Google AdWords has announced that it is implementing new enhancements to its location targeting capabilities to make location targeting clearer and more powerful.

The first update re-words the targeting options to make them easier to understand for advertisers. In the past, this was the option for advanced location targeting:

If you were targeting using the first option “Target using either physical location or search intent” your Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ad would show to people in your targeted location as long as they were not searching for something related to a different location.

Below is the new option that Google AdWords recently released:

The second addition applies location targeting to ads on the Google Display Network (GDN). Previously, the only location targeting was the physical location of the searcher. Now both the location of the user and the content of the page will dictate location targeting on the GDN. The default option for the GDN is to show to “People in or viewing pages about your targeted location”.

Google also changed the advanced location exclusion features to make a more restrictive default option for “People in, searching for, or viewing pages about my excluded location”. This new option helps advertisers avoid getting impressions for excluded areas, regardless of whether your customers are located or interested in those locations. Here are the new advanced location exclusion options:

So you have implemented every possible Google AdWords Ad extension from Social Extensions to Product Extensions, but have been unable to see if these add-ons are actually bringing in conversions to your site – until now. Google has added conversion tracking metrics to the Ad extensions tab of the User Interface.

To see conversions in the Ad extensions tab, select Customize Columns under the Columns drop down menu. Add these conversion metrics of your preference to your saved columns. See screen shot below.

Conversions metrics are available for the following Ad extensions: Location, Product, Social, Call, Offer and Sitelinks. Being able to see conversions associated with Ad extension clicks is a great way to see how different parts of your Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ad are performing.

The following screen shot shows you how many conversions resulted when a searcher used the Click-to-Call option of a PPC ad. It is interesting to see how many online conversions were made after a phone call was made.

In order to see how Ad extensions compare to your normal PPC ad, you must run a Click Type Segment report. However, in this report you will not be able to differentiate which Sitelink is performing since up four Sitelinks can be shown in one ad. Advertisers are still unable to test which Sitelink message is converting or even which message has the highest click-through rate.

Google AdWords is set to release a new tab for the Display Network in its interface to users over the next few weeks. Google says that the new tab will enable you to bid, target and optimize display campaigns all from a single place, giving users a more effective tool to run campaigns on the Google Display Network. The new tab will also feature visual displays that show how reach is impacted by combining multiple targeting types.

A new feature will be the Next-Gen Keyword Contextual Targeting, which will allow marketers to optimize campaigns down to the individual keywords level. Google says that it will be easier to extend search campaigns to the Display Network because findings from search about profitable keywords can then be tried in display. The Next-Gen Keyword Contextual Targeting tool has been in beta testing with agencies and advertisers in the past several months. The new targeting tool will help advertisers optimize campaigns to allow them to aggressively target high performing keywords and be more conservative on lesser performing keywords.

In addition, Google will be adding a visual way to see the reach of your campaigns and see how reach is impacted by combining multiple targeting types like keywords, placements, topics, interests or remarketing.