Short answer: In Google Ads, every campaign has a location option that most advertisers never open. The default, Presence or interest, can show your ads to people who are not in your target area but have searched about it. For most local businesses and for anyone who can only sell in certain countries, the right choice is Presence: people in or regularly in your included locations. This one setting often stops a large share of wasted spend.
Where to find the setting
Open your campaign, go to Settings, then Locations, and click Location options. You will see two groups: one for targeting and one for exclusions. Performance Max, Search, Shopping and Demand Gen campaigns all have it, although the layout can differ slightly by campaign type.
The two targeting options
| Option | Who can see your ads | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Presence or interest (default) | People in, regularly in, or who have shown interest in your locations | Travel, tourism, relocation and businesses that serve visitors |
| Presence | People in or regularly in your locations | Local services, delivery businesses and anyone who can only sell in certain countries |
Interest is based on searches and content. Someone in Dubai who searches for a restaurant in Dhaka can be treated as interested in Dhaka. That is useful for a hotel and useless for a home cleaning service.
A real example of wasted spend
A clinic in Dhaka targets Dhaka with the default setting. A student in London searches for treatment in Dhaka for a relative. The ad shows, the student clicks, and nothing happens because the clinic cannot help them online. Multiply that by hundreds of clicks and the budget leaks every month. Switching to Presence would have stopped it.
The same happens in reverse for brands that sell only in the US or UK. With the default, people from other countries who show interest in the US can see the ads.
How to check if you have this problem
- Go to Insights and reports, then When and where ads showed, then Locations.
- Open the Matched locations or User locations report.
- Look for clicks and spend from places you do not serve.
- If you see spend outside your area, change the location option to Presence.
Exclusions matter too
In the exclusion settings, the recommended option is to exclude people in your excluded locations. Use exclusions for:
- Areas inside a country that you cannot deliver to
- Countries that send low quality traffic or spam leads
- Your own office location, if staff searches inflate clicks
Radius targeting for local businesses
If you serve customers within a certain distance, you can target a radius around your address instead of a whole city. Start a little wider than you think, then narrow it once you see where leads come from. Very small radius targets can limit reach too much for Smart Bidding to learn.
Location bid adjustments and value
For manual bidding you can raise or lower bids by location. With Smart Bidding, bid adjustments by location are mostly ignored, so it is better to split very different markets into separate campaigns or to pass different conversion values.
Checklist
- Change targeting to Presence unless you serve visitors from elsewhere.
- Check the locations report every month.
- Exclude areas you cannot serve.
- Split countries with very different costs or margins into their own campaigns.
- Match your ad text to the location, for example mention the city or delivery area.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Presence and Presence or interest in Google Ads?
Which location option should a local business use?
How do I see where my clicks come from?
Does Performance Max have location options?
Do location bid adjustments work with Smart Bidding?
Who can check my Google Ads location settings?
Want a quick check of your settings?
Location settings are one of the first things I review. See my Google Ads management service or request a free ads audit. You may also like the Google Ads audit checklist and the guide to Google Ads negative keywords.