Geotargeting
Paid MediaAlso: Geo-Targeting · Location Targeting
Quick definition
Geotargeting is delivering ads only to people in a defined location, whether that's a country, a state, a city or a radius around a specific address. It lets advertisers match ad spend to where their customers actually are instead of paying to reach an entire country indiscriminately.
How it varies across Australia
Geotargeting matters more in Australia than in denser markets because the population is concentrated in a handful of metro areas separated by huge distances. A national campaign that ignores this often wastes spend on regions with no realistic service capacity. Local and regional businesses typically see the sharpest efficiency gains from tightening radius settings.
See acquisition benchmarks across Australian industries →What it actually means
Geotargeting is the setting that decides who's even eligible to see your ad based on where they are. Set it to a city, a postcode radius or a whole country and the platform filters the auction accordingly before your bid, your creative or your landing page ever come into play.
The complexity most advertisers miss is the difference between people physically present in a location and people merely showing interest in it. Google Ads and Meta both let you choose. A plumber in Perth wants presence-only, because someone in Melbourne searching 'Perth plumber' out of curiosity isn't a lead. A tourism board wants interest included, because someone planning a trip from Melbourne is exactly the audience.
Geotargeting sits upstream of everything else in a campaign. Get it wrong and your CTR, your conversion rate and your CPA all look worse for reasons that have nothing to do with your ad copy or your bidding strategy. It's the first lever to check, not the last.
Most geotargeting mistakes are quiet. Nobody notices a radius set five kilometres too wide. They just notice the CPA creeping up and start rewriting the ad.
Geotargeting isn't about reaching fewer people. It's about not paying to reach people you were never going to serve.
How it shows up
Geotargeting shows up in the location settings tab of every major ad platform, usually configured once during campaign setup and rarely audited again. It also shows up indirectly in performance reports: unexplained CTR or conversion rate differences by region are almost always a targeting or bid-adjustment issue rather than a creative one. Franchise and multi-location businesses see it most starkly, where one location's campaign quietly serves impressions across a neighbouring franchisee's territory.
The Australian context
Australia's geography makes geotargeting unusually consequential. A business in Brisbane targeting 'Queensland' by default is also targeting Cairns and Toowoomba, towns it may have no realistic ability to service. Postcode-level or radius-based targeting is almost always more accurate than state-level targeting for local and regional businesses.
Time zones add a second layer. A national campaign scheduled around Sydney business hours is running ads to Perth users four to five hours out of sync, which affects call-tracking and response-rate assumptions if nobody accounts for it.
Where people get this wrong
Related terms
Common questions
What's the difference between 'presence' and 'interest' geotargeting?
Presence-only targets people physically located in or regularly in the area. Interest-based also includes people outside the area who are searching about it. Local service businesses should almost always choose presence-only to avoid paying for irrelevant clicks.
How granular can geotargeting get?
Most platforms allow targeting from whole countries down to a radius as small as one kilometre around a specific address. Radius targeting is usually the most accurate option for single-location local businesses.
Does geotargeting affect ad cost?
Yes. Narrower, more relevant geotargeting reduces wasted impressions and clicks, which typically lowers CPA even though it doesn't directly change your CPC bid. Broader targeting spreads spend across people less likely to convert.
Should multi-location businesses run one campaign or one per location?
Separate campaigns per location generally perform better because each can have its own radius, bid adjustments and budget. A single campaign covering multiple locations often lets bid data from a stronger location mask weak performance elsewhere.
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About New Rebellion
New Rebellion is a marketing intelligence consultancy. We build tools, score Australian businesses on how their marketing actually performs, and publish Debrief every day. This dictionary is part of how we work in the open.
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