Google Ads Location Targeting: Geo-Targeting Strategies

Geographic targeting is one of the most powerful yet underutilized features in Google Ads. While many advertisers simply select countries or regions and move on, sophisticated location targeting can dramatically improve campaign efficiency by ensuring your budget reaches the most valuable prospects in the most profitable areas. Whether you're a local business serving a 20-mile radius, a regional service provider covering specific territories, or a national brand optimizing spend across markets, mastering geo-targeting strategies separates efficient campaigns from those bleeding budget on irrelevant clicks.

This comprehensive guide covers everything you need to know about Google Ads location targeting in 2026, from foundational concepts like presence vs. interest settings to advanced techniques including radius targeting, location exclusions, bid adjustments, and local campaign optimization. You'll learn how to analyze geographic performance data, identify expansion opportunities, and structure your location strategy for maximum return on ad spend.

Location Targeting Fundamentals: How Google Determines User Location

Before diving into strategy, understanding how Google determines user location helps you set realistic expectations and choose appropriate targeting methods. Google uses multiple signals to identify where users are located, with accuracy varying based on available data.

Location Detection Methods

Google combines several data sources to determine user location, prioritizing the most accurate signal available for each impression.

• GPS/device location: Most accurate signal, available when users grant location permissions to apps or Chrome. Provides precision within meters for mobile devices.
• WiFi positioning: Uses nearby WiFi networks to estimate location. Accurate to approximately 50-200 meters in areas with dense WiFi coverage.
• IP address geolocation: Matches IP addresses to geographic regions. Generally accurate to city level (80-90%) but can misplace users, especially those using VPNs or mobile networks.
• Search query signals: Considers location-related terms in searches (e.g., "plumber near Austin") to infer intent for specific areas.
• Google account settings: Users' home and work addresses stored in their Google account inform targeting when physical signals aren't available.

In practice, expect some impression "leakage" outside your target areas, typically 5-15% of impressions. Mobile campaigns with users who have location services enabled achieve the highest targeting accuracy. Desktop campaigns relying primarily on IP addresses see more variance, particularly for users on corporate networks or VPNs.

Location Targeting Options in Google Ads

Google Ads offers several geographic targeting methods, each suited to different business needs and campaign objectives.

Presence vs. Interest: The Critical Setting Most Advertisers Get Wrong

The "Location options" setting in Google Ads determines whether you target users physically present in your locations, users interested in your locations, or both. This seemingly simple choice dramatically impacts campaign performance and is one of the most commonly misconfigured settings in Google Ads.

Understanding the Three Options

Google offers three location option settings, each serving different advertising objectives.

• Presence or interest (default): Shows ads to people in, regularly in, or who've shown interest in your targeted locations. Broadest reach but includes users who may never visit.
• Presence only: Shows ads only to people currently or regularly in your targeted locations. Most restrictive but ensures physical proximity.
• Interest only: Shows ads to people who've searched for or shown interest in your targeted locations, regardless of their physical location. Useful for tourism and hospitality.

When to Use Each Setting

The default "Presence or interest" setting causes significant budget waste for local businesses. A plumber in Denver targeting Colorado with the default setting will show ads to users in California searching for "Denver plumber" (perhaps researching for a relative). These clicks cost money but never convert. Switching to "Presence only" immediately improves efficiency for businesses requiring physical customer proximity.

How to Change Location Options

To modify your location options setting, navigate to your campaign settings, expand the "Locations" section, and click "Location options." Select your preferred targeting method for both target locations and excluded locations. The exclusion setting follows the same logic: "Presence" excludes only users physically there, while "Presence or interest" also excludes users interested in the excluded area.

Radius Targeting: Creating Custom Geographic Zones

Radius targeting lets you define circular geographic areas around specific addresses, cities, or coordinates. This flexibility makes it invaluable for businesses with defined service areas, multiple locations, or unique geographic requirements that don't align with standard administrative boundaries.

Setting Up Radius Targeting

To create radius targets, go to your campaign settings, click "Locations," then "Advanced search." Select the "Radius" tab and enter your center point (address, city, or coordinates). Choose your radius distance from 1 to 500 miles or kilometers. You can add multiple radius targets to a single campaign, creating overlapping or separate coverage zones.

