Location targeting

  • Location targeting allows you to serve ads to users in specific geographical areas, preventing wasted ad spend in irrelevant regions and enabling direct targeting of local customers.

  • Geo targeting campaigns for a region can be done using a Criterion ID, which uniquely identifies each targetable location and can be looked up using GeoTargetConstantService.SuggestGeoTargetConstants.

  • You can also look up location criterion IDs by location name using GeoTargetConstantService.SuggestGeoTargetConstants.

  • Proximity targeting allows you to target areas within a specified radius of a specific geographical point using a ProximityInfo object.

  • Geo targets can be retrieved using GoogleAdsService.SearchStream, updated by comparing existing and new targets, and excluded by setting the negative field to true for LocationInfo objects.

This guide describes location targeting, and how you can use the Google Ads API to add, retrieve, and update location targeting for your campaigns.

For information about targeting limits, see the Targeting Limits section of About Google Ads account limits.

Why is geo-targeting important?

Location targeting lets you serve ads to users in a particular geographical region. For example, assume you're advertising for a chain of supermarkets. Without location targeting, your ads would show in all regions worldwide, and your ads might receive clicks from users in regions where you have no supermarket locations. This generates cost while providing no possibility of a return on the investment. With location targeting, your campaigns show ads only in regions where you have open supermarkets. This approach also lets you directly target customers searching locally for supermarkets.

The Google Ads API lets you target your ads by country, region, or proximity around a specific geographical point.

Geo-target campaigns for a region

You can target campaigns to any geographical region for which Google Ads supports location targeting, such as a country, a state, a city, or a postal region. Each targetable location is uniquely identified by a Criterion ID. You can look up a criterion ID using GeoTargetConstantService.SuggestGeoTargetConstants. The resource_name of each GeoTargetConstant is of the form geoTargetConstants/{Criterion ID}. For example, the resource_name value of New York state is geoTargetConstants/21167.

You can add geo targets to your campaigns using the CampaignCriterionService (or at the ad group level using AdGroupCriterion for supported campaign types, such as Demand Gen campaigns with upgraded_targeting enabled). The following code snippet shows how to target your campaign with a criterion ID.

Java

private static CampaignCriterion buildLocationIdCriterion(
    long locationId, String campaignResourceName) {
  Builder criterionBuilder = CampaignCriterion.newBuilder().setCampaign(campaignResourceName);

  criterionBuilder
      .getLocationBuilder()
      .setGeoTargetConstant(ResourceNames.geoTargetConstant(locationId));

  return criterionBuilder.build();
}

C#

private CampaignCriterion buildLocationCriterion(long locationId,
    string campaignResourceName)
{
    GeoTargetConstantName location = new GeoTargetConstantName(locationId.ToString());
    return new CampaignCriterion()
    {
        Campaign = campaignResourceName,
        Location = new LocationInfo()
        {
            GeoTargetConstant = location.ToString()
        }
    };
}

PHP

private static function createLocationCampaignCriterionOperation(
    int $locationId,
    string $campaignResourceName
) {
    // Constructs a campaign criterion for the specified campaign ID using the specified
    // location ID.
    $campaignCriterion = new CampaignCriterion([
        // Creates a location using the specified location ID.
        'location' => new LocationInfo([
            // Besides using location ID, you can also search by location names using
            // GeoTargetConstantServiceClient::suggestGeoTargetConstants() and directly
            // apply GeoTargetConstant::$resourceName here. An example can be found
            // in GetGeoTargetConstantByNames.php.
            'geo_target_constant' => ResourceNames::forGeoTargetConstant($locationId)
        ]),
        'campaign' => $campaignResourceName
    ]);

    return new CampaignCriterionOperation(['create' => $campaignCriterion]);
}

Python

def create_location_op(
    client: GoogleAdsClient,
    customer_id: str,
    campaign_id: str,
    location_id: str,
) -> CampaignCriterionOperation:
    campaign_service: CampaignServiceClient = client.get_service(
        "CampaignService"
    )
    geo_target_constant_service: GeoTargetConstantServiceClient = (
        client.get_service("GeoTargetConstantService")
    )

    # Create the campaign criterion.
    campaign_criterion_operation: CampaignCriterionOperation = client.get_type(
        "CampaignCriterionOperation"
    )
    campaign_criterion: CampaignCriterion = campaign_criterion_operation.create
    campaign_criterion.campaign = campaign_service.campaign_path(
        customer_id, campaign_id
    )

