Bing Ads Geo-Targeting: Why Does It Seem So Tricky?

Why Does Bing Ads Geo-Targeting Seem So Tricky?

Bing Ads geo targeting lets you show your ads to specific locations, helping you reach the right customers and avoid wasting money on clicks from areas you don't serve. Here's how to make it work:

• Start with clear location targets at the campaign level (like your city or state)
• Use exclusions to block areas where you don't operate
• Set up location intent to choose between targeting people physically in a location and those just searching for it
• Apply bid adjustments to spend more on your best-performing areas
• Refine at the ad group level to override campaign settings for specific products or services

Picture this: you're a Brisbane business owner, ready to launch your Bing Ads campaign. You've got your budget sorted, your ad copy is sharp, and you're excited to get started. Then you hit the "Location Targeting" settings.

Suddenly, you're staring at options for radius targeting, postal codes, metro areas, and something called "location intent." It feels like you need a degree in digital cartography just to tick the right boxes.

You're not alone. Bing Ads geo-targeting can feel like navigating a maze blindfolded, especially when one wrong setting sends your ads to Sydney instead of your local suburb. While campaigns with audience targeting see better performance, there's a catch: you have to set it up properly.

Getting geo-targeting right means your ads reach people who can actually become customers. Get it wrong, and you're paying for clicks from folks who'll never walk through your door or visit your service area. The good news? Once you understand how it works, you can turn this confusing feature into your secret weapon for reaching local customers without burning through your budget.

I'm Kerry Anderson, co-founder of RankingCo, and I've spent over 15 years helping businesses across Australia make sense of platforms like Bing Ads. I've seen how proper Bing Ads geo targeting can transform a campaign from money pit to profit centre, especially for small businesses competing in local markets. Let's break down why it seems so complicated and how to make it work for you.

Mastering Bing Ads Geo Targeting: From Confusion to Control

What is Geographic Ad Targeting and Why Does it Matter?

Geographic ad targeting, or geo-targeting, is simply about showing your ads to people in specific geographical locations. Think of it as drawing a digital fence around your ideal customers. This could be an entire country like Australia or New Zealand, a state like Queensland or New South Wales, a city like Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Wellington, or Toronto, or even a smaller radius around your business.

Why is this so important? For many businesses, customers are geographically concentrated. People in places like Australia, New Zealand, and Canada often look for services close to home or work. If you're running a cafe in Melbourne, you don't want to pay for clicks from someone searching in Perth.

Effective geo-targeting helps us avoid wasting precious ad budget on irrelevant clicks. It ensures your ads are seen by people who are physically in a position to become your customers, boosting local relevance and significantly improving your return on investment (ROI). Microsoft's own internal data from September 2022 shows that campaigns using audience targeting (which includes geo-targeting) perform much better than those without. This approach helps you work smarter by getting your message in front of the right eyeballs.

The Common Head-Scratchers in Bing Ads Geo Targeting

Even for savvy marketers, Bing Ads geo-targeting can present a few head-scratchers. One of the main points of confusion often comes from the overlapping nature of location settings. You might be trying to target a specific city, but then you see options for radius targeting, postal codes, and even metropolitan areas. It's easy to accidentally create a confusing web of targets.

Another common challenge is understanding the inheritance rules between campaign-level and ad group-level targeting. If you set a location target at the campaign level (say, all of Queensland), and then set a different target at the ad group level (like just Brisbane), the ad group setting will override the campaign setting for that specific ad group. This can be great for granular control, but if you're not careful, it can lead to unintended targeting. For instance, if an ad group has any geo criteria set, it won't inherit any of the campaign's geo criteria. This means you need to be deliberate with your settings at both levels.

Then there's the 'location intent' criteria, which can feel a bit like mind-reading. Are you targeting people physically in Brisbane, or people searching for services in Brisbane while they're actually in Sydney? This distinction is crucial for getting your ads in front of the right audience. Without clear intent settings, your ads might be showing up for people who have no immediate need for your local services.

To help clear things up, here's a quick look at some key location targeting options within Bing Ads:

Targeting Option	Description	Example (Australia/NZ/Canada)
Country/Region	Targets ads to an entire country or region.	Australia, New Zealand, Canada
State/Province	Targets ads to a specific state or province.	Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Ontario
City	Targets ads to a specific city.	Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Wellington, Toronto
Postal Code	Targets ads to a specific postal code area.	4000 (Brisbane CBD), 2000 (Sydney CBD)
Radius	Targets ads within a specified distance around a point.	10km around your Brisbane CBD office
Metropolitan Area	Targets ads to a designated metropolitan area.	Sydney-Newcastle-Wollongong, Melbourne-Geelong

Pro Tips for Effective Bing Ads Geo Targeting

Navigating Bing Ads geo targeting doesn't have to be a guessing game. We've picked up some ripper tips over the years that can help you get the most bang for your buck.

Firstly, a good strategy is to start broad and then refine as you go . Begin with a wider target, like your entire state or province (e.g., Queensland for a Brisbane business), and then narrow it down based on performance data. This allows you to gather initial insights before getting too specific.

Secondly, don't just think about where you want your ads to show, but also where you don't want them to show . Layering exclusions is a powerful way to avoid wasted spend. For example, if your service area is Brisbane and the Gold Coast, you might include Queensland but then exclude areas like Cairns or Townsville. This ensures your budget isn't spent on clicks from potential customers too far away.

Consider your audience's device usage, too. While not strictly geo-targeting, keeping mobile versus desktop targeting in mind can indirectly affect how your geo-targeting performs. Local searches often happen on mobile devices while people are on the go. If your target demographic is primarily searching locally on their phones, ensure your mobile bids and ad experiences are optimised.

