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Campaign Location vs. Click Location: What's the Difference?

It's common to see a difference between the location you target in your ad campaign and the actual, physical location of the device that clicks your ad. Understanding this distinction is crucial for identifying sophisticated click fraud.

Here’s a breakdown of the two concepts:

Campaign Target Location (Google's Approach)

This is the geographic area you define in your Google Ads settings, such as "United States" or "New York City

However, Google often uses more than just a person's current location to serve ads. It also considers their search intent. For example, someone physically located in London who searches for "restaurants in New York" might see your NYC-targeted ad because they have shown interest in that location. In many cases, this is legitimate and intended behavior.

Actual Click Location (ClickSambo's Analysis)

This is the real-world, physical location of the device at the exact moment it clicked your ad.

ClickSambo determines this precise location by analyzing the click's unique IP address against highly accurate, real-time geolocation databases. This provides the ground truth of where the click actually came from, regardless of the user's search query.

Why the Discrepancy Matters for Fraud Detection

While some differences are legitimate (like the search intent example), a consistent mismatch between your target area and the actual click location is a major red flag for fraud.

Fraudsters routinely use VPNs and proxies to hide their true location (e.g., in a country with low labor costs) and pretend to be in your valuable target market (e.g., the USA). They can trick Google's broader "interest-based" targeting, but they cannot hide their IP's true origin from our deep analysis.

By focusing on the precise, IP-based click location, ClickSambo cuts through this deception. We identify and block these fraudulent sources, ensuring you pay for clicks from customers who are genuinely in your target area, not from click farms on the other side of the world.