AdWords Help

Regional or customized targeting benefits advertisers who want to reach customers in a specific region, city, or geographic location. It's a powerful way to reach qualified prospects in the precise area where you do business.

Here's how it works: Missy wants to target Los Angeles with the keyword hemp shirts. With region and city targeting, her ads may appear when:

• A Google user in Los Angeles searches for hemp shirts. Google uses the user's Internet Protocol (IP) address to determine the user's location and to show Missy's ad.
• A Google user in New York searches for Los Angeles hemp shirts. Google uses the location information in the search query ('Los Angeles') to determine the user's area of interest and to show Missy's ad. (This functionality is only available on Google)

With customized targeting, the above is also true. However, instead of targeting the city of Los Angeles, Missy would target an area within Los Angeles. The user's IP address would have to be in the designated area in order to see Missy's ad.