​Google Ads Geo targeting: Are you missing your market?

It’s remarkable how easy it is to spend money on Google Ads in the wrong places. We come across many customers who are metaphorically trying to sell sand to Arabs. We strongly suspect there may even have been companies out there in the past that actually did mistakenly (literally) try to sell builders sand to Arabs or ice creams to Eskimos using Google Ads simply by getting their Geo targeting wrong. ​

​This fictitious scenario is an example of how businesses can easily miss a market and spend money on Google Ads in the wrong place but there are much subtler ways of making similar mistakes and wasting your marketing budget promoting Ads to the wrong people in the wrong locations.

In highly competitive markets where you are limited by your budget, you can also find your Ads are sidelined in favour of your competitors if you do not target your advertising effectively. That can leave you with the “crumbs off the table” missing out on some of the best potential customers for your business. It’s all down to how Google’s bid management system works to ensure the best results for its users and advertisers. There is nothing malicious in this (though it may feel like it), it’s simply the way the system works to optimise Ad revenue for Google and create the best experience for its users.

An example may help illustrate the kinds of problems some of our clients have had when they come to us with tales of poor conversion rates and lacklustre sales from Google Ads.

Imagine you are selling a service in a competitive market. You are competitive on price, product quality and your web site experience so all things being equal you should stand as good a chance of selling as your competitor does on Google Ads. You have a reasonable budget to spend and try to get as many clicks as you can for your money. But you don’t see your own Ads very much on Google and sales are poor. You are GEO targeting the areas you serve across the south of England (for example). It should all be working well, but it isn’t. What’s wrong?!

This is a scenario we are all too familiar with when prospects come to us for help with their Google Ads. The root causes can be very different from customer to customer but the experience is the same – it feels like you are wasting money on Google Ads. And in short, invariably businesses in this situation ARE wasting money. Possible causes include:

• Poor Geo targeting.
• Poor Ad text quality.
• Poor click through rates strangling your Ad exposure.
• Poor keyword choices.
• Poor campaign structures.
• Poor Ad to keyword relevancy.
• Poor quality scores.
• Poor (inadequate) bids.

​If you are experiencing poor performance of your Google Ad campaign get in touch with us for a discussion about how we can help improve your campaign performance.