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Yeah so that’s the weird part that I didn’t mention. These ads only run in the US.

cj 6y ago
This might help you fix the problem: Google Ads default settings for location targeting is based on "Presence or interest" in a location, not whether the user is actually in the targeted country. That means even if you have "United States" selected as your target, your ads will still show mostly to people outside the US who "show interest in" the US. To fix it: Campaign Settings > Location > Location Options, and under "Target" select "Presence". Never use the default "Presence or interest" option, as it will result in exactly the scenario you're describing. This is my #1 pet peeve with Google Ads. Using the default setting is an incredibly common (and expensive) mistake people make setting up new campaigns.
- hermitcrab 6y ago
  The default Adwords settings are garbage (unless you are Google).
thekonqueror 6y ago
By default Google will show ads to people in or "intersted in" the selected location. You can change this to only show ads to people actually present in the specified location, from campaign level location targeting. I spend low 5 figures per month on ads and changing this parameter has significantly reduced poor quality clicks.
undreren 6y ago
Maybe this is due to chinese and indian click farms running through VPN’s? Click farms click on everything in order to dodge fraud detection, as far as I know.
- cj 6y ago
  I've been suspicious of this in my own campaigns as well. Google Ads lets you drill down to specific cities where your ads were clicked. Very often, Ashburn Virginia shows up very high on the list. Ashburn is where AWS's us-east region lives, and presumably also where many VPNs operate out of. I simply ended up excluding Ashburn from our campaigns for this reason.
  - shiftpgdn 6y ago
    Is it possible to create an IP blacklist for your ads? Seems like blocking India, China and AWS/Azure/Digital Ocean would be step one.

cj 6y ago

This might help you fix the problem: Google Ads default settings for location targeting is based on "Presence or interest" in a location, not whether the user is actually in the targeted country. That means even if you have "United States" selected as your target, your ads will still show mostly to people outside the US who "show interest in" the US. To fix it: Campaign Settings > Location > Location Options, and under "Target" select "Presence". Never use the default "Presence or interest" option, as it will result in exactly the scenario you're describing. This is my #1 pet peeve with Google Ads. Using the default setting is an incredibly common (and expensive) mistake people make setting up new campaigns.

hermitcrab 6y ago
The default Adwords settings are garbage (unless you are Google).

thekonqueror 6y ago

By default Google will show ads to people in or "intersted in" the selected location. You can change this to only show ads to people actually present in the specified location, from campaign level location targeting. I spend low 5 figures per month on ads and changing this parameter has significantly reduced poor quality clicks.

undreren 6y ago

Maybe this is due to chinese and indian click farms running through VPN’s? Click farms click on everything in order to dodge fraud detection, as far as I know.

cj 6y ago
I've been suspicious of this in my own campaigns as well. Google Ads lets you drill down to specific cities where your ads were clicked. Very often, Ashburn Virginia shows up very high on the list. Ashburn is where AWS's us-east region lives, and presumably also where many VPNs operate out of. I simply ended up excluding Ashburn from our campaigns for this reason.
- shiftpgdn 6y ago
  Is it possible to create an IP blacklist for your ads? Seems like blocking India, China and AWS/Azure/Digital Ocean would be step one.