code for this set of locations.
- Once you’ve entered your locations, click Search.
- AdWords will display all locations that matched your search in the review panel. Review your results, then click Add all matched locations to target all of the locations that matched your search.
- Under the section “Selected locations”, you’ll see the location targets that you’ve just added.
- Click Done.
- Once you’ve confirmed your changes, click Save on the Settings tab.
Tip
- Selecting Remove all matched locations will remove all locations from the review panel, as well as from your existing location targets or location exclusions.
- To target a city or zip code, include the full name of the country or state as well — for example, Oxford, England or 94103, California.
- To target more than 1000 locations, you can add location targets in bulk multiple times. For example, if you’d like to target 1200 locations, add your first 1000 location targets. When you’re done, add the remaining 200 locations.
- If you searched for any location targets that weren’t found, you’ll find them in the box where you entered the list of locations.
Exclude Ads From Selected Geographic Location
Where your ads should appear is important — but where they shouldn’t appear is just as crucial to your campaign’s success. Location exclusion can allow you to prevent your ad from showing in certain parts of your targeted locations, such as a region within a country, or a city within a state. This helps you use your budget wisely by preventing your ad from showing to people who most likely wouldn’t have access to what you’re offering.
You can exclude locations one-by-one for more control, or for added convenience, you can exclude a large amount of locations all at once with their bulk locations feature.
Who might benefit from excluding areas within targeted locations:
- A business that doesn’t ship to or provide services in a city or region within a larger area.
- A business that offers a special promotion that isn’t eligible in a few regions of a targeted area.
Example
If you run ad campaigns for an independent real estate brokerage in Hawaii, but you don’t have a location on Maui, you can target the entire state of Hawaii but exclude Maui only.
How to exclude individual areas
Setting up location exclusions is very similar to setting up location targeting – all you have to do is enter the name of the area that you’d like to exclude.
Follow these steps to exclude areas within the locations you’ve selected:
- If you select “Show locations on map,” your excluded locations will also appear with a red outline on the map.
- If you’d like to exclude multiple locations in bulk, AdWords allows you to add a list of up to 1000 location exclusions at a time, rather than adding each location one-by-one.
Follow these steps to exclude multiple areas within the locations you’ve selected:
- Keep in mind that the option to Remove all matched locations will remove all locations from the review panel, as well as from your existing location targets or location exclusions.
- Remember, there’s no need to exclude areas that you haven’t already targeted — Adwords won’t show your ads in places unless you explicitly target them. The exception is if you target an area by locations that people searched for or viewed pages about, and exclude other areas by your customers’ physical location. Learn more about advanced location options.
Use Geographic Location to Match Ads to Customers
AdWords allows you to target customers in the geographic locations that you’ve chosen, so your ads can appear in the country, region, or city where you do business. Several factors are considered when determining where your ad can appear, including search terms, physical location, and the domain being viewed.
Geographic targeting on desktop
If your ads are targeted by geographic location, AdWords reviews several different conditions to determine whether to show your ad:
Location of interest: If AdWords detects geographic areas that someone is interested in, they may show appropriate ads targeted to those areas, even if she isn’t physically located in the location. AdWords may detect a location of interest if she does any of the following:
- Includes the name of a recognizable location in her search
- Searches within an area of the map on Google Maps
- Sets a custom location for Google search results
On the Search Network, location-specific terms in customers’ searches will take precedence over other factors when determining where to show your geographically-targeted ad. You can choose whether or not to target by location of interest in your advanced location options.
Example
Matt is located in California and searches for New York restaurant on www.google.com. He sees ads targeted to customers in New York because he included New York in his search.
Tip
Location of interest works only if the location in the search is in the same country where the searcher is physically located. If you searched for France hotel while located in the United States, you won’t see ads targeted to France even though your search showed interest in France. (You could still see ads for French hotels that are targeted to the United States, though!)
However, say you’re in the United States and search for France hotel on Google.fr, the French domain. AdWords will identify your location as France because of the domain, and you’ll be able to see ads targeted to France.
Example
The Google domain in France is www.google.fr, so customers who visit www.google.fr will see ads targeted to France.
Google domain: Google domains in each country have a unique URL that helps us determine searchers’ locations.
