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The Hidden Toggle: Why "New York" Doesn't Always Mean New York

Google’s default setting might be showing your ads outside your area.

When you select a location in Google Ads (e.g., "United States"), you probably assume your ads will only show to people there. That isn’t always true.

Inside the "Location options" section (usually collapsed by default), there are two very different targeting methods:

• Presence: People who are in, or regularly in, your target area.

• Presence or interest: People in your target area, plus people elsewhere who are searching about it.

If you leave the default ("Presence or interest"), a person in another country searching for "plumber in New York" can see and click your ad, costing you money for a job you can’t do.

Option A: "Presence" (The Safe Bet)

Target: "People in or regularly in your targeted locations."

This is the setting most local and service businesses should use. It keeps your ads focused on the geographic area you selected.

✅ Use this if:

• You are a local service business: plumbers, dentists, lawyers, mechanics. You need to be near the customer to serve them.

• You run e-commerce with shipping limits: you only ship within the US and don’t want to pay for clicks from Europe.

• You offer B2B services: you only work with companies in a specific region.

How it works: Google uses signals such as the user’s IP address and device location to estimate where they are.

Option B: "Interest" (The Specific Use Case)

Target: "People in, or showing interest in, your targeted locations."

This setting lets people outside your area see your ads if their searches show interest in your location.

✅ Use this if:

• Tourism & hospitality: You own a hotel in Las Vegas and want people in London searching "hotels in Las Vegas" to see your ad.

• Real estate: You sell homes in Florida to retirees currently living in New York.

• Moving companies: Someone in Texas searches "movers to California."

❌ The danger: If you run a local pizza shop and use this setting, you may pay for clicks from tourists planning a trip months in advance, or random informational searches from abroad.

The Fraud Connection: Why "Interest" is Risky

How looser targeting opens the door to Click Farms.

The wider "Presence or interest" setting gives invalid traffic more room to reach your ads.

Click farms: Many click farms operate from outside your target countries. With "Presence," they are naturally filtered out. With "Presence or interest," if they search your keywords plus your location, Google may still show them your ad.

VPNs: Location settings can’t catch everyone. Users hiding behind VPNs can appear to be inside your target area, which is where fraud protection comes in.

Recommendation: Unless you are in travel or a similar business, go to Settings > Locations > Location options and choose "Presence: People in or regularly in your targeted locations."

Then check your ClickSambo dashboard for blocked clicks from outside your area; a spike is often a sign your location options were too loose.