Language and Location Targeting Monitoring and Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting Language and Location Targeted Campaigns

Your ads may occasionally receive clicks from outside your targeted locations. Here are some possible reasons, along with some things you can do (or that we already do) to help ensure that you receive the most relevant clicks possible:

• A user's IP address is mapped outside his or her actual location.

   Example: The user might be located in Santiago but his or her Internet Protocol (IP) address is housed on a server in Buenos Aires. If you target Buenos Aires, this user might see your ads (even if the user is physically located in Santiago).

   Solution: Internet service providers (ISPs) determine the IP address a user is assigned. In some cases a user may be assigned an IP address for a region other than where they are physically located. Unfortunately we can't determine which cases are incorrect, or change the assignment, but we do expose the name of your targeted region below your ad text to help prevent irrelevant clicks on your ads. To further prevent confusion, you can use ad text that highlights your target region, such as "Buenos Aires Flower Shop."

• A user outside your targeted area specifically searches for something Google knows is in your targeted area.

   Example: You might choose to target a specific city, but a user outside the region may include that city in their search while looking for something related to your ad or business. In this case, this user might see your ads (even if the user is physically located outside the target city).

   Solution: We've developed this system for your benefit so you reach as many people looking for your goods or services as possible. However, if you find that your clicks aren't producing the results you expected, you might try refining your ad text and keywords to make them more geographically relevant.

• Your targeted area may be larger than you intended and users from a larger area are correctly included based on your settings.

   Example: You may only serve the continental U.S., but you've chosen the to target the entire United States, so your ads are receiving clicks from Hawaii and Alaska.

   Solution: Narrow the focus of your region. Or, you may want to choose customised targetting instead of regional targeting.

• You have targeted the country/territory level and users are performing searches using the matching country-specific Google domain.

   Example: For example, if your campaign targets France, a user with a Spanish IP address may see your ad on Google.fr (Google's French domain).

   Solution: If you don't want your ad showing on a country-specific domain to users outside of your targeted country, you can change your campaign's location targeting from the country/territory option to the regional or customized option.

Language and Location Targeting Strategies and Best

Practices

International Targeting Strategies

If you're targeting an audience located in several different locations, it's important that you organize your campaigns and ad groups logically.

A good strategy is to organize and name your campaigns by location, such as "Germany" and "France." Use the appropriate location and language targeting for each campaign -- for instance, you may want to location-target your first campaign to Germany and language-target it to German.

Then, organize your ad groups by product lines, such as "Coffee" and "Tea." Be sure to tailor your keywords and ad text to the intended audience.

Make sure that your keyword list and ad text for each ad group is in the same language. This ensures that the ad appears in the same language in which the keyword was entered. For example, if a user enters a keyword in Japanese, you want your ad to appear in Japanese.

Best Practices for Language and Location Targeting

Some more best practices to keep in mind are:

• Before setting location targeting, enter your keywords into google  to find out which locations receive the most queries for your keyword. You can then alter your bid and budgets appropriately, raising them for the location with the most traffic, and lowering them for the others.

• After your location targeting is set and your campaign has been running for a time, use a Geographic Performance report or Google Analytics to see where your users are coming from. Adjust your budgets, bids, or messages according to how the ads perform in different regions.

• If your Geographic Performance report or Google Analytics shows that you're consistently getting clicks with a low conversion rate from certain regions, or clicks from regions where you don't want your ads to show, consider specifically excluding the region of trafficing
  
  For example, let's say you run an online store that ships products to all of the United States except Hawaii and Alaska. You can target your campaign to the U.S. and exclude those two states.

• Point your ads to a specific landing page for your targeted region, if you have such a page. 
• To add multiple locations, click the Bulk link under the Custom tab when you edit your locations, and ads up to 100 locations at once.

       If you'd like to highlight the address of your business, add locations extensions to your ads.