Google Ads Location Targeting: Show Your Ads Where You Work

Google Ads location targeting decides who can see your ads, based on where Google thinks each person is or wants to be. Switch each local campaign from the default to Presence, build your area from the ZIP codes you serve, and read the locations report each month to see where your clicks really came from.

How Google decides where someone is

Google uses several clues to place a person. On a phone, it can use GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and nearby cell towers. On a computer, it leans on the internet address the person's provider hands out, and that address can point to a city miles from where they sit.

Google's help page says it can't promise 100% accuracy in every case. That's why a few out-of-area clicks show up in even a tight account. People travel, live just across a county line, or connect through a provider whose address traces back to a city two hours away.

Google may also show your ads in nearby areas that are too small to target on their own, when it doesn't have enough data about a tiny town. So a few clicks from just past your edge don't mean you set something wrong.

Why ZIP codes beat a radius

A radius is a circle, and towns aren't circles. Draw 25 miles around an office near a river, and the circle reaches across the water into towns your crew would need an hour to reach. It also cuts some ZIP codes in half, so part of a neighborhood sees your ad and the rest doesn't.

ZIP codes follow real towns and real roads. Google lets you target by ZIP code, so we build your area from the list of ZIPs you actually serve. You say yes or no to each one, and adding a new ZIP takes a minute when you start taking work there. Switching to ZIP codes changes where your ads show, and it doesn't raise your budget.

A radius still has a place. It works as a quick start when you don't know your ZIP list yet, and in a big city where ZIP codes sit small and close together. Keep it a few miles wide at least, since Google won't go under 1 km and very small areas may get your ads only now and then.

Give each location its own area

If you have two offices, give each one its own campaign and its own area. An area drawn around your first office can miss the second one entirely, and separate campaigns let you set each office's budget on its own.

Build a new location's area before its ads run. Its calls and costs then show up on their own line, and you can see what the new office brings in from the first week.

On a paid account, let booked work decide which ZIPs stay

A click only shows where someone looked, so judge each ZIP code by the work it books. Once a month, match the ZIP code on each lead with whether that lead turned into a visit or a job.

ZIP codes that book work stay, and the ones that never do come out. Then read the leads again a month later, because one slow month in a town doesn't always repeat. On a Google Grant we keep the quiet ZIP codes on, since Google pays for those clicks.

Google Grants reach wider on purpose

A Google Ad Grant gives a qualifying nonprofit up to $10,000 a month in search ads, and one town rarely has enough searches to put that much to work. So a Grant account runs in two layers. Local campaigns cover your area first and carry the calls and visits. Wider regional or national campaigns put the rest of the credit to work, and they send people to pages that answer common questions.

Across the Grant accounts we run, 83% of search ad clicks came from those wider campaigns. That's why a nonprofit's name can show up in other states. The local layer still comes first, because a visit from a neighbor matters more to a church or a center than a page view from far away. Our Google Grants guide covers the rest of the Grant rules.

Local Services Ads use a service area instead

Local Services Ads don't use the same campaign settings. You pick a service area of counties, cities or ZIP codes in your Local Services profile, and you can deselect single ZIP codes inside a city you only partly serve. Google notes that someone it can place only at the city level may still see your ad.

Local Services can reach past your area, too. Someone outside it can see your ad when the search names a town you serve, like a person in another state looking for a plumber in a parent's town. Google's Local Services help also says it no longer gives credits for leads from outside your service area, so a call from a town you can't take is one you pay for. Keep the area to the places your crew really goes. Our Local Services Ads guide walks through the rest of the setup.

Why some out-of-area calls still come

Even a tight setup gets a few calls from outside your area, and most of them have a plain cause.

Keep a note of the town each caller names. When one town keeps sending calls you can't serve, exclude it, and check the Matched locations report again a month later.

• People travel, so someone visiting your town may search there and call you after they get home.
• Some callers live just across a county line, close enough for Google to place them near you but outside the towns you listed.
• A cell number can carry an area code from another state for years after its owner moves.
• Spam callers add a few more, and they don't follow any setting you choose.

Make your website and listing name the same towns

When your ads reach three towns and your page names only one, people in the other two wonder whether you serve them. List the towns your ads cover on your website, your landing pages and your Google Business Profile.

How we set location targeting

In the accounts we run, local campaigns use Presence and an area built from ZIP codes wherever we can, and each location gets its own campaign. On paid accounts we read booked leads by ZIP code each month, and on Grants we add the wider layer that puts the rest of the credit to work. You can see how the rest of an account runs on our Google Ads management page.

If you'd like a second look at where your ads show, book a call with Miguel. He'll go through your area with you and point out anything that reaches past it.

Questions people ask

What is location targeting in Google Ads?

It's the campaign setting that decides where your ads can show. You pick countries, states, cities, ZIP codes or a radius, and Google shows your ads to people it places in that area.

Should I use Presence or Presence or interest?

For a business that serves a local area, use Presence. Presence or interest also reaches people elsewhere who have only shown interest in your area, which suits travel and tourism better than local service.

Why do I get calls from outside my service area?

People travel, live just over a county line, or keep a phone number from another state, and Google's location reading isn't perfect. Note the town each caller names, and exclude any town that keeps calling.

Is a radius or a ZIP code list better for Google Ads?

A ZIP code list, once you know which ZIPs you serve. ZIP codes follow real towns, while a circle crosses rivers and county lines. A radius works as a quick start, and Google won't let it go under 1 km.

Can I see where my ad clicks came from?

Yes. In Google Ads, go to Campaigns, then Insights and reports, then When and where your ads showed, and open the Matched locations tab.

See how we set up and run Google Ads

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