A physiotherapy clinic sets its ads to show in Kolkata. A month later the call log includes someone in Delhi asking whether the clinic does home visits there, and two people from a district several hours away. None of them could become patients, and each one cost a click. The campaign was set to Kolkata. Google still showed the ads elsewhere.
That usually comes down to one setting most owners never open. This post explains Google Ads location targeting for a local business: how to draw the area, the difference between presence and interest, how to exclude places, and how to check where your ads actually appeared.
Start with the area you really serve
Before touching the settings, write down where your customers can actually come from. A clinic or shop has a realistic travel distance. A home service has a radius its staff will drive. An online tutor may serve a whole country. A courier-based shop may serve anywhere it delivers.
Be honest about the edges. If you would technically travel to a far suburb but rarely want to, leave it out for now. You can widen the area later. Paying for clicks from places you would turn down is the quickest way to make a small campaign look like it does not work.
Google Ads location targeting by area or by radius
Google Ads lets you target locations in two main ways, and you can combine them.
- Named areas. Countries, states, cities, and in many countries smaller areas such as districts or postal codes. Good when your service area follows city or district lines, or when you want to match how people describe where they live.
- A radius around a point. A circle drawn around your address or a pin on the map. Good for businesses where travel distance matters, such as a clinic, a restaurant or a home repair service.
Named areas are easier to read in reports, because each one gets its own line. A radius is easier to match to travel distance, but it ignores rivers, bridges and traffic. Two places at the same distance can be very different journeys. If that matters for you, a set of named areas may describe your real catchment better than one circle.
Presence vs interest: the setting that matters most
Inside the campaign’s location settings there is an option, often hidden under a “location options” heading, that decides who counts as being in your area. It usually offers two choices.
| Option | Who can see your ads | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Presence or interest | People in, or regularly in, your locations, plus people who have shown interest in them, wherever they are | Hotels, wedding venues, tour operators, property, anything people arrange from elsewhere |
| Presence | People in, or regularly in, your locations | Most local services, clinics, shops and home services |
The first option is often the default. It is the reason a Kolkata clinic can pay for clicks from Delhi: someone in Delhi searched for a Kolkata clinic, perhaps for a relative, perhaps out of curiosity, and Google treated that as interest in your area.
For most small local businesses, switching to the presence option is the single most useful location change you can make. Check it on every campaign, because it is set per campaign, not once for the whole account.
When interest is the right choice
Some businesses genuinely need people from outside. A guest house in Darjeeling wants travellers planning from Kolkata or Bengaluru. A hospital known for a speciality may treat patients who travel. A wedding planner in Udaipur works with families from other cities. For these, interest-based reach is the point, and it is worth keeping, with the keywords doing more of the filtering.
Excluding places
Exclusions stop ads from showing in places you name. They help when your area has awkward edges, such as a neighbouring town that shares a district name, or when you target a wide region but cannot serve part of it.
Excluded locations have their own option for who counts as being there. Make sure it is set to exclude people who are in those places, so the exclusion does what you expect.
Keep exclusions simple. A long list of excluded areas inside a broad target is harder to understand than a shorter list of the areas you do want.
How location targeting interacts with keywords
Location settings and keywords work together, and both shape who sees your ad.
- Someone in your area searching “dentist near me” can see your ad, because they are in the right place.
- Someone in your area searching “dentist in Mumbai” may also match your keywords, even though they want a different city. Add other city names as negatives if you see this in the search terms.
- Someone outside your area searching “dentist Salt Lake” will only see your ad if the campaign uses the interest option.
So for a presence-based local campaign, you do not need to add your city name to every keyword. Your location setting handles who sees the ad. Including the city in some keywords can still help relevance, and searchers who type a place name are often very clear about what they want.
Checking where your ads actually showed
Settings tell you what you asked for. The location reports tell you what happened. Google Ads has location reports that can show two different things:
- Where people were when they saw or clicked your ad, based on their physical location.
- Which of your targeted locations they were matched to, which can include people matched by interest.
Look at both after the first few weeks. If clicks and cost are coming from places you do not serve, check the presence setting, then the exclusions, then the search terms for other city names. If one part of your area produces most of the enquiries and another produces none, that is useful information about where to focus, and perhaps about where your competitors are strongest.
Remember that location data is approximate. It comes from signals such as device location settings, IP address and searches, and people on mobile data can appear to be somewhere slightly different from where they are. A small amount of spend at the edges is normal. A steady stream from another state is not.
Service-area businesses
Plenty of businesses travel to the customer, such as plumbers, cleaners and tutors. Your ads can still target a radius or set of areas even if your Google Business Profile hides your address. The location targeting in Google Ads and the service area on your profile are separate settings, but they should describe the same area. Our post on service-area businesses on Google Maps covers the profile side.
A quick setup routine
- Write down the real area you serve.
- Choose named areas, a radius, or a mix that matches it.
- Open the location options and choose presence unless you genuinely want people from elsewhere.
- Add exclusions only for clear problem areas.
- After a few weeks, open the location reports and compare them with your call log.
- Adjust, then check again the following month.
Location and timing go together. Our guide to setting an ad schedule covers the hours side, and our post on reducing wasted ad spend shows where location sits among the other common leaks. The bigger picture of a first campaign is in our introductory Google Ads guide.
Frequently asked questions
Can I target a different radius for each branch of my business?
Yes. You can add several radius targets or areas to one campaign, or run a separate campaign for each branch with its own locations, budget and landing page. Separate campaigns make it easier to see which branch’s ads bring enquiries, and to send each searcher to the page for their nearest branch.
Why do I still see a few clicks from outside my area with the presence option on?
Location signals are not exact. Someone near the edge of your area, using mobile data, or who regularly spends time in your area can be counted as present. A small number of these is normal. If the share is large, check that every campaign uses the presence option and that exclusions are set correctly.
Should I target the whole of India if I sell online?
Only if you genuinely deliver everywhere and can afford to compete nationally. A national target spreads a small budget very thin. Many online shops start with the regions where they already have customers or where delivery is fastest and cheapest, then widen once they can see what each region brings in.
Getting location right is one of the first things we check in any account we look at, because a single setting can move a lot of money. If you would like that review done for you, see our Google Ads management page. Our small business digital marketing guide covers how paid search fits with your other channels.
Next in this series: Google Ads Ad Schedule: Run Ads at the Right Hours