Physical location (IP address): AdWords try’s to determine general physical location based on someone’s computer or device location. That location is usually based on the computer’s Internet Protocol (IP) address, which is a unique number assigned by Internet Service Providers to each computer connected to the Internet.
Google profiles: Ads on the Google Display Network may also be targeted using the declared location in customers’ Google profiles, but only when they’re signed in to their Google account. If the location on a customer’s Google profile is different than the location determined from her IP address, the customer is eligible to see ads targeted to both locations.
Geographic targeting on high-end mobile devices
You can also target ads by geographic location on high-end mobile devices, which are mobile devices with full Internet browsers. AdWords reviews several different conditions to determine whether to show your ad:
Location of interest: If AdWords detects geographic areas that someone is interested in, they may show appropriate ads targeted to those areas, even if she isn’t physically located in the location. AdWords may detect a location of interest if she does any of the following:
- Includes the name of a recognizable location in her search
- Searches within an area of the map on Google Maps for Mobile
Location-specific terms will take precedence over other factors when determining where to show your geographically-targeted ad.
Device location: If My Location is enabled, AdWords can get more precise information about searchers’ locations when they use Google. They will choose the most accurate source from various methods of detecting device location:
- GPS: Accuracy varies depending on GPS signal and connection.
- Wi-Fi: Accuracy should be similar to the access range of a typical Wi-Fi router.
- Google’s cell ID (cell tower) location database: Used in the absence of Wi-Fi or GPS. Accuracy is dependent on how many cell towers are located within an area and available data, and some devices don’t support cell ID location.
Physical location (IP address): If connected to a Wi-Fi network, AdWords may detect the mobile device’s IP address to determine physical location. If the mobile device is connected to a mobile carrier’s proxy server, they’ll use the carrier IP to determine the device’s location.
Google Search history: Based on the location obtained from a searcher’s last few queries, they may estimate his approximate physical location and serve relevant ads.
Tip
When you target a city, AdWords may also show your ad to customers in nearby, closely related cities that normally couldn’t be targeted because of low population, insufficient data about the geographic area, or because city-level targeting isn’t available. For example, if you target the city of Portland, AdWords may also show your ads to searchers in nearby suburbs of Portland.
About Google.cn and Google.com.hk
Location targeting works differently for users who search on google.cn and google.com.hk:
- Users in Hong Kong who search on either google.cn or google.cn.com.hk will see ads targeted to Hong Kong.
- Users outside Hong Kong who search google.cn or google.com.hk will see ads targeted to China.
Understanding Ad Reach
Reach is an estimate of the number of users in a selected location target, based on unique cookies. You can use the provided numbers to get an idea of how many users your ads can reach within a geographic area.
With reach, you can estimate how many customers can see your ads in Michigan or Montana, or compare the number of people who might see your ad in Detroit and Ann Arbor. You can use those estimates to decide whether you’ve targeted the right areas, or if you need to select other areas that may provide the right level of exposure.
Tip
Reach estimates should only be used as general guidance for determining the relative number of users in a location target, as compared with other location targets.
When you search for or select a location to target in AdWords, you’ll find the location’s estimated reach in the Reach column. You may also find some locations have limited reach, which means that ads targeting these locations may have a more limited audience. They’ll explain more about reach and limited reach in the sections below.
How reach numbers are estimated
Reach in AdWords is based on an estimate of the number of users seen on Google properties within the specified geographic area. Therefore, you may find that reach numbers in AdWords may differ significantly from census population data or other sources due to a range of factors, including:
- Number of devices (such as computers, laptops, mobile phones, or tablets used to access the internet) per person. Devices may be shared by multiple people.
- Number of web browsers (such as Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer) used per person. Web browsers may be shared by multiple people.
- Number of temporary visitors to a geographic location.
- Length of time each person spends on a website.
- Cookies (possibly deleted or expired) that double-counted or didn’t record a person’s visit.
- Search partner or Google Display Network visits which aren’t included in reach number estimates.
Reach numbers should only be used as general guidance to help you compare how many people are within a location target relative to other location targets.
Tip
Reach helps you estimate the total number of people you could potentially reach with your ads, but it won’t be able to tell you the total number of impressions your ads could receive. To estimate the total number of impressions for your ads, check out the Traffic Estimator for search campaigns or the Double Click AdPlanner for ads on the Google Display Network.
