Adwords - 12 mile radius?

[keirms]

Morning all,

We have a small PPC campaign running at the moment which we've set to activate within a 12 mile radius of the business (North Herts.)

Problem is we're getting enquiries from all over the place! Whilst I was in London recently I did a google search and it came up with our website as a sponsored listing - not good.

Any ideas why the 12 mile radius parameter is being ignored? Something to do with IP addresses and ISPs? Or just google being a bit temperamental?

Keir

[kyber]

Frankly, I can not think of a reliable technology that can be used in the UK against a browser internet connection to determine your likely connection location beyond major regional divisions (in many cases no more than UK).

Certainly the major ISPs do do their dynamic allocation of IP addresses on a regional basis, each has their own scheme. Perhaps Google is paying for this information or has determined it by other means. Certainly they could do trace backs (a bit like you see when you do a ping) to see what hops you have to make. I have my doubts about reliability.

I would be absolutely delighted if someone can update on this.

I have just taken a look at the location options in adwords and google seem confident that they can offer this service in the UK. A broader search shows many complaints about it not working well. Your experience seems to match this.

Stuart

[top-click]

Hi Keir,

Unfortunately the geo targetting option in Google is not by any means 100%.

My understanding is that the targetting is based solely on IP addresses - so you suffer from a double whammy - not only do you miss out on all of the potential searchers in your specified region who have an IP address elsewhere but also recieve clicks from searchers outside the region who have IP addresses in your region.

We have a client who has a business in London and only wnats to get customers from London - we have structured the campaign to achieve this with Geo targetting (and acknowledge that we will miss many potential clicks from Londoners with IP addresses outside London) and all but eradicated clicks from outside London by stating in the Ad copy that the Firm is based in London (they're a Law firm undertaking amongst other things resiodential conveyancing) - this seems to achieve their objective.

Maybe this is something you could try - including 'personal trainers for Herfordshire' in the ad copy?

Best regards
Rob

top-click

[keirms]

Thanks guys, as suspected.

We'll either have to include "in Hertfordshire" in the ad copy or maybe include Hertfordshire and all the local towns in the keywords.

It's a shame google can't actually deliver what they promise!

Stuart - may I ask where you searched to encounter other people with the same problem?

Thanks once again,

Keir