Geo-targeting refers to targeting a certain audience based on their location, or a specific area you choose depending on your campaign goals. Location targeting is an extremely powerful option for many marketers who need a specific type of audience localised in the same place.
While Google Ads campaigns are a good place to create ads that offer diverse targeting options, when it comes to setting up a campaign there are certain things you need to consider. Specifically that the term “location” can actually mean different things.
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at location targeting options in Google, and see which of them can bring the most value to your Google ads campaign.
Why Does a User’s Location Even Matter?
If you’re a brand that sells worldwide, you may not be all that interested in where your users are located, right? Except, even in such examples geo-targeting can bring something valuable to the table.
Targeting users based on their location is just one extra way for marketers to personalise their offers, and bring users closer to the point of converting. Some key benefits of location targeting include:
- Bringing more users to your physical store;
- Running location-specific campaigns and promos, which may not be active in all your locations;
- Bringing the right customers easily to your landing pages;
- Restricting areas that are not of interest to you, so that you don’t spend campaign budget needlessly;
- Optimising how you spend your budget by increasing funds in areas that are lucrative to your business and restricting in those that aren’t.
When you tell your ads to show based on user location, the name of the country or area doesn’t necessarily have to be a search term in itself. Google already knows the location of its users and is able to offer them relevant content based on where they are when they type a query.
Type of Location targeting
Geo-targeting in Google Ads presents many different opportunities, but the success rate comes down to choosing the right location for your business.
Here are the different targeting options in Google Ads and who they benefit:
1. Countries
With the countries location target option, your ads will only appear to the users who live in that particular country. If you provide products and services nationwide, but not internationally, then this is a good type of location-based targeting.
Though you’re not tapping into Google’s worldwide audience, you can still get quite a lot of visibility by getting your ads delivered to anyone in the country (or countries) you choose. This is one of the fairly common targets in Google Ads since a lot of business owners prefer going for the maximum potential visibility with their ads.
2. Areas within a Country
Here, you will have more specific target areas, as opposed to entire countries. It’s a convenient option for local businesses who want to focus their advertising in particular cities or even a smaller area.
If your activity is only limited to a few cities in a country, but not nationwide, then you can target campaigns more restrictively, and tell Google you only want to trigger them when a user in a specific city or area types in your keywords.
3. Radius Targeting
Radius targeting or proximity targeting helps you reach potential customers who are within a certain radius of your store. If you’re selling products from a physical location and want to attract more nearby shoppers, this targeting option can help you achieve your goal.
Instead of targeting people in your entire city, you choose only those who are close by. Those located closest to you are most likely to end up visiting, so it’s smart to focus on them with your ads.
Physical Location Versus Location of Interest
Some of your users might fit into your audience because they share the physical location with your target, but not all of them.
That’s because Google also allows you to target based on location of interest. These are users who are actively interested in a particular area and look for more information about it through the search engine. It may be because they are relocating, looking for holiday destinations, or they are just curious to find out more about certain products and services that exist in that area.
Google enables location targeting based on location or interest, people physically located in a particular area, or even both if they fit your business goals.
How Do You Choose Your Location Target?
If you’re still unsure which location targeting option is right for you, here are some things to consider:
- Business locations aren’t always the same as customer locations. You need to target where your customers are;
- You should do some research and find out where your customers are, and which of these locations match your business locations, or areas where you can provide products or services;
- You can have multiple selected locations and run Google Ads campaigns that contain multiple ads targeting different locations if you’re not sure which ones are the most advantageous for your business. Remember to run reports for each ad and see where the best results are coming from;
- Don’t make your radius too small. It may be tempting to go very specific with your chosen geographic locations, but that may mean your ad’s visibility drops, as you likely have other targeting criteria in place, such as age, interests, etc.
Over to You
Australian Internet Advertising can optimise your Google Ads campaign and make sure you always reach the right audience. Book a strategy session with our Google Ads Experts right now to learn more about what it takes to grow a business through Google advertising.