• Address-based radius: Centers on a specific street address. Ideal for single-location businesses targeting their immediate service area.
• City-centered radius: Centers on a city's geographic center. Good for metro-wide coverage without postal code complexity.
• Coordinate-based radius: Uses latitude/longitude for precise positioning. Useful for locations not well-represented by addresses (parks, intersections, rural areas).

Radius Sizing Strategy by Business Type

Optimal radius size depends on your business model, competitive density, and customer behavior patterns. Larger isn't always better, as oversized radii dilute your budget across less relevant areas.

Multi-Location Radius Strategies

Businesses with multiple locations can create radius targets around each, but overlapping radii require thoughtful management to avoid internal competition and budget inefficiency.

• Non-overlapping radii: Size radii so they don't overlap, creating distinct territories. Simplest to manage but may leave coverage gaps.
• Overlapping with bid adjustments: Allow overlap but use location bid adjustments to prioritize closer stores. More complex but ensures complete coverage.
• Separate campaigns per location: Create individual campaigns for each location with dedicated budgets and targeting. Maximum control but increases management overhead.
• Location groups: Use Google's location groups feature to target all locations meeting criteria (e.g., "all Starbucks locations"). Automated but less precise.

For franchises or chains, coordinate with corporate and other franchisees to avoid bidding against each other in overlapping territories. Establish clear geographic boundaries or use shared negative location lists to prevent waste.

Location Exclusions: Preventing Wasted Spend

Location exclusions let you block ads from appearing in specific geographic areas, even within your broader targeting. This negative targeting is as important as positive targeting for campaign efficiency, preventing budget waste on irrelevant or problematic areas.

Common Exclusion Use Cases

• Unserviceable areas: Exclude regions where you can't deliver products or provide services due to logistics, licensing, or business constraints.
• Competitor strongholds: If a competitor dominates a specific area with impossible economics, excluding it can improve overall campaign efficiency.
• Low-performing regions: Exclude areas that historically show poor conversion rates or unprofitable customer acquisition costs.
• Franchise territories: Exclude other franchisees' exclusive territories to prevent internal competition.
• Regulatory restrictions: Exclude areas where your product or service faces legal limitations (e.g., certain states for specific industries).
• Shipping limitations: For e-commerce, exclude areas with prohibitive shipping costs or restrictions.

Setting Up Location Exclusions

Access exclusions through campaign settings under "Locations," then click "Exclude." You can exclude using the same methods as targeting: countries, regions, cities, postal codes, or radii. Exclusions override inclusions, so if you target a state but exclude a city within it, that city won't see your ads.

Consider creating a shared exclusion list for locations that should be blocked across all campaigns. Navigate to "Shared library" then "Location lists" to create reusable exclusion lists that automatically apply to multiple campaigns when updated.

Exclusion Strategy for National Campaigns

National advertisers often benefit from excluding problematic areas rather than creating complex inclusion targeting. Start with nationwide targeting, then systematically exclude.

• Areas with consistently high CPA and low conversion rates
• Regions where competitors have insurmountable advantages
• Markets with insufficient search volume to optimize
• Locations generating low-quality leads (high bounce, low LTV)

Review your Geographic report monthly to identify exclusion candidates. Look for locations with high spend but low conversions, high impressions but poor click-through rates, or conversions that don't progress through your sales funnel.

Location Bid Adjustments: Optimizing Spend by Geography

Location bid adjustments let you increase or decrease bids for specific geographic areas, concentrating budget on high-value locations while maintaining presence in lower-priority areas. This granular control optimizes spend without completely excluding potentially valuable markets.

How Location Bid Adjustments Work

Bid adjustments modify your base bid by a percentage (-90% to +900%) for users in specific locations. A +20% adjustment on a $2 base bid results in a $2.40 bid for users in that location. A -50% adjustment would bid $1.00. These adjustments stack with other modifiers (device, audience) multiplicatively.

Note that automated bidding strategies (Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize Conversions) may override or modify your manual location bid adjustments. Google's algorithms set their own geographic bid variations based on predicted conversion likelihood. Check your campaign's bidding strategy to understand how your adjustments interact with automation.

