Content Network and Location and Language Targetting

Can anyone explain how these work together?

[HelenDev]

We have a campaign which is enabled for both the search and the content networks, which is also restricted to target the UK and English language only.

I am wondering what effect the language and location targetting has on the content network, as some of the sites chosen will be non-UK ones.

Does the language and location targetting only apply to the search network? Or do these selections mean that ads will only appear on UK based sites which are in English?

[poster_boy]

Does the language and location targetting only apply to the search network?

No, Content Network ads are geo-targeted as well.

Or do these selections mean that ads will only appear on UK based sites which are in English?

Geo-targeting is not tied to where the site is based, it's tied to the following: where a user is based (via IP address) and sometimes the Google domain searched from and the query itself. So, even if you're perusing a co.uk site from the US, you will see ads targeting your location - the US.

[phranque]

as described by poster_boy but in more detail, here is the adwords help page on location targeting:
How does AdWords know where to show my keyword-targeted ads? - AdWords Help [adwords.google.com]

the language targeting depends on each Google domain's language setting defaults and the user's Google interface language setting:
How does language targeting work? - AdWords Help [adwords.google.com]

i haven't found a clear statement about how language targeting works in the content network but i would assume that the network determines its default language by associating with a specific google domain.

i would strongly recommend you have a separate campaign for each language target except for some specific bilingual location targets.

[HelenDev]

Thanks for the responses guys, that has helped throw some light on the situation.

I think there is some info out there on this, but it's quite hard to find as it's buried in with other stuff.

There does seem to be some specific advice on language targeting and the content network, from the link phranque suggested How does language targeting work? [adwords.google.com]:

Targeting multiple languages can also increase your ads' exposure across the Google Network. A website in the Google Network can target a certain language, meaning that only ads targeting the same language can appear on that site. For example, a content site in the Google Network may target the Spanish language, which means that your ad would only show on that site if your campaign's language targeting selection included Spanish.

Re location targetting I found this on How AdWords Targets Users [google.com]:

When a user searches Google or sites across the Google Network, we'll determine to show your ad based on the user's:

* Google domain
* Query entered (called query parsing)
* Internet Protocol (IP) address
* Language preference

emphasis mine