I'm running through some questions on the ad center learning. I came across this question and wondered could anyone explain it to me. If a Google user in Boston were to enter the search query "pizza in Los Angeles," the user would see what kinds of ads? a)Only ads targetting the city of Los Angeles b)Ads targetting the city of Los Angeles, as well as nationally targetted ads c)Only ads targetting Boston, MA Googles answer is B. And the reason is "Query parsing ensures that a user in Boston, MA would see view ads running on the keyword "pizza" and targetting Los Angeles. Additionally, the user would see ads targetting to the entire United States or world." Can anyone just clear this up for me, surely if the Ad was targetting Los Angeles the user who is in Boston wouldn't see it? Or am I missing something?
http://www.google.com/adwords/learningcenter/text/19159.html says: (emphasis added) So it looks like they do ignore the IP address in certain cases and show ads based on a location in the query.
If someone in Boston is looking for "pizza in Los Angeles", does it really make sense to show ads for pizza places in Boston? There are much bigger issues with location targeting (i.e., inaccuracy of IP address mapping) than this minor thing.
I disagree. The person searched for "pizza in Los Angeles". Therefore ads targeting Los Angeles would be appropriate. Had he searched for "pizza delivery" they would see national ads and Boston specific ads. Think about it in terms if he was searching "Los Angeles Hotel". Los Angeles targeted ads would be very appropriate.
I like to think of it in terms of what the advertiser wants. If I wish to limit my campaign to a particular city, I don't see why the search results should show it when the searcher is not located in that particular city but it's in his my search query For instance say I run a solicitors in Nottingham and I set up a campaign just to target Nottingham as I know from my own experience that when it comes down to turning up for the appointment most of the time people will only travel a short distance. Why should my ads run when someone in London types in 'solicitor Nottingham'?
I understand your reasoning, and I think you should be able to filter it how you want. However, Google does not give it's advertisers everything they want. I want to be able to run search network without Google network. I would like to be able to opt out of all domain parking pages... not filter them indvidualy after I have discovered they wasted money. I think the way Geo Targeting is currently set up, works "properly" for the majority. Your situation is something really specific that does not. There are some city specific searches that appropriate from other locations, some aren't. I think I would request to see if you can have your Geo targeting made to serve based on IP only. That is something that should be easy for them to do.
Cheers DavidK1, I was slightly confused as to how it worked. Now I know it's got its weaknesses I understand the system better.