(3)
Let's say you've geotargeted your Google AdWords ad for Florida. You'd be alarmed if you saw that the ad was being run in Oslo, Norway, wouldn't you?
I suppose I would be.
Is this a problem with Google? Well, in a way, it could be. AdWordsPro Sarah explains what could be happening if the geotargeting seems to be off as "query parsing [which] helps people who reside outside your targeted region but are interested in your product/service in your targeted region." To illustrate this phenomenon, she says that if you're targeting an ad with the keywords "buy surfboard" to Florida, and a guy from Oslo searches "buy surfboard florida," query parsing would come into play. After all, they're looking to find out ads specific to another region, and they can't do that with geotargeting blocking out Oslo from this specific query.
Forum discussion continues at Google Groups.
Comments:
James
06/25/2009 10:30 am
Is there some scripting that needs to implement with conversion code, some thing extra that explains the query parsing.
Suzie
07/12/2010 03:24 pm
As far as you know, is it possible to block this query parsing?? In my case, it is not admissible, since i can sell only to people actually living in the target area.. Let's say I buy the keyword restaurants and i target the campaign in Milan, if one looks for "Restaurants in Milan" from abroad i don't want to appear, since the persone is probably not living in Milan.. :( Thanks for the infos anyways!! Suzie
Jake
04/14/2011 01:59 pm
I just noticed this today. This is such B.S. I don't want my ads showing up in places I can't do business. How is this considered GEO targeting. I'm so frustrated right now. If somebody searches a product which a location associated with it, it will potentially show ads anywhere then? Is that right?