    # Besides using location_id, you can also search by location names from
    # GeoTargetConstantService.suggest_geo_target_constants() and directly
    # apply GeoTargetConstant.resource_name here. An example can be found
    # in get_geo_target_constant_by_names.py.
    campaign_criterion.location.geo_target_constant = (
        geo_target_constant_service.geo_target_constant_path(location_id)
    )

    return campaign_criterion_operation

Ruby

def create_location(client, customer_id, campaign_id, location_id)
  client.operation.create_resource.campaign_criterion do |criterion|
    criterion.campaign = client.path.campaign(customer_id, campaign_id)

    criterion.location = client.resource.location_info do  |li|
      # Besides using location_id, you can also search by location names from
      # GeoTargetConstantService.suggest_geo_target_constants() and directly
      # apply GeoTargetConstant.resource_name here. An example can be found
      # in get_geo_target_constant_by_names.rb.
      li.geo_target_constant = client.path.geo_target_constant(location_id)
    end
  end
end

Perl

sub create_location_campaign_criterion_operation {
  my ($location_id, $campaign_resource_name) = @_;

  # Construct a campaign criterion for the specified campaign using the
  # specified location ID.
  my $campaign_criterion =
    Google::Ads::GoogleAds::V25::Resources::CampaignCriterion->new({
      # Create a location using the specified location ID.
      location => Google::Ads::GoogleAds::V25::Common::LocationInfo->new({
          # Besides using location ID, you can also search by location names
          # using GeoTargetConstantService::suggest() and directly apply
          # GeoTargetConstant->{resourceName} here. An example can be found
          # in get_geo_target_constants_by_names.pl.
          geoTargetConstant =>
            Google::Ads::GoogleAds::V25::Utils::ResourceNames::geo_target_constant(
            $location_id)}
      ),
      campaign => $campaign_resource_name
    });

  return
    Google::Ads::GoogleAds::V25::Services::CampaignCriterionService::CampaignCriterionOperation
    ->new({
      create => $campaign_criterion
    });
}

curl

Google may occasionally phase out some location criteria for various reasons: the location may be restructured into smaller or larger areas, geo-political changes, and so forth. Refer to the status field of a GeoTargetConstant object to determine if a location is ENABLED or REMOVAL_PLANNED.

Look up by location name

You can also look up the criterion ID by location name using GeoTargetConstantService.SuggestGeoTargetConstants. The following code example shows how to look up a location criterion ID by location name.

Java

private void runExample(GoogleAdsClient googleAdsClient) {
  try (GeoTargetConstantServiceClient geoTargetClient =
      googleAdsClient.getLatestVersion().createGeoTargetConstantServiceClient()) {

    SuggestGeoTargetConstantsRequest.Builder requestBuilder =
        SuggestGeoTargetConstantsRequest.newBuilder();

    // Locale is using ISO 639-1 format. If an invalid locale is given, 'en' is used by default.
    requestBuilder.setLocale("en");

    // A list of country codes can be referenced here:
    // https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/reference/data/geotargets
    requestBuilder.setCountryCode("FR");

    requestBuilder
        .getLocationNamesBuilder()
        .addAllNames(ImmutableList.of("Paris", "Quebec", "Spain", "Deutschland"));

    SuggestGeoTargetConstantsResponse response =
        geoTargetClient.suggestGeoTargetConstants(requestBuilder.build());

    for (GeoTargetConstantSuggestion suggestion :
        response.getGeoTargetConstantSuggestionsList()) {
      System.out.printf(
          "%s (%s,%s,%s,%s) is found in locale (%s) with reach (%d) for search term (%s).%n",
          suggestion.getGeoTargetConstant().getResourceName(),
          suggestion.getGeoTargetConstant().getName(),
          suggestion.getGeoTargetConstant().getCountryCode(),
          suggestion.getGeoTargetConstant().getTargetType(),
          suggestion.getGeoTargetConstant().getStatus().name(),
          suggestion.getLocale(),
          suggestion.getReach(),
          suggestion.getSearchTerm());
    }
  }
}

C#

public void Run(GoogleAdsClient client)
{
    // Get the GeoTargetConstantServiceClient.
    GeoTargetConstantServiceClient geoService =
        client.GetService(Services.V25.GeoTargetConstantService);

    // Locale is using ISO 639-1 format. If an invalid locale is given,
    // 'en' is used by default.
    string locale = "en";

