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Ask Ad Grants – Should I target my location from Country to Region?

by Robert Coats on September 23, 2014

askadgrants-locationAs the Top Contributor of the Google Ad Grants Help Forum in the AdWords Community, I am often asked about maximizing ad spend of the Google Ad Grant to generate more clicks. Many grantees run into an issue with being able to gain much traction due to the $2 bid cap imposed on Grant accounts and this grantee was wanting to know if changing the location targeting would help overcome some of these challenges.

The question was:

With Google Grants I want to get as many clicks as I can because the $2.00 cap on keywords makes it hard for me to get clicks. Would I have more luck if I limited my location from Canada to Ontario (a Province within Canada that my site targets)? I have experimented with this but haven’t seen a difference.

Thanks for any advice offered!

 

Here is what I had to say:

Regardless of ad spend, it is best to target the location that is MOST relevant for your organization to reach the audience that is RIGHT for your organization.

Expanding your targeting to reach a broader audience that is not relevant to your organization may let you spend more of your budget but it will be wasted budget and your account will end-up degrading over time which will make it much more difficult to target the right audience in the future.

If you are having a hard time being competitive at the $2 bid cap, then take a serious look at your quality scores and work to improve them. The main way to do this is to ensure that your account is well segmented with ad groups that are tightly themed. This will allow you to craft ads that are more relevant and likely to generate higher click through rates (CTR), which will in-turn increase your quality scores and will lower the high top-page bid estimates you are likely seeing.

Over all, do not worry too much about the number of clicks or the budget spent – instead, focus on being relevant with your ads, reaching the right audience and generating conversions. Your main goal should be to use the Ad Grant to help your organization accomplish its mission, not to generate as many clicks as you can.

If you have a question on Google Ad Grants, feel free to reach out to me. I will be glad to help.

 

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