Check both the areas selected in Google Ads and the location option used to reach them. A campaign may include people interested in an area as well as people present there. Compare those settings with where useful enquiries come from, then choose the approach that fits how your customers buy.
Which location does your business care about?
The customer, the job and the person making the enquiry may be in different places. A homeowner arranging a repair might be local. Someone organising a conference in Essex could be sitting in an office elsewhere in the UK.
Write down the location that determines whether you can accept the work. For an installer, that may be the project address. For a hotel, it may be the destination being considered. For a remote professional service, there may be no narrow local boundary.
This is why “exclude everybody outside the area” is not a universal answer. It can make sense for some services and remove worthwhile demand for others.
Review the location option as well as the map
Google’s guidance on clicks outside targeted areas distinguishes presence from presence or interest. Presence focuses on people Google believes are in or regularly in the selected area. The broader option can also include people showing interest in it.
Open the settings for the campaign you are investigating. Do not assume every campaign uses the same choice. Record the included locations, excluded locations and location option before making a change.
Check the names carefully. Some places share a name. A radius may also cover areas you cannot serve conveniently, even where they look close on a map. Your actual operating area should inform the setting.
Read the location report with care
A report about matched locations is not necessarily a list of verified customer addresses. Google’s geographic performance guidance explains the distinction between location signals and locations of interest. Keep that distinction visible when presenting the figures.
Compare the report with the project areas supplied in real enquiries. You do not need to circulate full addresses for a marketing review. Town, broad area or an agreed service-area category may answer the question.
If unsuitable enquiries come from one area, check the search terms and landing page too. Somebody may have searched for a place you do not serve, while the page never explained your coverage. A targeting adjustment and a content correction may both be needed.
Two different situations
Consider a hypothetical emergency repair service that can only reach properties within a practical travelling distance. Presence targeting may be worth testing because immediate local availability is central to the offer. The advert and page should also state the area honestly.
Now consider a venue taking enquiries for a Suffolk event. A London-based organiser could be a suitable customer. Automatically excluding that person because of their current location would miss the point of the search.
These are examples of how to reason about the choice, not instructions for every account. Check the actual services, customer pattern and reporting before changing a live campaign.
Do exclusions do what you intended?
Review exclusions alongside inclusions. An old exclusion may still reflect an area you no longer avoid. A broad inclusion may have been added for a temporary campaign and left behind.
Keep a plain-language explanation for unusual settings. “Exclude this area because the service cannot currently be delivered there” is useful. “Previous manager set it up” is a prompt to investigate.
Location systems use signals and are not a guarantee of someone’s exact physical position. Monitor the resulting enquiries rather than treating a map setting as a complete safeguard.
How should you test a change?
- Write the problem in terms of enquiries, such as requests for jobs outside the service area.
- Record the current settings and the dates used for comparison.
- Choose a change that directly addresses the problem.
- Keep other major campaign changes separate where practical.
- Review suitable and unsuitable enquiries, cost and overall volume after allowing for response time.
A lower enquiry total may still be useful if fewer requests are impossible to fulfil. Equally, lower spend does not automatically mean better targeting if valuable enquiries disappear with it.
Ask the people answering the phone what they are hearing. If callers still misunderstand the coverage, revise the advert and page. Geographic settings cannot explain a service boundary on your behalf.
Our Google Ads management reviews targeting alongside the business behind it. Use the search terms review guide to examine what people asked for, and the advert and landing page checklist to check what you told them.