Quick answer: Location targeting in Google Ads controls which geographic areas your campaigns show in. Campaigns can target countries, regions, cities, postcodes, or radius from a specific point. Combined with bid adjustments by location, it’s how you focus budget on the audiences most likely to convert and reduce spend in low-converting areas.
What Is Location Targeting?
Location targeting in Google Ads controls where geographically your ads are shown. You can target countries, regions, cities, postcodes, or a radius around a specific address. For any business that serves a specific area, location targeting is fundamental to spending budget efficiently.
Types of Location Targeting
- Country targeting: Appropriate for national or international businesses
- City targeting: Most common for local businesses (e.g. Bristol, Bath)
- Postcode targeting: Precise, useful for local trades or hyperlocal campaigns
- Radius targeting: Show ads to people within X miles of your address, excellent for businesses with a physical location
The Most Important Setting People Get Wrong
Google offers three options for each location:
- Presence or interest: Shows to people in, or searching about, your target location (default, usually too broad)
- Presence: Shows only to people physically in your target location (recommended for most local campaigns)
- Interest: Shows to people searching about your target location, even if they are elsewhere
The default setting frequently wastes budget showing ads to people outside your service area. Switch to “presence only” for most local campaigns.
For local businesses running PPC campaigns, location targeting is the first thing we configure, because getting it wrong from day one means instant wasted spend.
How Location Targeting Works
You set targeting at the campaign level: include the locations you want to reach, exclude the ones you don’t. Google determines user location through a combination of IP address, device location, and inferred behaviour signals.
Common Targeting Settings
- Country: broad, useful for nationwide campaigns.
- Region or county: narrower, good for service-area businesses.
- City or postcode: precise, ideal for local businesses with specific service zones.
- Radius targeting: a circle around a specific address. Powerful for single-location businesses.
- Custom maps: drawing your own service area for unusual coverage shapes.
The Critical "Presence vs Interest" Setting
Each campaign has a location targeting option that defaults to "Presence or interest in" your targeted locations. This means people who searched for terms related to your locations from elsewhere can also see your ads. For local businesses, this often wastes spend by serving people who can never become customers. Switching to "Presence" only typically tightens performance significantly.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I set up radius targeting?
In your campaign’s Locations settings, choose "Radius" instead of city or country. Enter your address and the radius (in miles or kilometres). Layer bid adjustments inside the radius if you want different bids for different distances from the centre.
Should I exclude locations or just not target them?
For most accounts, just not targeting them is sufficient. Excluding is for cases where someone outside your target area might still trigger your ads (e.g. people travelling, "Presence or interest" matching). Explicit exclusions belt-and-braces those cases.
Why are my ads showing outside my target area?
Most common reasons: "Presence or interest in" setting (covers people interested in but not in the area), broad search queries that match your keywords from anywhere, or device location signals that Google has misclassified. Switch to "Presence only" targeting to limit this.
Can I bid more for specific locations?
Yes. Location bid adjustments let you increase or decrease bids by location. Useful when one area converts at much higher rates than another. Common pattern: +20% to 30% bids in your highest-converting town, -50% to neighbouring areas that mainly waste budget.
Take this further
Location targeting is one of those PPC settings most accounts get half-right. Tightening it is usually the cheapest win available in any audit.
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