‘Presence’ vs. ‘Interest’: The Google Ads Location Setting You Should Not Ignore

When setting up a Google Ads campaign, targeting the right location seems straightforward. You choose your city, maybe draw a radius, perhaps select entire countries. Job done? Not quite.

There’s a subtle, often overlooked setting buried within the location options that can have a big impact on who actually sees your ads. Choosing the “recommended” and default option here is one of the most common ways I see businesses unintentionally wasting ad spend, especially local businesses.

I am talking about the difference between targeting based on “Presence or interest” versus just “Presence”. Let’s break down what these mean and why getting this right is vital for your campaign’s efficiency and success.

Google Ads gives you choices under the “Location options (advanced)” settings for each campaign:

Targeting Option 1: Presence or interest (Default Setting & Recommended by Google)

• Who it reaches: People in, regularly in, OR who’ve shown interest in your targeted locations.
• What “interest” means: This is broad. Someone might be physically located far away but has searched for terms including your location name (e.g., “hotels in Sofia” while they are in London), browsed content related to your location, or set a location of interest on Google Maps.
• The Catch: Google defaults to this wider setting. Google usually defaults to the settings that are targeting more broadly and leads you to spend more so it makes them more money.

Targeting Option 2: Presence (Unchecked & Recommended by me and most PPC specialists I know)

Who it reaches: People in OR regularly in your targeted locations.
The Key Difference: This option focuses heavily on the person’s likely physical location at the time of the search or their regular physical presence within your target area. It largely excludes those merely showing “interest” from afar.

The default setting aims to maximize potential reach, it frequently causes problems, especially for businesses needing customers physically within their service area.

Consider these scenarios if you’re using the default “Presence or interest” setting:

Local Plumber in London: Your ad might show to someone in Manchester searching for “plumbers London prices” because they have a relative there. That click costs you money but brings slim chance of immediate business.
Restaurant in London: Your ad could appear for a tourist in Germany planning their future trip and researching “best restaurants London.” They aren’t looking to dine tonight.
Local Retail Store: Someone who visited your city last year might still be flagged as “interested” and see your ads back in their home country.
In these cases (and many more), the “interest” component leads to wasted ad spend, irrelevant clicks, and lower conversion rates because the searcher cannot actually use your service or visit your store now.

I will try to be balanced and look for situations where default isn’t wrong. It may be beneficial for certain business types:

Travel & Tourism: Hotels, tour operators, airlines want to reach people planning trips (i.e., showing interest) from other locations.
Relocation Services: Targeting people interested in moving to your area.
Coworking spaces: A person in Europe searches “coworking spaces in Thailand”.
Some E-commerce: If you sell nationally/internationally but want to target people interested in products associated with a specific region.

That being said I think it would be better to create separate campaigns targeting the outside locations directly and having tight exact match keyword targeting with your location included in the query rather than having the “interest” option checked. For example – target presence in Europe and use exact match keywords around [coworking spaces in Thailand].

Maybe if you don’t know which countries have people interested in your service in Thailand you can opt in for the default and use the information to decide on future campaigns, but there are keyword research tools for that. I am trying very hard here.

For the vast majority of businesses with a defined service area or physical location, targeting based on “Presence” is usually the much better option.

Focuses Budget: Ensures your ad spend is concentrated on people physically able to become your customers now.
Increases Relevance: Leads to more relevant clicks from people actually in your target area.
Improves Conversion Rates: By filtering out irrelevant searches from afar, you naturally improve the quality of your traffic.

Go to the Campaign you want to check > Audiences, keywords and content > Locations and you will see the Location Report and look for countries and locations you don’ want to target and compare their performance.

Choosing the right location targeting setting is a fundamental step in ensuring your Google Ads budget is spent effectively. The default “Presence or interest” setting, while offering more reach, can often lead to wasted spend by showing your ads to people physically unable to become your customers.

Take five minutes today to review the location options for all your campaigns. If you run a local business or serve a specific geographic area, switching your targeting to “Presence: People in or regularly in your targeted locations” could be one of the simplest yet most impactful changes you make to improve your campaign performance.