Using Location Targeting To Focus Your AdWords

Updated March 3, 2025

Location, Location, Location

If you want to run an cost effective, targeted, AdWords campaign you need to be fully utilizing the targeting options that Google gives you. One of the simplest ways to keep your campaign focused on where you want it is location targeting.

Location targeting will ensure your ads are only getting clicks from geographic locations that you approve of. This is especially useful if you’re on a tight budget, or your business is location based. It is also a must have tool if you’re using your AdWords ads to try and drive foot traffic to your business location.

AdWords location targeting gives you two main options on how to limit where your adverts are displayed:

1. The first option is to target ads on where the searcher is searching from. So, if they’re searching from California, and you want your ad to display in California they will see it. But, if they’re searching from New York, for California based businesses, they won’t.
2. The second option is to target ads on the location that the user is searching for, rather than where they are. So if they’re searching for “Restaurants in California” then they’ll see your ad even if they’re in Tokyo.

There are varying levels of granularity that you can take with location targeting. You can be as vague as a country or as specific as a town. AdWords will even let you add a radius as small as 1 mile around a location of your choosing (although you may not receive much traffic from a location that small).

Hitting Targets with Location Targeting

Once you have selected a location, or locations, where you would like your ads to show you can also add bid adjustments for each area. This means you can try to display ads in specific areas you are focusing on, or make it less likely that ads will show in areas you don’t want them to display in. This is useful if you’re testing new locations, or want to try and ad variation in a specific area.

Have you used location targeting in your AdWords account to good effect? We’d love to hear your stories on how you’ve used targeting to get more clicks, or to reduce your ad spend.