Working with limited reach locations
For some locations, you may see a “Limited reach” warning in AdWords. Limited reach means they are not able to associate people with a selected geographic location by their Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. Possible reasons include a low number of users in the location, or the quality of IP to location mapping.
Targeting areas with limited reach
Limited reach may be due to low population in an area, or limited information about IP address mapping. But, this doesn’t mean that you can’t target customers in locations with limited reach. Your ads can still appear in the following scenarios:
Example
Molly advertises her charming bed-and-breakfast on AdWords. Her hotel is located near Andover, New York. Molly recently added Andover to her location targets, although the small town has limited reach.
Ralph has a mobile phone with the “My location” feature enabled and is visiting Andover. He needs a place to stay, so he searches for nearby inns on his mobile phone. Because the “My location” feature helps identify his location, Molly’s ad appears on Ralph’s phone.
Example
John currently lives in Los Angeles, and he’s planning to visit Andover. He wants to find a place to stay in preparation for his trip, so he searches for “Andover ny inn” on Google. Because he used the location term “Andover” in his search, Molly’s ads appear in his search results.
- Target using physical location: If your customer has enabled the “My location” feature on his high-end mobile device and he’s physically located in the area that you’ve targeted, your ads can appear on the device.
- Target using search intent: Your ads can appear when someone searches for related location terms along with your keywords.
Refine Location Targeting
Improve your ad performance by location, and focus more of your online advertising efforts in regions where your business is most successful.
Think about your overall advertising goals. Are you interested in more impressions? Clicks? Conversions? AdWords location targeting allows you to target geographic locations for your ads to appear, but it can also be used as an optimization tool to help you increase your return on investment (ROI). Whether you’re advertising to an entire country or just a few cities, you can use AdWords geographic data to analyze your campaigns by market and make improvements.
Make your ads more effective
1. View performance by location
You can use your geographic performance data to confirm that your ads are appearing in certain locations, as well as compare how your ads are performing in different locations. Use this information to pinpoint the areas that you’d like to focus on, and check out the tips in this list to help you make your ads more effective in each area.
Example
You have a campaign that targets the entire country of Japan, but you’re located in a different country. By viewing your geographic performance data, you confirm that your ads are getting impressions in cities throughout Japan. Also, you find that your ads do better in Tokyo and Kyoto, so you decide to come up with a new advertising strategy that targets those areas.
2. Assign more or less of your budget to certain areas
If your campaign is performing better in certain areas, you may want to run separate campaigns targeted only to the more successful areas.This allows you to increase your keyword bids and budgets to maximize ad impressions in high-performing cities. Likewise, consider creating a separate campaign that targets areas outside of your top-performing cities. You may want to use the same keywords as your other campaigns, but set lower keyword bids.
Example
You’ve been targeting the entire United States in your snorkeling equipment ad campaign, but you sell most of your snorkeling equipment to customers in Hawaii. You create a separate campaign targeting only Hawaii so you can easily see how your campaign performs in that state, and adjust your budget.
3. Write ad text that stands out in certain geographic areas
Highlight unique selling points of your business, such as certain products or services that are more likely to interest customers in those areas. You can also offer promotions available only to certain areas.
Example
You find that your online clothing store sells the most red mittens to people in the state of Minnesota. To attract customers in Minnesota, you create an ad targeted to Minnesota customers that promotes your red mittens.
4. Use location-specific landing pages
If you have different landing pages on your website for each region that you serve, send customers to the landing page most relevant to their geographic areas. That way, they don’t have to spend time searching for the information that’s relevant to them.
Example
You’re a real estate agent and your website has listings for apartments for sale throughout Florida. If a customer is searching for apartments in Miami, you’ll want to send them to your landing page with Miami apartments, rather than Orlando apartments.
5. Use location extensions to highlight your business address
If it’s important for your customers to know where your business is located, it can be helpful to add location extensions to your ads. Location extensions merge your business address and phone number seamlessly with your ad text.
If all of the businesses in your location extensions are in the U.S., you can target a radius around your location extensions to show ads to people located near your business. With bid multipliers, you can also set different bids for these areas.