    // A list of country codes can be referenced here:
    // https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/reference/data/geotargets
    string countryCode = "FR";

    string[] locations = { "Paris", "Quebec", "Spain", "Deutschland" };

    SuggestGeoTargetConstantsRequest request = new SuggestGeoTargetConstantsRequest()
    {
        Locale = locale,
        CountryCode = countryCode,
        LocationNames = new SuggestGeoTargetConstantsRequest.Types.LocationNames()
    };

    request.LocationNames.Names.AddRange(locations);

    try
    {
        SuggestGeoTargetConstantsResponse response =
            geoService.SuggestGeoTargetConstants(request);

        foreach (GeoTargetConstantSuggestion suggestion
            in response.GeoTargetConstantSuggestions)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(
                $"{suggestion.GeoTargetConstant.ResourceName} " +
                $"({suggestion.GeoTargetConstant.Name}, " +
                $"{suggestion.GeoTargetConstant.CountryCode}, " +
                $"{suggestion.GeoTargetConstant.TargetType}, " +
                $"{suggestion.GeoTargetConstant.Status}) is found in locale " +
                $"({suggestion.Locale}) with reach ({suggestion.Reach}) " +
                $"for search term ({suggestion.SearchTerm}).");
        }
    }
    catch (GoogleAdsException e)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Failure:");
        Console.WriteLine($"Message: {e.Message}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Failure: {e.Failure}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Request ID: {e.RequestId}");
        throw;
    }
}

PHP

public static function runExample(
    GoogleAdsClient $googleAdsClient,
    array $locationNames,
    string $locale,
    string $countryCode
) {
    $geoTargetConstantServiceClient = $googleAdsClient->getGeoTargetConstantServiceClient();

    $response = $geoTargetConstantServiceClient->suggestGeoTargetConstants(
        new SuggestGeoTargetConstantsRequest([
            'locale' => $locale,
            'country_code' => $countryCode,
            'location_names' => new LocationNames(['names' => $locationNames])
        ])
    );

    // Iterates over all geo target constant suggestion objects and prints the requested field
    // values for each one.
    foreach ($response->getGeoTargetConstantSuggestions() as $geoTargetConstantSuggestion) {
        /** @var GeoTargetConstantSuggestion $geoTargetConstantSuggestion */
        printf(
            "Found '%s' ('%s','%s','%s',%s) in locale '%s' with reach %d"
            . " for the search term '%s'.%s",
            $geoTargetConstantSuggestion->getGeoTargetConstant()->getResourceName(),
            $geoTargetConstantSuggestion->getGeoTargetConstant()->getName(),
            $geoTargetConstantSuggestion->getGeoTargetConstant()->getCountryCode(),
            $geoTargetConstantSuggestion->getGeoTargetConstant()->getTargetType(),
            GeoTargetConstantStatus::name(
                $geoTargetConstantSuggestion->getGeoTargetConstant()->getStatus()
            ),
            $geoTargetConstantSuggestion->getLocale(),
            $geoTargetConstantSuggestion->getReach(),
            $geoTargetConstantSuggestion->getSearchTerm(),
            PHP_EOL
        );
    }
}

Python

def main(client: GoogleAdsClient) -> None:
    gtc_service: GeoTargetConstantServiceClient = client.get_service(
        "GeoTargetConstantService"
    )

    gtc_request: SuggestGeoTargetConstantsRequest = client.get_type(
        "SuggestGeoTargetConstantsRequest"
    )
    gtc_request.locale = LOCALE
    gtc_request.country_code = COUNTRY_CODE

    # The location names to get suggested geo target constants.
    # Type hint for gtc_request.location_names.names is not straightforward
    # as it's part of a complex protobuf object.
    gtc_request.location_names.names.extend(
        ["Paris", "Quebec", "Spain", "Deutschland"]
    )

    results: SuggestGeoTargetConstantsResponse = (
        gtc_service.suggest_geo_target_constants(gtc_request)
    )

    suggestion: GeoTargetConstantSuggestion
    for suggestion in results.geo_target_constant_suggestions:
        geo_target_constant: GeoTargetConstant = suggestion.geo_target_constant
        print(
            f"{geo_target_constant.resource_name} "
            f"({geo_target_constant.name}, "
            f"{geo_target_constant.country_code}, "
            f"{geo_target_constant.target_type}, "
            f"{geo_target_constant.status.name}) "
            f"is found in locale ({suggestion.locale}) "
            f"with reach ({suggestion.reach}) "
            f"from search term ({suggestion.search_term})."
        )

