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.

Location Extensions is a new local Microsoft Advertising adCenter offering that allows advertisers to display the business address and phone number in their text ad. When a user sees an ad with Location Extensions they can see additional details about your business in the ad results and this encourages users to click on your ad or even go to your brick and mortar location. Ads with Location Extensions are more likely to be clicked on in comparison to ads without, thus likely to increase your click-through rate (CTR).

Location Extensions are free and easy to set up in adCenter and will be seen on Bing.com and Yahoo.com – Bing/Yahoo syndicated search partner sites are not included as of yet.  The ads with Location Extensions will show within a 50 mile radius of the Business Location. One thing to keep in mind is the way Bing and Yahoo deliver their ads – Bing uses IP addresses only, whereas Yahoo will read a geo-modifier.

The new Location Extensions are similar to Google AdWords Location Extensions, except Microsoft does not require the business listing to be drawn from the Bing Business Portal – Google requires that the location data be drawn from Google Places.

To set up Location Extensions, in the Campaigns View of adCenter, select “Manage your business locations”:

Enter your full business address and phone number under “Create business location”:

Return to Campaigns View and select “Edit your campaign settings” in the Campaign you would like to add Location Extensions to. Under “Advanced Settings/Ad Extensions” select the Location Extensions check box and Save: