How can I improve the performance of my campaign targeting a specific city?

Short Answer: To improve your campaign’s performance when targeting a specific city, avoid placing too many geographical restrictions. Give Google enough room to identify opportunities not only within the city but also in surrounding areas. While you can create a negative list for locations outside the target city, allowing some nearby areas to be included can help enhance the overall campaign results.

Full Explanation

When running a campaign focused on a specific city, it might be tempting to restrict all activity strictly to that city’s borders. However, this limitation can backfire and reduce your campaign’s performance. Google’s systems need space and data to determine where your ads will perform best. If you constrain the location targeting too tightly, you might miss valuable opportunities from neighboring areas that are still relevant.

For example, targeting Baltimore means you are mostly aiming at that city’s population. But many potential leads or job opportunities might come from surrounding regions just outside the city limits. Restricting your campaign only to Baltimore could exclude these nearby prospects who are just as valuable.

To balance this, you can use a negative list to specifically exclude some areas that are irrelevant. However, it’s crucial to leave enough geographical room around your target city in the campaign settings. This approach allows Google to optimize delivery and maximize performance across both your primary city target and helpful surrounding locations.

Step-by-Step Breakdown

1. Define your main target city — Establish which city you want to focus your campaign on.
2. Allow inclusion of surrounding areas — Do not restrict your campaign solely to the strict city borders.
3. Create a negative list — Identify and exclude specific locations that are irrelevant to your campaign.
4. Monitor and adjust — Watch your campaign’s performance and tweak geographic settings as needed to find the right balance.
5. Trust Google’s algorithms — By providing enough location flexibility, you enable Google to place your ads where they can perform best.

Real Examples

Using Baltimore as an illustrative example, if your campaign only targets the city boundaries, you may miss out on jobs or clients located just outside those lines. By allowing some buffer around Baltimore and using a negative list to filter out irrelevant places, you maintain focus on your goal while capturing a broader, potentially profitable audience.

Common Mistakes

• Overly restrictive targeting: Limiting your campaign strictly to the city limits can reduce performance.
• Neglecting surrounding areas: Ignoring nearby towns or neighborhoods where valuable leads exist.
• Not using negative lists properly: Failing to exclude truly irrelevant locations, which wastes budget.
• Expecting immediate perfect results: Not giving the campaign enough time and flexibility to learn and optimize.

FAQs

Q: Why shouldn’t I focus only on the city I want to target?
Limiting only to that city blocks Google from reaching potential clients or jobs in surrounding areas that might be very relevant.

Q: How do negative lists help?
Negative lists allow you to prevent your ads from serving in places outside your interest, refining where your ads appear without overly restricting the entire campaign.

Q: Can restricting targeting too much hurt my budget?
Yes, it can reduce the pool of potential customers, resulting in fewer conversions and wasted budget.

Key Takeaways

• Don’t be overly restrictive with geographic targeting in your city-focused campaigns.
• Allow your campaign to include areas surrounding your target city for better performance.
• Use negative lists strategically to exclude irrelevant locations without limiting useful reach.
• Trust Google’s system by giving it enough data and flexibility to optimize delivery effectively.