Ruby

def get_geo_target_constants_by_names
  # GoogleAdsClient will read a config file from
  # ENV['HOME']/google_ads_config.rb when called without parameters
  client = Google::Ads::GoogleAds::GoogleAdsClient.new

  gtc_service = client.service.geo_target_constant

  location_names = client.resource.location_names do |ln|
    ['Paris', 'Quebec', 'Spain', 'Deutschland'].each do |name|
      ln.names << name
    end
  end

  # Locale is using ISO 639-1 format. If an invalid locale is given,
  # 'en' is used by default.
  locale = 'en'

  # A list of country codes can be referenced here:
  # https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/reference/data/geotargets
  country_code = 'FR'

  response = gtc_service.suggest_geo_target_constants(
    locale: locale,
    country_code: country_code,
    location_names: location_names
  )

  response.geo_target_constant_suggestions.each do |suggestion|
    puts sprintf("%s (%s,%s,%s,%s) is found in locale (%s) with reach (%d)" \
        " from search term (%s).", suggestion.geo_target_constant.resource_name,
        suggestion.geo_target_constant.name,
        suggestion.geo_target_constant.country_code,
        suggestion.geo_target_constant.target_type,
        suggestion.geo_target_constant.status,
        suggestion.locale,
        suggestion.reach,
        suggestion.search_term)
  end
end

Perl

sub get_geo_target_constants_by_names {
  my ($api_client, $location_names, $locale, $country_code) = @_;

  my $suggest_response = $api_client->GeoTargetConstantService()->suggest({
      locale        => $locale,
      countryCode   => $country_code,
      locationNames =>
        Google::Ads::GoogleAds::V25::Services::GeoTargetConstantService::LocationNames
        ->new({
          names => $location_names
        })});

  # Iterate over all geo target constant suggestion objects and print the requested
  # field values for each one.
  foreach my $geo_target_constant_suggestion (
    @{$suggest_response->{geoTargetConstantSuggestions}})
  {
    printf "Found '%s' ('%s','%s','%s',%s) in locale '%s' with reach %d" .
      " for the search term '%s'.\n",
      $geo_target_constant_suggestion->{geoTargetConstant}{resourceName},
      $geo_target_constant_suggestion->{geoTargetConstant}{name},
      $geo_target_constant_suggestion->{geoTargetConstant}{countryCode},
      $geo_target_constant_suggestion->{geoTargetConstant}{targetType},
      $geo_target_constant_suggestion->{geoTargetConstant}{status},
      $geo_target_constant_suggestion->{locale},
      $geo_target_constant_suggestion->{reach},
      $geo_target_constant_suggestion->{searchTerm};
  }

  return 1;
}

curl

Target campaigns for proximity to a location

There are times when you might want to target even more precisely than a city or country. For example, you may want to advertise your supermarkets within 10 kilometers of your shop location. In such cases, you can use proximity targeting. The code to create a proximity target is similar to adding a location target, except that you have to create a ProximityInfo object instead of a LocationInfo object.

Java

private static CampaignCriterion buildProximityLocation(String campaignResourceName) {
  Builder builder = CampaignCriterion.newBuilder().setCampaign(campaignResourceName);

  ProximityInfo.Builder proximityBuilder = builder.getProximityBuilder();
  proximityBuilder.setRadius(10.0).setRadiusUnits(ProximityRadiusUnits.MILES);

  AddressInfo.Builder addressBuilder = proximityBuilder.getAddressBuilder();
  addressBuilder
      .setStreetAddress("38 avenue de l'Opéra")
      .setCityName("Paris")
      .setPostalCode("75002")
      .setCountryCode("FR");

  return builder.build();
}

C#

private CampaignCriterion buildProximityCriterion(string campaignResourceName)
{
    ProximityInfo proximity = new ProximityInfo()
    {
        Address = new AddressInfo()
        {
            StreetAddress = "38 avenue de l'Opéra",
            CityName = "Paris",
            PostalCode = "75002",
            CountryCode = "FR"
        },
        Radius = 10d,
        // Default is kilometers.
        RadiusUnits = ProximityRadiusUnits.Miles
    };

    return new CampaignCriterion()
    {
        Campaign = campaignResourceName,
        Proximity = proximity
    };
}