Example
Let’s say you own a bicycle repair shop in downtown Chicago. With location extensions, a customer near your store who searches for bicycle repair shops can see your ad, along with your full address and phone number — and head your way with his flat tire.
6. Exclude regions that don’t perform well
If you’re consistently getting clicks with a low conversion rate from certain regions, or clicks from regions where you don’t want your ads to show, consider excluding the regions from your targeting.
Example
If you’ve been targeting the entire United States, but you find that clicks from Wyoming aren’t converting well for your business, you can exclude Wyoming to avoid showing your ads in that state.
Location Target Types by Country
Like dining etiquette and power outlets, location target types vary by country. AdWords allows you to target different types of locations, including postal codes, cities, regions, and more. Keep in mind that some target types aren’t available in all countries.
Note
AdWords has recently upgraded their metro targeting areas to Nielsen® DMA® (Designated Market Areas) regions. Most advertisers will continue to see similar traffic, but in some instances, traffic may increase or decrease slightly.
Targeting Nielsen® DMA® regions is available only in the United States.
Take a look at the chart below to see examples of the location target types available for AdWords:
| Target types | Examples |
| Automotive community | Andalusia |
| (Span only) | Valencia |
| Canton | Bern |
| (Switzerland only) | Zurich |
| City | San Francisco, California |
| Paris, France | |
| Congressional district | CA-12: 12th District of California |
| (US only) | AL-4: 4th District of Alabama |
| Country | Mexico |
| Sweden | |
| County | Claire, Ireland |
| Nord-Trøndelag, Norway | |
| Vukovar-Syrmia, Croatia | |
| Department | Loire |
| (France only) | Val-de-Marne |
| Nielsen® DMA® (Designated | Detroit, MI |
| Market Areas) regions (US only) | Cleveland, OH |
| Governorate | Gharbia |
| (Egypt only) | Beheira |
| Municipality | Burgas |
| (Bulgaria only) | Plovdiv |
| Postal code | 89101 |
| (US and Canada only) | 01009 |
| Prefecture | Aichi |
| (Japan only) | Fukuoka |
| Province | Navarre, Spain |
| Mersin Province, Turkey | |
| Region | Asti, Italy |
| Busan, South Korea | |
| State | Nevada, United States |
| Uttar Pradesh, India | |
| Saarland, Germany | |
| Territory | Northwest Territories |
| (Canada only) | Yukon |
| Union territory | Delhi |
| (India only) | Lakshadweep |
All available location targets
To see the full list of available location targets in AdWords, including specific countries, cities, regions, and more, see the Targets table in the AdWords API documentation. Here are a few tips for using the table:
- Filter by target type: Locate the dropdown menu above the “Target Type” heading. Choose the target type that you’d like to use to filter your table. For example, select City to view all cities that can be targeted in AdWords.
- Filter by country code: Above the Country code heading, enter a country code to see all the location targets available within that country. You can also filter by target type. For example, enter “FR” as the country code and select City to view all targetable cities in France.
- Sort: Click any column header in the table to sort your results alphabetically by that column. For example, click Name to sort the names alphabetically in the table.
Advanced Location Options
Once you’ve defined your location targeting and location exclusion settings, you may want to refine your traffic even more. Advanced location options allow you to reach or exclude people based on where they’re likely to be located or the places that they’re searching for. This way, you can make the most of your budget by pinpointing your ideal customers.
Advanced location targeting options allow you to reach:
- People in, searching for, or viewing pages about your targeted location (default)
- People in your targeted location
- People searching for or viewing pages about your targeted location
Advanced location exclusion options allow you to exclude:
- People in, searching for, or viewing pages about your excluded location (default)
- People in your excluded location
Your advanced location options apply to ads on both the Search Network and the Google Display Network.
Note
To update your advanced location options, you’ll need to use one of the following campaign types:
- “Search & Display Networks – All Features”
- “Search Network only – Product Listing Ads”
- “Search Network only – Dynamic Search Ads”
- “Search Network only – All Features”
- “Display Network only – Remarketing”
- “Display Network only – All Features”
If you have a different campaign type from the ones listed above, you won’t be able to modify your campaign’s advanced location options. Learn about AdWords campaign types.
