Are Your Google Ads Reaching the Wrong Zip Codes? A Location Targeting Setup for Birmingham

Why are your Google Ads showing to people who live an hour away and would never actually drive to you? Most of the time the answer is simple: your location targeting is set wider than your business, and the default settings are quietly letting Google show your ads far outside your real service area. The good news is that this is one of the fastest fixes in a Google Ads account, and you can walk through it step by step today.

For a local business, where your ads show up matters as much as what they say. A plumber in Homewood does not need clicks from someone in Huntsville. Below is a practical, start-to-finish way to get your location targeting pointed at the customers you can actually win. If you want a second set of eyes on your account, we help Birmingham businesses run and clean up their ads.

Step 1: Understand what “location targeting” actually controls

Location targeting is the setting that tells Google which geographic areas your ad is allowed to appear in. It sounds obvious, but there are two separate things it can mean, and mixing them up is where a lot of budget leaks out.

The first is where the person is physically located. The second is where the person is interested in, based on their search terms and browsing. Google lets you target “presence” (people in your area) or “presence or interest” (people in your area plus people anywhere who seem interested in your area). That second option is the default, and it is why a cabinet shop in Birmingham can end up paying for a click from someone in Atlanta who once searched “Birmingham.”

So step one is just knowing the difference. You want to control it on purpose, not inherit a default you never chose.

Step 2: Open your campaign’s location settings and read what’s there

Go into the campaign, find the Locations section, and look at exactly what is listed. You may be surprised. A lot of accounts we see are set to “United States” or an entire state because that was the setup wizard’s suggestion when the account was created.

Write down what you find. Say a roofing company notices its campaign is targeting all of Alabama while its crews only work within about 30 miles of downtown Birmingham. That single mismatch could mean a meaningful share of the monthly budget is being spent on clicks the business can never service. Reading the current setting is the whole point of this step, because you cannot fix what you have not looked at.

Step 3: Choose between a radius and specific places

Now decide how you want to define your area. You have two solid options.

A radius draws a circle around a point. This works well for service businesses that think in drive time, like “we cover 25 miles from our shop.” You set the center and the distance, and you are done.

Specific places lets you add cities, counties, or zip codes one by one. This works well when your area is not a neat circle, for example if you serve Hoover, Vestavia Hills, and Mountain Brook but skip everything north of the interstate.

A realistic example: an HVAC company that mostly works the suburbs south of the city might get cleaner results listing those specific towns than drawing one big radius that scoops in neighborhoods it rarely serves. If you are still mapping out which nearby towns are worth chasing, our guide on showing up in the towns around Birmingham pairs well with this.

Step 4: Switch to “presence” targeting

This is the step that saves the most wasted spend. In the location options, change the setting from “presence or interest” to presence (sometimes labeled “people in or regularly in your targeted locations”).

With presence targeting, your ad shows to people who are actually in your area. It stops the ad from chasing someone three states away who typed your city name into a search. For a local business selling a local service, this is almost always the right call.

Say a med spa in Birmingham makes just this one change. It is reasonable to expect the same monthly budget to produce more clicks from people close enough to book, simply because fewer impressions are being burned on distant searchers. We cannot promise a specific number, but tightening who sees the ad is one of the most dependable improvements available.

Step 5: Add excluded locations if you need them

Sometimes the cleanest fix is telling Google where not to show your ads. If you serve a wide radius but keep getting calls from one neighboring county you do not cover, add it as an excluded location. Exclusions override your targeting, so they are a precise way to trim the edges without redrawing your whole map.

This is also useful for seasonal shifts. Heading into the fall and holiday stretch, you might want to pull back a far-flung area so your budget concentrates where you can actually keep up with demand during busier weeks.

Step 6: Match your targeting to the rest of your local presence

Your ads should point to the same place your other local marketing does. If your Google Business Profile, your website, and your local SEO all say you serve metro Birmingham, your ad targeting should say the same. Consistency helps both your paid and unpaid visibility, and it keeps your message honest for the people who find you. You can see how we approach the metro on our Birmingham service area page.

Step 7: Check the Locations report after two weeks

Targeting is not “set and forget.” After a couple of weeks, open the Locations report inside your campaign. It shows where your clicks and conversions are actually coming from, down to the city and sometimes zip code.

Look for two things. First, places spending money with no results, which are candidates to exclude. Second, places quietly converting well, which may deserve more attention or their own ad copy. A realistic example: a flooring company reviewing this report might find one suburb producing most of its booked estimates and decide to feature that town by name in its ads. This review loop is how good local campaigns stay efficient over time. If you want help reading these reports, getting in touch with our team is a good next move.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between radius targeting and targeting a city?

Radius targeting draws a circle around a point you pick, which is handy if you think in drive time. Targeting a city, county, or zip code lets you hand-pick specific areas. Service businesses often start with a radius, while businesses with an uneven coverage area usually prefer naming specific places.

Will tightening my location targeting lower how many people see my ad?

Yes, and that is usually the point. Fewer, more relevant impressions mean you stop paying for clicks from people who cannot use your service. The aim is not the biggest possible audience, it is the right audience close enough to become customers.

How often should I review my location settings?

A good rhythm is checking the Locations report every couple of weeks at first, then monthly once things settle. Revisit it any time your service area changes or a busy season is coming, since you may want to narrow or expand where your budget goes.

Getting your ads in front of the right neighborhoods is one of the simplest ways to make a local budget work harder. The local team behind your growth is here when you want a hand.