PHP

private static function createProximityCampaignCriterionOperation(string $campaignResourceName)
{
    // Constructs a campaign criterion as a proximity.
    $campaignCriterion = new CampaignCriterion([
        'proximity' => new ProximityInfo([
            'address' => new AddressInfo([
                'street_address' => '38 avenue de l\'Opéra',
                'city_name' => 'Paris',
                'postal_code' => '75002',
                'country_code' => 'FR',
            ]),
            'radius' => 10.0,
            // Default is kilometers.
            'radius_units' => ProximityRadiusUnits::MILES
        ]),
        'campaign' => $campaignResourceName
    ]);

    return new CampaignCriterionOperation(['create' => $campaignCriterion]);
}

Python

def create_proximity_op(
    client: GoogleAdsClient, customer_id: str, campaign_id: str
) -> CampaignCriterionOperation:
    campaign_service: CampaignServiceClient = client.get_service(
        "CampaignService"
    )

    # Create the campaign criterion.
    campaign_criterion_operation: CampaignCriterionOperation = client.get_type(
        "CampaignCriterionOperation"
    )
    campaign_criterion: CampaignCriterion = campaign_criterion_operation.create
    campaign_criterion.campaign = campaign_service.campaign_path(
        customer_id, campaign_id
    )
    campaign_criterion.proximity.address.street_address = "38 avenue de l'Opera"
    campaign_criterion.proximity.address.city_name = "Paris"
    campaign_criterion.proximity.address.postal_code = "75002"
    campaign_criterion.proximity.address.country_code = "FR"
    campaign_criterion.proximity.radius = 10
    # Default is kilometers.
    campaign_criterion.proximity.radius_units = (
        client.enums.ProximityRadiusUnitsEnum.MILES
    )

    return campaign_criterion_operation

Ruby

def create_proximity(client, customer_id, campaign_id)
  client.operation.create_resource.campaign_criterion do |criterion|
    criterion.campaign = client.path.campaign(customer_id, campaign_id)

    criterion.proximity = client.resource.proximity_info do |proximity|
      proximity.address = client.resource.address_info do |address|
        address.street_address = "38 avenue de l'Opéra"
        address.city_name = "Paris"
        address.postal_code = "75002"
        address.country_code = "FR"
      end

      proximity.radius = 10
      proximity.radius_units = :MILES
    end
  end
end

Perl

sub create_proximity_campaign_criterion_operation {
  my ($campaign_resource_name) = @_;

  # Construct a campaign criterion as a proximity.
  my $campaign_criterion =
    Google::Ads::GoogleAds::V25::Resources::CampaignCriterion->new({
      proximity => Google::Ads::GoogleAds::V25::Common::ProximityInfo->new({
          address => Google::Ads::GoogleAds::V25::Common::AddressInfo->new({
              streetAddress => "38 avenue de l'Opéra",
              cityName      => "cityName",
              postalCode    => "75002",
              countryCode   => "FR"
            }
          ),
          radius => 10.0,
          # Default is kilometers.
          radiusUnits => MILES
        }
      ),
      campaign => $campaign_resource_name
    });

  return
    Google::Ads::GoogleAds::V25::Services::CampaignCriterionService::CampaignCriterionOperation
    ->new({
      create => $campaign_criterion
    });
}

curl

Retrieve geo-targets

You can retrieve the geo targets for a campaign using GoogleAdsService.SearchStream. Including campaign_criterion.type and campaign_criterion.resource_name in the SELECT clause lets you distinguish between LOCATION and PROXIMITY criteria and record the resource names for subsequent updates or removals.

SELECT
  campaign_criterion.resource_name,
  campaign_criterion.campaign,
  campaign_criterion.type,
  campaign_criterion.location.geo_target_constant,
  campaign_criterion.proximity.geo_point.longitude_in_micro_degrees,
  campaign_criterion.proximity.geo_point.latitude_in_micro_degrees,
  campaign_criterion.proximity.radius,
  campaign_criterion.proximity.radius_units,
  campaign_criterion.proximity.address.street_address,
  campaign_criterion.proximity.address.city_name,
  campaign_criterion.proximity.address.postal_code,
  campaign_criterion.proximity.address.country_code,
  campaign_criterion.negative
FROM campaign_criterion
WHERE
  campaign_criterion.campaign = 'customers/{customer_id}/campaigns/{campaign_id}'
  AND campaign_criterion.type IN ('LOCATION', 'PROXIMITY')

Update geo-targets

Location criteria on a campaign are immutable after creation, so updating a campaign's geo targets requires replacing obsolete targets with new ones in a single atomic CampaignCriterionService.MutateCampaignCriteria request:

  1. Query the campaign's existing LOCATION and PROXIMITY criteria using the GAQL query in Retrieve geo-targets.
  2. Compare the existing criteria with your intended target list.
  3. For each obsolete criterion, build a CampaignCriterionOperation with remove set to the existing criterion's resource_name.
  4. For each new location or proximity target, build a CampaignCriterionOperation with create populated with the new LocationInfo or ProximityInfo criterion.
  5. Pass both the remove and create operations in a single MutateCampaignCriteria call so the transition happens atomically.

