How accurrate is Google AdWords Location Targeting?

[WhitePhantom]

Hi,

I've changed my Google AdWords settings to target only my own county, and a couple of the surrounding counties. However when I now do a search for one of my keywords, my ads are not showing - I've searched a few times between yesterday and today, and nothing.

It's not because my daily budget has been reached, btw - I got no clicks at all yesterday, where I had been using up my daily budget when it was just set to Ireland. I felt that was very unfocused though - I'm in the south-east, so only want to target that area - but now I seem to be completely off the radar!

So I'm just wondering what anyone else's experience has been of location targeting? Just to mention - I'm on broadband through my own phone line, so there should be no doubt about my own location. I'm right in the middle of the area I want to target.

Thanks,
J.

 

[mneylon]

Geotargetting in Ireland won't be accurate

 

[WhitePhantom]

Thanks Blacknight - that's a pity / nuisance! How inaccurate is it likely to be? And any suggestions how a Wexford-based business prevents Google Ads from being displayed all over Ireland?

I've a fairly modest daily budget, and don't want it being used up by people at the other end of the country clicking on my ads... Also I don't want to use up precious ad space by putting the word 'Wexford' in there - that's 7 characters less for my real message!

 

[mneylon]

Thanks Blacknight - that's a pity / nuisance! How inaccurate is it likely to be?

Very
GeoIP targetting relies on the location specified by the ISP in the IP's whois record.

Since Eircom et al use very large IP blocks for very large tracts of the country the chances of your ad being shown to the "wrong" user is very high

And any suggestions how a Wexford-based business prevents Google Ads from being displayed all over Ireland?

You can't unless you limit yourself to only showing ads to an ISP that only operates in that area

 

[MOH]

Thanks Blacknight - that's a pity / nuisance! How inaccurate is it likely to be? And any suggestions how a Wexford-based business prevents Google Ads from being displayed all over Ireland?

Would negative matching against counties other than Wexford and it's surroundings help?

 

[jmcc]

Would negative matching against counties other than Wexford and it's surroundings help?

It is an IP and reverse DNS problem for many ISPs. The local ISP connection may be geographically in another county (where there is any reverse DNS on the IP ranges). In other cases the IP range will be delegated to the ISPs main office address - possibly in Dublin. Geoip location is a very difficult problem in Ireland.

Regards...jmcc

 

[peterarmstrong]

Just thought I'd check two things with you...

1) You said you got no clicks, but did you get any impressions? It might not be showing to your location but is it showing to anyone, anywhere?

2) If you go to the speech bubble beside each keyword, does it tell you it's currently displaying? And is it getting a good quality score?

 

[MOH]

It is an IP and reverse DNS problem for many ISPs. The local ISP connection may be geographically in another county (where there is any reverse DNS on the IP ranges). In other cases the IP range will be delegated to the ISPs main office address - possibly in Dublin. Geoip location is a very difficult problem in Ireland.

Regards...jmcc

Sorry, I meant negative matching in adwords.
So if the OP is selling 'blue widgets' in Wexford, add everywhere from DOnegal to Dublin and Galway to Cork as a negative keyword.
So at least someone searching for 'blue widgets galway' won't get the ad.
Won't do much, but might help a little

 

[WhitePhantom]

Confound - I checked the impressions for the couple of days that I had geo targetting switched on, and there actually were a very small number of impressions. What concerned me was that if the ads weren't being displayed to me, how many other people in Co. Wexford were they not being displayed to?

MOH - I don't see the negative matching as being any help really if, as jmcc said,

In other cases the IP range will be delegated to the ISPs main office address - possibly in Dublin

. I could just as easily be excluding Wexford people that way.

I guess mentioning Wexford in the ads is the most realistic option then.

Thanks guys!