Google Adwords has announced a total makeover of its Location Targeting or Geo-Targeting. One of the most important changes is the ability to more easily discover locations.

More Easily Discover Locations

Let’s say that you want to target your latest AdWords campaign to Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada . On your Campaign Settings tab, as you type “Vancouver” 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 Vancouver, (2) locations that enclose Vancouver (such as the province of British Columbia), 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 the campaign and quickly make the appropriate selection.

Related Locations

The related locations are throwing up some interesting results. In this case a location on the other side of the world has been shown! You can get details on this suggestion by putting your mouse over the suggestion. In this case it is “Related to”: Vancouver Peninsula, Western Australia, Australia. So clearly this is not relevant.

More Detail On Locations

Reach numbers are now shown (see below) which helps you to estimate the potential targeted audience. These Reach numbers should only be used as a general guidance, but are very useful in relative comparisons. For example you can see below that Vancouver has 5 times the reach of Burnaby. You can also see that West Vancouver is likely to generate very little traffic.

View Locations on Map

Google Adwords is now more closely integrated to Google Maps, providing a far better visual representation of your location targeting. Below you can see Vancouver highlighted. Clicking on a nearby location, for example Burnaby, will then show exactly what geographic area Burnaby covers in relation to Vancouver.

New Location Targeting Is a Significant Improvement

We have tested the new location targeting and find it to be a significant improvement. We recommend that all Adwords advertisers revisit their campaign settings, to see if they accurately reflect their intended audience.

Note that using Dimensions, you can also see the entire clicks/impressions history by City or geographic area.