Comparing targeting options
By default, you’ll be able to reach people who are likely to be physically located in your targeted areas, as well as those who show interest in your targeted geographic areas. Areas that people show interest in are also known as locations of interest.
If you like, you can also switch to using only one of these targeting options. Let’s take a look at the available targeting options, and examine how they work with some example campaigns. Click any of the options below for more information.
Tip
Most campaigns will see a decrease in impressions when switching from the default targeting option. AdWords suggests that you change your targeting option only if you want to refine the traffic that your campaign is getting.
Reach people in, searching for, or viewing pages about my targeted location
The default and recommended advanced location targeting option reaches people that are likely to be located in your targeted location, as well as people searching for or viewing pages about your targeted location.
This means they’ll show your ads to anyone who is likely to be physically located within the area that you’ve targeted (with exceptions, as explained in the tip below), as well as anyone who included the name of the location in their searches, viewed content about a particular location, or selected the location in their search settings.
Tip
When you choose to “Reach people in, searching for, or viewing pages about my targeted location,” your ads can appear for people who are likely to be physically located in your targeted location. However, if someone is physically located in your targeted location, but is searching for pages about a location outside of that targeted location, AdWords won’t show your ad.
For example, let’s say you’re advertising your vineyard and you target California. Someone in California searches for “oregon wine,” but she won’t see your ad, since she was searching for a location outside of California.
This exception doesn’t apply to the Display Network. If the same person in California looks at websites about wine in Oregon, she’s eligible to see the ads that you’ve targeted to California.
Example
Your Napa vineyard wants to reach people who are in California, as well as anyone in the U.S. who is interested in wine from California. By using the default setting to target either physical location or by locations that people show interest in, your ads can appear for people in California, as well as people throughout the U.S. searching for california wine.
| Targeting options | Target | Target | Network | Person’s | Searching | Person |
| location | keyword | location | for or | sees | ||
| viewing | your ad | |||||
| pages about | ||||||
| People in, searching | California | wine | Search | New York | california | |
| for, or viewing pages | or | wine | ||||
| about my targeted | Display | |||||
| location | Network | |||||
| Search | California | wine | ||||
| or | ||||||
| Display | ||||||
| Search | California | oregon wine | ||||
| Network | ||||||
| Display | California | oregon wine | ||||
| Network |
Reach people in my targeted location
If you choose to reach people who are likely to be located in your targeted location, this means they’ll show your ads to anyone who is likely to be physically located within the area that you’ve targeted.
In addition, if someone who is physically located in your targeted area includes terms related to a different location in her search, she’ll still be eligible to see your ad.
If people outside of your targeted area include terms related to your targeted locations in their searches, they won’t see your ads.
Example
Suppose you have a vineyard in Napa, California, and you choose to reach people located in your targeted location, which is California. This allows you to reach customers who are likely to be physically located in California when they search for your keyword wine.
If someone in California searches for oregon wine, she’ll still be eligible to see your ad because of her physical location.
If someone located in New York searches for california wine, your ads won’t appear, even though the term california is in her search.
| Targeting options | Target | Target | Network | Person’s | Searching | Person |
| location | keyword | location | for or | sees | ||
| viewing | your ad | |||||
| pages about | ||||||
| People in your | California | wine | Search | California | wine | |
| targeted location | or | |||||
| Display | ||||||
| California | oregon wine | |||||
| new york | california wine | |||||
Reach people searching for or viewing pages about your targeted location
If you choose to reach people searching for or viewing pages about your targeted location, this means AdWords can show your ads to anyone who shows interest in your targeted location. People can show interest in a location by including the name of the location in their searches, by viewing content about a location, or by the location that they defined in their search settings. When using this targeting option, the actual location of the person is ignored.
On the Display Network, a location mentioned on a page may not always indicate interest in that location. For example, if someone is reading news about New York, he might not be interested in ads for New York flower shops. For that reason, they’ll determine location from a limited set of pages when they believe it can be useful for targeting your ads.
Example
Consider your Napa vineyard again. You decide you want to reach any people in the U.S. who are searching for wine from California. A customer in New York, California, or any other part of the U.S. who searches for california wine can now see your ad.