Data-Driven Bid Adjustment Strategy

Base your bid adjustments on actual performance data, not assumptions. The Geographic report provides conversion rates, costs, and value by location.

1. Gather sufficient data: Wait until locations have statistically significant conversion volume (ideally 30+ conversions per location) before making adjustments.
2. Calculate relative performance: Compare each location's CPA or ROAS to your account average. Locations performing 20% better warrant positive adjustments; those 20% worse warrant negative adjustments.
3. Set proportional adjustments: Match adjustment magnitude to performance variance. A location with 50% better CPA deserves a larger positive adjustment than one with 10% better CPA.
4. Start conservative: Begin with 10-20% adjustments and increase based on observed results. Extreme adjustments can destabilize campaigns.
5. Review and refine: Reassess adjustments monthly as performance patterns shift due to seasonality, competition, and market changes.

Bid Adjustment Examples by Scenario

Local Campaigns and Performance Max for Physical Locations

Google's Local campaigns (now integrated into Performance Max) are specifically designed to drive foot traffic, phone calls, and direction requests for businesses with physical locations. These campaigns leverage Google's local inventory ads, Maps placements, and store visit tracking to optimize for offline conversions.

Performance Max for Local Goals

To create a Performance Max campaign optimized for local performance, select store visits, store sales, or local actions as your conversion goals. Link your Google Business Profile to enable Maps placements and local inventory features. The AI automatically targets users near your locations across Search, Maps, Display, YouTube, and Gmail.

• Store visit tracking: Google estimates store visits from users who clicked your ads then visited your location (requires sufficient foot traffic and Google account data).
• Local inventory ads: Show nearby product availability in Shopping and Maps results, driving in-store purchases.
• Maps promotions: Prominent placement when users search for nearby businesses on Google Maps.
• Call tracking: Track phone calls from ad clicks with call reporting enabled.
• Direction requests: Measure users who request directions to your location after seeing ads.

Local Campaign Setup Best Practices

Maximize local campaign effectiveness with proper setup and optimization.

• Complete your Google Business Profile: Accurate hours, photos, services, and attributes improve ad performance and Maps visibility.
• Enable all location extensions: Link Google Business Profiles to show address, hours, and call buttons in ads.
• Upload local creative: Include images and videos featuring your actual store, staff, and local community connections.
• Set appropriate radius targets: Define the geographic area your locations realistically serve rather than defaulting to wide coverage.
• Track offline conversions: Import store visit data or offline sales to give the algorithm complete performance signals.

For businesses where Meta Ads also drive local traffic, consider coordinating yourMeta local advertising with Google campaigns for comprehensive local coverage. Different platforms reach users at different intent stages.

Advanced Location Targeting Strategies

Beyond basic setup, advanced geo-targeting strategies can significantly improve campaign performance for sophisticated advertisers willing to invest management effort.

Layering Location with Audience Targeting

Combine geographic targeting with audience segmentsfor precision targeting of high-value local prospects.

• Location + in-market audiences: Target users in your area who are actively researching your product category.
• Location + remarketing: Re-engage past website visitors when they're in your service area.
• Location + Customer Match: Reach existing customers in specific locations for upsells, new location openings, or win-back campaigns.
• Location + demographics: Target specific age groups, income levels, or parental status within your geographic area.
• Location + custom segments: Reach users in your area who've searched for specific terms or visited competitor websites.

Seasonal and Temporal Location Strategies

Geographic performance often varies by season, day of week, and time of day. Sophisticated advertisers adjust location targeting to match these patterns.

• Seasonal expansion: Expand radius during peak seasons when customers travel further (e.g., holiday shopping) and contract during slow periods.
• Day-of-week adjustments: Different locations may perform better on weekdays vs. weekends based on customer behavior patterns.
• Commute targeting: Target work locations during business hours and residential areas during evenings and weekends.
• Weather-reactive targeting: Some businesses benefit from expanding or contracting targeting based on weather conditions (scripts can automate this).

Competitive Conquest Targeting

Target areas around competitor locations to capture customers considering alternatives.

