• Germany
• Bermuda
• Canada
• Virgin Islands (U.S.)
• Netherlands
• Denmark
• United Kingdom
• Sweden
• Iceland
• Switzerland
• Norway
• Finland
• Australia
• Belgium
• Ireland
• Barbados
• Greenland
• Bahrain
• Virgin Islands (British)
• United States
• New Zealand
• Gibraltar
I also choose "English" as the language I want. Note that none of these nations includes Nigeria or Ghana.
Even so I get Ghanaians and Nigerians signing up for my services, and I am thus wasting clicks on scammers and spammers.
I asked support how to avoid Ghana. This quoted box is a paraphrased precis of their answer
They understood that I do not want my ads in Ghana. and acknowledged that I have a list of countries where I restrict my advertising.They pointed out that, when I target a country that has its own Google domain, my ad may also show to other people using the domain from outside that country.
Now this next part gets complex to paraphrase without quoting a lot of the original. I am walking a tightrope withing WebmasterWorld Terms of Service here, so bear with me. I think this wil be acceptable to the TOS.
They explained that if I choose to target the UK, for example, people from other countries who choose to search on www.google.co.uk will see my ad, despite the fact that their IP address is not in my targeted area. To solve this, I could instead choose to target the countries of the UK individually, as this would require that a user have on IP address in the targeted country before they would see my ad.
(Sorry, moderators. If I try to paraphrase that any more it loses pretty much everything I didn't understand in the first place)
They also told me about latitide/longitude target settngs, but those have no relevance to me really.
They pointed out that it is the user's IP that decides whether an advert can be seen, not (eg) Google.com, which is used globally.
They did acknowldge that this was not entirely convenient as an answer and said they would put the matter in front of the Product Development Team.
I interpret this as "To avoid Ghana you need to target a list of nations that does not include Ghana."
Hmm. Ok I have either misunderstood or they have! My list does not include Ghana. But it seems that a Ghanaian may search google.co.uk and have my advert served to her? I am now totally lost.
I have asked for a reply that is less impenetrable, though.
AWA, can you have a wander about in support and see if you have any idea what they mean, please?
That said, I don't think it's possible to avoid Ghanians, sad to say...
To solve this, I could instead choose to target the countries of the UK individually, as this would require that a user have on IP address in the targeted country before they would see my ad.
If that is true, why not set up different campaigns for each country?
If that is true, why not set up different campaigns for each country?
Indeed if it is true one might do that with some substantial labour :)
It does seems rather long winded, though, and there seems to be little hope of getting away from 419 scammers and their ilk.
I, too, serve ads in many countries. Being that i am able to check on these ads via any Google domain / language setting, I don't think IP plays a factor in determining which ads serve.
I do not disagree with you, but Google Adwords Support does, for the information comes from them. I thus (currently) take it as gospel.
Indeed if it is true one might do that with some substantial labour :)
It shouldn't take too long if you use the Adwords "Copy/Move Keywords and Ad Text" tool. Once the new campaigns were set up you could copy all text and all keywords from your original campaign to every new campaign in a short period of time. Maybe an hour or two total time needed from start to finish.
Or, if the longitude-latitude(multi-point option)works as Google claims it would be even easier to set up. I use the multi-point option in the US but it is also available where you are advertising. If you haven't used it, it is really simple--just connect 3 or more dots on a map. You would only have to set up a couple of different campaigns to do it this way for the areas you are targeting.
It shouldn't take too long if you use the Adwords "Copy/Move Keywords and Ad Text" tool. Once the new campaigns were set up you could copy all text and all keywords from your original campaign to every new campaign in a short period of time. Maybe an hour or two total time needed from start to finish.
Even so, how will this remove Ghanaians? That is the question that I do not have the answer to
Even so, how will this remove Ghanaians? That is the question that I do not have the answer to
Using the multi-point option you should only get clicks from people who have an IP address within the designated area, regardless of which search engine they are using. At least that is my understanding.
In fact, that is what you said they told you:
They pointed out that it is the user's IP that decides whether an advert can be seen, not (eg) Google.com, which is used globally.
If that is true the multi-point option should solve your problem. If not, I don't know...
