GOOGLE ADS LOCATION TARGETING: HOW TO DO IT RIGHT (AND WHY IT MATTERS MORE THAN YOU THINK)

Location targeting in Google Ads looks simple. Pick a city, set a radius, launch the campaign. That’s also how advertisers quietly waste thousands of dollars a year.

Google’s default location settings are designed to maximize reach—not efficiency. If you don’t deliberately lock them down, you’ll pay for clicks from people who were never going to become customers, including overseas traffic, low-intent users, and outright click spam.

This guide walks through exactly how to set up location targeting for local and regional Google Ads campaigns, including the defensive steps most advertisers skip—and later regret.

STEP 1: ALWAYS SWITCH LOCATION TARGETING TO “PRESENCE”

This is non-negotiable.

In your campaign settings, Google gives you a dropdown that defaults to: Presence or interest: People in, regularly in, or interested in your targeted locations

This setting is dangerous for local campaigns.

WHY “PRESENCE OR INTEREST” BURNS BUDGET

If you leave this on, Google can show your ads to:

Anyone anywhere in the world
As long as they search for something related to your target location

That means:

Overseas users searching “Nashville plumber”
VPN traffic
Click farms
Zero purchase intent

Yes, the clicks are cheap. No, they don’t convert.

THE CORRECT SETTING

Always change this to: Presence: People in or regularly in your targeted locations

This single switch is often the difference between cheap, useless traffic and fewer clicks that actually turn into leads. If you’re targeting a specific geographic area and you skip this step, everything else is damage control.

STEP 2: USE ADVANCED LOCATION SEARCH (NOT THE BASIC INPUT)

When adding locations, don’t just type a city and move on.

Instead:

Click Enter another location
Select Advanced search
Choose Search by location

This gives you granular control over counties, districts, and surrounding areas, which matters more than most people realize.

LOCAL TARGETING UNDER ~100 MILES: USE COUNTIES, NOT RADIUS

If you’re targeting a metro area or clustered local region (for example, Greater Nashville), county-based targeting is usually superior to radius targeting.

WHY RADIUS TARGETING FAILS AT THE LOCAL LEVEL A radius creates a perfect circle—real-world service areas aren’t perfect circles. You end up:

Targeting places you don’t serve
Missing pockets you do
Paying for edge-case traffic that never converts

BETTER APPROACH: COUNTY-LEVEL INCLUSION Example: Greater Nashville area. Instead of a radius:

Include Davidson County
Include Williamson County
Include Rutherford County
Include only the counties you actually want

This gives you real geographic control, not Google’s approximation of it.

STEP 3: AGGRESSIVELY EXCLUDE SURROUNDING LOCATIONS

This is where most advertisers stop too early. After you include your target counties or radius, zoom out and start excluding.

WHY EXCLUSIONS MATTER SO MUCH

Google will always try to expand reach to:

Adjacent counties
Neighboring states
“Close enough” areas

Even a few impressions outside your target zone can lower click-through rate (CTR), hurt Quality Score, and drain budget with zero upside.

WHAT TO EXCLUDE (YES, IT’S OVERKILL—ON PURPOSE)

Surrounding counties
Nearby states
Bordering regions you don’t serve

Example for a Tennessee business:

Exclude Kentucky
Exclude Alabama
Exclude adjacent non-service counties

Is this paranoid? Maybe. Is it smart? Absolutely. Even one wasted click is still wasted money.

STRATEGIC EXCEPTION: SERVICE AREA VS. AD TARGETING AREA

Sometimes you serve an area—but don’t want to pay to advertise in it.

Example:

People may drive from Lebanon into Nashville
You’re fine serving them
You just don’t want to spend ad budget targeting Lebanon directly

In that case:

Don’t exclude the area entirely
Just don’t include it as a primary target

This distinction is subtle—but critical.

LARGER REGIONS OR DRIVE-TIME BUSINESSES: USE RADIUS TARGETING

Now let’s flip scenarios. If you’re working with a major city (Houston, Dallas, Phoenix) or a business where customers routinely drive 30–50 miles, then radius targeting makes sense.

EXAMPLE: 40-MILE RADIUS AROUND HOUSTON

Choose Radius
Enter city or exact address
Set distance (e.g., 40 miles)
Include location

Google will create a clean radius centered on your location.

STILL EXCLUDE AROUND THE RADIUS (YES, EVEN THEN)

Even with radius targeting:

Google can still show ads slightly outside the boundary
Geo signals are imperfect

So repeat the same process: Zoom out, switch to congressional district or county view, and exclude surrounding areas, states, and nearby countries.

ADVANCED OPTIMIZATION: BREAK LOCATIONS INTO SECTIONS

If budget allows, this is a powerful move. Instead of one large location, split the region into multiple smaller segments, each roughly the same size (slight overlap is okay).

WHY THIS WORKS It lets you:

See which areas actually perform
Shift budget to high-converting zones
Pause underperforming locations entirely

You don’t have to do this to analyze location data—Google reports can show performance by location—but separate segments make optimization faster and cleaner.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Always switch location targeting to Presence only
Avoid default city targeting—use Advanced search
Use county-based targeting for tight local regions
Be aggressive with excluded locations
Radius targeting works best for large metros and drive-time businesses
Consider breaking locations into segments for advanced optimization