When targeting specific countries, always be precise. For our clients, we focus on targeting Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. Within these, we then target specific regions, states, or provinces like Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, or Ontario. For cities, always include the larger geographical context to avoid confusion. For instance, you wouldn't want to accidentally target Paris, France, if your customer base is in Paris, Ontario! Always specify "Brisbane, QLD" or "Auckland, NZ."

We can even target specific neighbourhoods or suburbs within these major cities. This is particularly useful for businesses offering hyper-local services in places like Sydney's Inner West or Melbourne's St Kilda. Being granular like this ensures your ads are only seen by those most likely to convert, saving you money and driving higher quality leads.

For more information on how we manage these details for our clients, check out our Microsoft Ads services.

Advanced Settings: Location Intent, Exclusions, and Bid Adjustments

Once you've got the basics down, diving into the advanced settings of Bing Ads geo targeting can really boost your campaigns. These features give us even more control over who sees your ads and where.

One of the most powerful advanced settings is 'location intent' criteria . This determines why someone sees your ad based on their location. You have two main options:

• People in your targeted locations: This targets users who are physically located within your chosen areas. This is fantastic for local businesses like cafes, retail stores, or services that require a physical presence.
• People searching for or viewing pages about your targeted locations: This casts a wider net, targeting users who might be in Sydney but are searching for "plumbers Brisbane" because they're planning a move or researching a holiday to Auckland.

By default, Bing Ads targets both groups. This means if someone in Toronto is looking up 'things to do in Melbourne,' they might see your Melbourne-specific ad.

This can be great for tourism or relocation services, but for a local shop, it might lead to irrelevant clicks. It's crucial to choose the option that matches your business goals.

You can also exclude specific locations from your campaigns. This is crucial for refining your targeting and avoiding wasted spend. For example, if your business serves all of Queensland but doesn't deliver to remote regional areas, you can exclude those specific postcodes or towns.

Microsoft Advertising first applies your included locations, then removes any excluded areas. If you include all of New Zealand but exclude Wellington, your ads will appear everywhere in New Zealand except Wellington.

Bid adjustments for specific locations are a game-changer for optimising your ad spend. They let you bid more or less aggressively in certain areas. Imagine customers from Brisbane's CBD convert at a higher rate. You can set a positive bid adjustment (e.g., +20%) for the CBD to increase your ad visibility there.

These adjustments can range from -90% to +900%, giving you immense flexibility. When multiple criteria apply (like a city and its state), Bing Ads uses the bid from the most specific location.

Radius targeting allows us to target or exclude audiences based on a specific distance around a central point. This is perfect for businesses with a physical storefront, like a restaurant in Melbourne's Brunswick East, wanting to reach customers within a 5km radius. You'll need the latitude and longitude of your business (easily found via Bing Maps!) and then specify the radius in miles or kilometres. Bing Ads allows up to 2,000 radius criteria per campaign or ad group, with a radius between 1 and 500 miles, or 1 and 800 kilometres.

Remember campaign-level versus ad group-level targeting ? This is where your strategy gets tactical. Campaign-level settings provide a broad sweep for all ad groups. Ad group-level settings, however, allow for hyper-specific targeting. If an ad group has its own geo-targeting criteria, it will override the campaign's settings.

This means you can have a campaign targeting all of New South Wales, but one ad group can specifically target 'Sydney CBD' for a particular product or service.

For advertisers managing numerous locations or campaigns, bulk uploads are an absolute lifesaver. You can add up to 1,000 location targets at a time, making it efficient to manage extensive geographical reach across Australia, New Zealand, or Canada. The maximum number of combined location and negative location criteria per campaign or ad group is a whopping 10,000, giving you plenty of room to be precise.

It's also important to note that while you can implement very granular geo-targeting, reporting for geographic targeting performance within some interfaces (like Search Ads 360) might not provide direct, granular performance metrics for every single location you've targeted. This is where our advanced analytics and our expertise come in handy to connect the dots.

Finally, be aware of industry-specific considerations or restrictions . Certain industries, such as financial, insurance, education, career, and housing services, have restrictions on using demographics (including location) for personalising advertising. These regulations are in place to prevent discrimination and ensure fair practices. Always double-check compliance for your specific industry.

For more in-depth knowledge directly from the source, you can learn more about targeting options from Microsoft.

Get Expert Help and Watch Your Business Grow

Why Partnering with an Expert Saves Time and Money

We get it. As a business owner in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Wellington, or Toronto, your time is gold. Trying to master the intricacies of Bing Ads geo targeting while running your business can feel like a second full-time job. That's where partnering with an expert like RankingCo makes all the difference.

We bring precision targeting to the table, ensuring your ads are seen by the right people in the right places, whether that's a specific postcode in Melbourne or a broader region across Ontario. This means fewer costly mistakes, like your ads showing up in a distant city where you don't operate, and a much better ROI for your ad spend. We leverage data-driven strategies to continuously optimise your campaigns, freeing you up to focus on what you do best: growing your business.

Our team has the experience to steer Bing Ads' quirks, understand location intent, apply strategic bid adjustments, and manage bulk uploads with ease. We're not just setting up campaigns; we're building a targeted strategy that aligns with your business goals and delivers measurable results.

Quick Wins and Your Next Steps

So, while Bing Ads geo targeting might seem tricky at first, with the right approach and expertise, it becomes a powerful tool in your digital marketing arsenal. It's all about getting your message to the customers who matter most.

Instead of wrestling with settings and worrying about wasted ad spend, why not let us handle the heavy lifting? You focus on running your business, and we'll make sure your Bing Ads actually hit the mark, driving valuable leads and sales right to your doorstep.

Ready to get found by the right customers in the right locations? Contact us today!