Google.be default in UK

Should I add .be to countries where ads show?

[millie]

I'm targeting UK-only audience.

When I call up google.co.uk I quite often get forced onto google.be.

Is this widespread? If so, is it a good idea to add Belgium to the countries I want my ads to show in?

Same question goes for USA. Many UK users use google.com so I have put USA as one of the selected countries. Is this the right thing to do to ensure I get a wider cross-section of UK users?

I have made it clear in the ad creative that it's for UK consumers only.

Have I got the right end of the stick? Thanks!

[Lord Majestic]

Many UK users use google.com so I have put USA as one of the selected countries

I work for big B2C UK site and share of referrals from Google.co.uk and Google.com is about 50/50. Personally I always use google.com since its faster to type (yes I have toolbar, but habits die hard).

I always thought that Google used IP targeting anyway, they appear to assume I am in the UK and giving same search results as if I came to Google.co.uk.

[spanky316]

Yes, Google do use IP targeting. I run campaigns for both UK and Germany (with other European countries soon to follow), and it doesn't matter if someone from either the UK or Germany use .com, .co.uk, .de, or whatever. Google will automatically recognise the country you are searching from and displays the results accordingly. ie. a German could search .com for one of our German keywords and it will display exactly as it would if they were to use .de
If you add America to your list of countries it will merely display your ads to Americans (as well as your previously targeted market). If, like me, you do not supply to America then you are simply spending money for Americans (who you cannot supply to) to click on your ads.