Performance max location targeting

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Performance max location targeting

Performance max location targeting

Performance max location targeting

❓ What is Performance max location targeting?

Location Targeting is a rule-based automation feature that analyzes how your Performance Max campaigns perform across different cities and then removes low-performing cities from your targeting. You define the rules, such as spend thresholds, CPA caps, or ROAS floors and the system enforces those rules by updating the location targeting on your campaigns.

You can choose between two modes:

  • Execution mode: Actively removes cities that don’t meet your performance standards.

  • Suggestion mode: Simulates exclusions and shows what would be removed, without making any changes.

▶️ Why is it important?

Even top-performing campaigns often waste budget in cities that consistently underdeliver. This feature helps fix that by:

  1. Saving budget: Automatically removes wasteful cities based on your own thresholds.

  2. Letting you stay in control: You set the rules, the system just enforces them.

  3. Running daily: Always based on fresh performance data.

  4. Providing visibility: Even in suggestion mode, you get a clear view of which locations are dragging performance down.

🔍 How does it work?

Because Performance Max does not allow to exclude locations, the mechanism for this application is a little bit different. You will select what country you want your performance max campaign(s) to target. Next, the application will add all cities and towns of that country, giving you all the coverage you would have when you would target an entire country.

Then, the application manages the locations and removes cities/towns based on the location criteria. Your ads will not show in locations you are not targeting, effectively excluding them — especially if you use the advanced location setting:

Each day, the system pulls location-level performance data for your Performance Max campaigns. It then compares each city’s performance against the rules you set in the app. If a city fails those rules (for example, spends more than €50 without any conversions), it’s marked for removal.

  • In execution mode, those cities are actually removed from your campaign's location targeting in Google Ads.

  • In suggestion mode, the app only simulates these removals and stores the results in a preview table for you to review.

First run

During the first run of Execution Mode, the tool:

  • Adds all available locations for your selected country and targeting level (city, region, etc.) that meet your criteria

  • Omits poor-performing locations based on your specified thresholds

  • Creates a complete location targeting setup optimized to your performance goals

  • Reports both added locations and omitted locations

⚠️ Important: The first run will replace any existing location targeting settings in your campaigns.

Subsequent runs

In all runs after the first, the tool:

  • Only removes locations that fall below your performance thresholds

  • Preserves all other location targeting settings

  • Provides reports on which locations were removed and why

  • Continually optimizes your targeting based on the latest performance data

Important setup requirements:

  • In suggestion mode, you need to upload a list of all cities you want analyzed. The app provides a downloadable template during setup.

  • Only city-level targeting is supported at this time. The United States is not yet supported.

  • Not necessary, but highly recommended: go to your Google Ads campaign settings and enable Advanced location targeting > Presence: “People in or regularly in your targeted locations”. This applies to both modes and ensures precise exclusions.



📊 Summary Insights

Your dashboard includes key metrics and charts to help you track how location exclusions are affecting performance:

  • See how many cities were removed per account, per campaign etc.

  • Spend by removed Cities: Quantify how much budget was redirected

  • Suggestion versus execution: Compare excluded cities across suggestion and execution modes

  • Filterable table with all the logs that you can download to CSV as well

✅ Best Practices

  • Use execution mode on mature accounts where you trust your rules

  • Start with suggestion mode if you're testing or unsure about thresholds

  • Always enable “Presence” targeting

  • Review your excluded cities regularly and adjust rules if needed

  • Download and upload the full city list to make sure suggestion mode works correctly