Google Ads Location Targeting: Are Your Leads Too Far Away?

Google Ads Location Targeting: Are Your Leads Too Far Away?

The phone rings. Someone needs your service. Then they mention the address—and the job is well outside your coverage.

You cannot take the booking, but you may already have paid for the click.

For Australian trade businesses, Google Ads location targeting deserves attention before increasing the advertising budget. The aim is to reach people whose jobs your team can actually attend.

Here is what to check when enquiries keep coming from the wrong areas.

1. Check Who Your Location Settings Include

Selecting a city does not necessarily restrict your ads to people currently there.

Google’s default “Presence or interest” option can include people outside your target area who have shown interest in that location. “Presence” focuses on people Google estimates are in, or regularly in, the selected area.

For a trade business handling local call-outs, reviewing whether Presence better matches its customers is a sensible starting point.

However, narrowing the setting can also reduce reach. Treat the change as a decision to evaluate against lead quality.

2. Separate the Caller’s Location From the Job Address

Imagine a Brisbane-based landlord arranging a plumbing repair at a rental property in Townsville.

The caller is outside Townsville. The job is not.

That enquiry could be valuable to a Townsville plumber. Automatically treating every distant caller as wasted spend would miss the distinction.

Before changing your targeting, check whether rejected enquiries involve properties outside your coverage or customers booking local work from elsewhere.

The property address determines whether you can attend the job. Ask for the job suburb or postcode early in the conversation.

3. Compare Reports With Actual Enquiries

Google’s Matched locations report shows locations associated with ad performance. Those can represent physical locations or locations of interest, so the report should not be treated as a list of confirmed job addresses.

Compare it with a simple enquiry log recording:

• Job suburb or postcode.

• Service requested.

• Whether the enquiry was suitable.

• Whether it became a booking.

Make your coverage clear on the landing page too. Someone requesting a quote should quickly understand where you work.

Practical website design for tradies connects that information with an easy way to enquire. Avoid making visitors complete a long form just to discover you cannot attend.

4. Measure the Cost of Suitable Opportunities

Consider an illustrative campaign spending A$600 and generating 20 enquiries. That is A$30 per enquiry.

If only eight meet your location and service criteria, the cost per qualified enquiry is A$75.

That distinction makes the campaign easier to assess. Track booked work alongside suitable enquiries before deciding whether to increase spend.

Where measurement is configured appropriately, Google Ads supports qualified and converted lead goals using offline outcomes.

Location settings still have limits: Google explicitly states that location accuracy is not guaranteed. Review patterns over time rather than expecting every unsuitable call to disappear.

Need help reviewing your campaign? Explore Rewaver’s Google Ads management for tradies and discuss your coverage, targeting and lead tracking.