Google announced that it has connected location targeting in AdWords to Google Maps to provide more info about locations, make relevant location suggestions and improve accuracy in targeting.
Along with this, they’ve refreshed the location targeting interface in AdWords. “Let’s say that you want to target your latest AdWords campaign to New York City, explains Smita Hashim, Group Product Manager on Google’s Local Ads Quality team. “On your Campaign Settings tab, as you type ‘New York’ into the search box in the location targeting section, you’ll instantly see helpful search suggestions. The suggestions include (1) matches like the city of New York, (2) locations that enclose New York (such as the state of New York), and (3) related locations that may be near the location that you’ve entered, have a similar name, or enclose a location that has a similar name. You can then pick the options that make the most sense for your business and quickly make the appropriate selection.”
“You can also view your locations via a map, which shows more detailed location outlines,” adds Hashim. “The new tool also allows you to view the boundaries of multiple locations that you’ve selected simultaneously, so you can see how much area the city of New York (smaller area shaded in blue) covers in relation to the entire New York metro area (larger area shaded in gray). Once you choose a location, you can easily add, exclude, or view nearby locations by clicking the appropriate links.”
Google is also providing more detail on locations, including reach numbers to help the advertiser estimate the audience within the selected target. Google says it will use the “limited reach” label to indicate locations where it isn’t able to associate users with a selected location based on IP. Google says it will primarily use user intent data for targeting in these instances.
When an advertiser targets a radius, it’ll show “locations within this target”.
Google has increased the location target limit from 300 to 10,000.
Finally, Google is getting rid of polygon targeting. It will be supported only through the end of the year. Google recommends using the “Target a Radius” feature instead.