However, if a customer in California searches only for wine, she won’t be able to see your ad. And suppose a Parisian searches for california wine? Since he isn’t located in the same country as the targeted location, California, he won’t be able to see your ad either.
| Targeting options | Target | Target | Network | Person‘s | Searching | Person |
| location | keyword | location | for or | sees | ||
| viewing | your ad | |||||
| pages about | ||||||
| People searching for or | California | wine | Search | New York | california | |
| viewing pages about | or | wine | ||||
| your targeted location | Display | |||||
| California | california | |||||
| wine | ||||||
| California | wine | |||||
| Paris, France | california | |||||
| wine |
AdWords can only identify interest in a location if the customer is physically located in the same country as the location that he showed interest in.
Also, keep in mind that if the customer is located in one country, but he visits Google on a domain for a different country, they’ll use the country of the domain in determining his location. For example, if you live in the United States, but search for french bistro on google.fr, they’ll consider France to be your location and show ads targeted to France.
Edit your targeting option
To edit your targeting option, follow the steps below:
- Sign in to your AdWords account.
- Click the Campaigns tab.
- Click the name of the campaign you want to edit.
- Click the Settings tab.
- Click Location options (advanced).
- Click Edit.
- Select your targeting option.
- Once you’ve made your selection, click Save.
Note
Don’t see advanced location options? This feature is accessible only for certain campaign types. You can change your campaign type at any time, but keep in mind that doing so may hide or deactivate some features that affect ad serving.
Comparing exclusion options
By default, you’ll exclude people physically located in, searching for, or viewing pages about your excluded locations. This default setting helps you avoid getting impressions for your excluded areas, regardless of whether someone is located or interested in those areas.
If you like, you can change your default setting to exclude just people who are located in your excluded locations. Let’s take a look at the available exclusion options, and examine how they work with some example campaigns. Click any of the options below for more information.
Exclude people in, searching for, or viewing pages about your excluded locations
With this setting, AdWords won’t show your ads to people who are physically located in your excluded location OR to those who showed interest in your excluded location by either searching for, viewing content about, or have settings related to the excluded location.
Example
You want to make sure that your ski equipment store ads won’t appear for anyone that searches for Utah ski equipment since those searchers are probably looking for ski shops in Utah. Excluding by physical location or search intent keeps your ads from appearing for people physically located in Utah OR people who search for Utah ski equipment.
| Exclusion | Targeted | Exclusion | Network | Target | Person‘s | Searching | Person |
| Option | location | location | keyword | location | for or | sees | |
| viewing | your ad | ||||||
| pages about | |||||||
| People in, | United | Utah | Search | ski | Utah | ski | |
| searching for | States | or | equipment | equipment | |||
| or viewing | Display | ||||||
| pages about | |||||||
| your excluded | |||||||
| locations | |||||||
| California | Utah ski | ||||||
| equipment | |||||||
Exclude people in your excluded location
This setting keeps your ads from appearing to people who are likely to be physically located in the area that you’ve excluded. People that are physically outside these areas may still see your ads.
Example
Let’s say you own a ski equipment store in Colorado that ships anywhere in the United States. You’ve found that you have very few sales from Kansas, so you want to divert more of your budget to other areas. You decide to use physical location exclusion to keep your ads from appearing for people in Kansas who search for ski equipment.
| Exclusion | Targeted | Exclusion | Network | Target | Person‘s | Searching | Person |
| Option | location | location | keyword | location | for or | sees | |
| viewing | your ad | ||||||
| pages about | |||||||
| People | United | Kansas | Search | ski | Colorado | ski | |
| in your | States | or | equipment | equipment | |||
| excluded | Display | ||||||
| location | |||||||
| Colorado | Kansas ski | ||||||
| equipment | |||||||
| Kansas | ski | ||||||
| equipment |
Edit your exclusion option
Don’t see advanced location options? This feature is accessible only for certain campaign types. You can change your campaign type at any time, but keep in mind that doing so may hide or deactivate some features that affect ad serving.
To edit your advanced location options, follow the steps below:
- Sign in to your AdWords account.
- Click the Campaigns tab.
- Click the name of the campaign you want to edit.
- Click the Settings tab.
- Click Location options (advanced).
- Click Edit.
- Select your exclusion option.
- Once you’ve made your selection, click Save.