Exclude geo-targets

You can also exclude LocationInfo, but not ProximityInfo. This feature is most useful if you want to target a region, but exclude a sub-region (for example, to target the entire United States, except for New York City). To exclude a region, set the negative field in CampaignCriterion to true.

Target multiple geographic regions

If you use a LocationGroupInfo, you can enable a campaign to target multiple geographic regions centered on locations defined by location assets or filtered by a geographic region:

  • Location asset sets: Set either enable_customer_level_location_asset_set = true (to target the customer's location asset set) or location_group_asset_sets (to target specific AssetSet resource names). These two fields cannot be set together, and neither can be combined with geo_target_constants.
  • Radius and units: The radius on LocationGroupInfo defines a circular region around each location and requires both radius and radius_units (LocationGroupRadiusUnitsEnum):
    • When using location asset sets (enable_customer_level_location_asset_set or location_group_asset_sets), supported radius_units values are MILLI_MILES and METERS.
    • When filtering by geo_target_constants (where at most one criterion ID is allowed, and AssetSet fields are not set), supported radius_units values are MILES and METERS.

Advanced location options with GeoTargetTypeSetting

Beyond specifying locations to target or exclude, you can refine how Google Ads matches users to these locations using advanced location options. These settings are managed through Campaign.GeoTargetTypeSetting.

This setting consists of two fields:

  • positive_geo_target_type: Determines how users are matched for locations you target.
  • negative_geo_target_type: Determines how users are matched for locations you exclude.

Positive targeting settings (positive_geo_target_type)

You can choose from the following options for your positive location targeting, using values from the PositiveGeoTargetTypeEnum:

  • PRESENCE_OR_INTEREST (Recommended default):

    • Reaches people who are likely to be in, or regularly in, your targeted locations, plus people who have shown interest in your targeted locations.
    • Interest can be signaled by search terms, past visits, or content consumed related to the location.
    • This option provides the broadest reach.

  • PRESENCE:

    • Reaches only people who are likely to be physically located or regularly in your targeted locations.
    • This is more restrictive and useful if your services or products are strictly limited to people physically present in an area.

Negative targeting settings (negative_geo_target_type)

For locations you want to exclude, you use the NegativeGeoTargetTypeEnum:

  • PRESENCE (Recommended default):
    • Excludes people who are likely to be physically located in the locations you've excluded.
    • People outside the excluded areas, even if interested in them, may still see your ads, provided they match your positive targeting.

Manage advanced location options

You can control these settings by updating the Campaign.geo_target_type_setting object. The following example shows the structure of a CampaignOperation update that sets positive_geo_target_type to PRESENCE:

// Conceptual structure for a Campaign update operation
operations {
  update {
    resource_name: "customers/{customer_id}/campaigns/{campaign_id}"
    geo_target_type_setting {
      positive_geo_target_type: PRESENCE
      // negative_geo_target_type remains at its default PRESENCE
    }
  }
  update_mask {
    paths: "geo_target_type_setting.positive_geo_target_type"
  }
}

To fetch the current settings, include campaign.geo_target_type_setting.positive_geo_target_type and campaign.geo_target_type_setting.negative_geo_target_type in your GoogleAdsService search query.

By configuring these settings, you gain more granular control over who sees your ads based on their relationship to the geographic locations you've specified, aligning more closely with your business goals.

Best practices

  • Choose PRESENCE if your product or service is strictly limited to people physically present in a location. For example, suppose you require users to be in-store or require local delivery.
  • Choose PRESENCE_OR_INTEREST if your product or service can also benefit people interested in a location, even if not physically present. For example, a user planning a vacation might be interested in hotels in their destination city.
  • Use negative location targeting to refine reach. If you target the US with PRESENCE_OR_INTEREST, but don't ship to a specific state, you can exclude that state using negative=true on a LocationInfo criterion. Combined with negative_geo_target_type set to PRESENCE, this prevents your ads from showing to users in that state, while still reaching users outside that state who might be interested in US locations.

What's next

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Bid modifiers
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Targeting settings