Adwords GeoTargeting Revelation

Interesting observation about geo targeting and geo keyword qualifiers

[jlara]

A Google Adwords campaign was setup with geo targeting for seven states. One of those states was California. Florida was not selected. The campaign only has one keyword on phrase match. We will use “widget service” as the example.

From Florida a search for widget service does not serve the ad. Also from Florida if the search is modified for California widget service, the ad is served. Testing with other geo qualifiers proved the ad would show if the geo modifier was one of the targeted areas.

I was both shocked and impressed with this. On one hand the advertiser can only perform widget service in those seven states. They thought that by IP recognition only searchers from those states would see those ads. On the other hand this eliminates the need for a national campaign with geo keyword qualifiers.

Is this an upgrade? Has it always worked this way? Should there be another option for strict enforcement of location by IP?

One thing is certain, IP info is not the only qualifier when displaying geo targeted ads.

[Rehan]

This behavior is mentioned at [google.com...] ... Look for the "Query Parsing" section. That section has been in there since at least as far back as 2005, according to web.archive.org.