• Create small radius targets (0.5-2 miles) around competitor locations.
• Use aggressive positive bid adjustments (+50% to +100%) for these conquest zones.
• Craft ad copy highlighting your competitive advantages without mentioning competitors by name.
• Consider separate campaigns for conquest targeting to isolate performance and budget.

Analyzing Geographic Performance

Regular geographic analysis reveals optimization opportunities, identifies expansion markets, and highlights areas for exclusion or bid adjustment. The Geographic report in Google Ads provides the foundational data for location-based optimization.

Key Metrics to Monitor by Location

Geographic Report Deep Dive

Access the Geographic report through Reports > Predefined reports > Geographic or by adding location dimensions to custom reports. Segment by campaign to compare geographic performance across different products, services, or objectives.

Export geographic data monthly to track trends over time. Performance patterns often take months to emerge clearly, and single-month snapshots can mislead due to seasonality or statistical noise. Build a historical view to make confident optimization decisions.

Identifying Expansion Opportunities

Look for locations adjacent to your strong-performing areas that aren't currently targeted. If a city performs well, surrounding suburbs likely offer similar potential. If a state converts efficiently, neighboring states with similar demographics may warrant testing.

• Review "user location" vs. "targeted location" reports to see where users actually convert
• Check impression share data to identify markets where you're under-penetrated
• Analyze competitor geographic focus to find underserved markets
• Consider demographic similarities between your best markets and potential expansion targets

Common Location Targeting Mistakes to Avoid

Even experienced advertisers make geographic targeting errors that waste budget or limit campaign potential. Avoid these common pitfalls.

• Using default "Presence or interest": Local businesses should almost always use "Presence only" to avoid wasting budget on distant users who merely searched for your area.
• Over-targeting with small areas: Excessively granular targeting (many small postal codes) fragments data and prevents optimization. Start broader and narrow based on performance.
• Ignoring location exclusions: Not excluding problematic areas lets budget leak to unproductive markets. Regularly review geographic performance for exclusion candidates.
• Setting arbitrary bid adjustments: Bid adjustments should reflect actual performance data, not assumptions about location value.
• Overlooking mobile location accuracy: Desktop targeting is less precise than mobile. Consider device-location interactions in your analysis.
• Not testing radius sizes: The "right" radius varies by business and market. Test different sizes to find optimal reach vs. relevance balance.
• Forgetting time zone differences: Ad scheduling interacts with location targeting. Ensure your timing makes sense for each targeted region.
• Neglecting local landing pages: Generic landing pages for location-specific campaigns hurt conversion rates. Create location-customized experiences.

Integration with Other Targeting Methods

Location targeting works best as part of a comprehensive targeting strategy, not in isolation. Integrate geographic targeting with other signals for maximum campaign effectiveness.

Location + Keyword Strategy

For Search campaigns, consider how location targeting interacts with keyword strategy.

• Location-modified keywords: Terms like "plumber Austin" explicitly include location. You might target these broadly while targeting general terms ("plumber") with tight geographic restrictions.
• Near-me searches: "Near me" queries rely heavily on user location signals. Ensure your targeting captures these high-intent local searches.
• Geo-specific negatives: Add negative keywords for locations you don't serve to prevent matching on location-modified terms outside your area.

Location + Device Targeting

Mobile devices provide better location accuracy and often indicate higher local intent. Consider device-specific adjustments layered with location targeting.

• Increase mobile bids in dense urban areas where mobile search dominates
• Desktop may perform better for research-heavy purchases in any location
• Tablet behavior often mirrors desktop for location-based searches

Geographic targeting mastery transforms campaign efficiency by ensuring every dollar reaches high-potential prospects in profitable locations. Start with the fundamentals, primarily switching to "Presence only" for local businesses, then progressively add sophistication with radius targeting, exclusions, and bid adjustments based on performance data. Regular geographic analysis reveals continuous optimization opportunities that compound over time.

Continue building your Google Ads expertise with our Search Campaigns Guide for foundational campaign setup, or explore Audience Targeting strategies to layer with your geographic targeting for precision prospecting. For businesses with physical locations, combine these strategies withMeta local advertising for comprehensive multi-platform local coverage.