Google this week introduced the ability to target more than 30,000 ZIP codes in AdWords, giving advertisers the ability to find potential customers in a familiar, granular way. Another new feature, Location Insertion, is aimed at letting advertisers with multiple locations create one ad, and have information dynamically inserted depending on the user’s query or location. Both features are part of location extensions. which are also getting some other tweaks in response to feedback.

For ZIP code targeting, advertisers will be able to add up to 1,000 postal codes at a time. They’ll also be able to view campaign performance stats by ZIP code.

Location Insertion will let advertisers create a single ad for all locations, and AdWords will then insert the city name, postal code, and phone number of the appropriate location when the ad is displayed. These parameters can be inserted into the ad title, text, display URL and destination URL. For example, if the ad text entered said “Find a location near you in {lb.city:Local},” a user searching from Cleveland would see Cleveland in place of the parameter.

Location insertion will work even if other extensions — like sitelinks — take precedence over your location extensions.

Google has also changed the wording around its advanced location targeting, apparently in response to travel advertisers. Previously, if someone in New York was searching for “Flights to Las Vegas,” ads targeted to New York would not appear, because the query indicated the person was interested in Las Vegas. With the change, advertisers may now select “People in my targeted location,” to show ads to people in that location, no matter what their search query seems to indicate.

Old Advanced Targeting

New Advanced Targeting

The company is also using additional location signals on the Google Display Network. Previously, only the likely physical location of the user was utilized in targeting. Now, Google will also look at the content on the page — when it seems to be tied to a certain location — and target ads accordingly. The default is to show ads to people “in” or “viewing pages about” the targeted location, but advertisers may change this setting.

This also seems to be most useful for the travel vertical, as a person could be in one location — in Texas, for example — researching what to do on a ski vacation in Colorado. With the new targeting, this person could receive ads targeted both to Texas and to Colorado.

Advanced location exclusion is also changing in response to user feedback. The wording on the options has changed, as has the default. Previously, “Exclude by physical location only,” was the default, but now the more restrictive option — now “People in, searching for, or viewing pages about my excluded location” — is the default.

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Google: Maps & Local

About The Author: Pamela Parker is a contributing editor for Search Engine Land and Executive Features Editor at Marketing Land. She’s a well-respected authority on digital marketing, having reported and written on the subject since 1998, including a stint as managing editor of ClickZ. She’s also worked to help monetize independent publishers’ sites at Federated Media Publishing. She blogs about media and marketing at The River and about cooking, gardening and parenthood at Free Range. She can be found on Twitter as @pamelaparker. See more articles by Pamela Parker

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