Google Ads: Target Problems, Not Just Location

Almost every bit of advice you'll read about Google Ads bangs on about the same thing: "go local", "target your city", "focus on your area". And for a plumber in Peckham or a cafe in Cardiff, that's fair enough. But for the rest of us – the SaaS founders, the eCommerce store owners, the course creators – it's not just outdated advice, it's dangerously wrong. This obsession with geography is a hangover from the days of Yellow Pages and local newspaper ads, and it's actively stopping you from finding your most profitable customers.

The truth is, for a digital business, your customer's location is their web browser, not their house. Their real address is the search query they just typed into Google, revealing an urgent, expensive problem they need to solve. By limiting yourself to a specific city or even country, you're telling Google to ignore thousands of potential customers who are screaming for your solution, just because they live on the wrong side of an imaginary line on a map. This guide is about breaking that habit. I'm going to show you why forgetting about geography and focusing relentlessly on user intent and their pain points is the real key to scaling with Google Ads. We'll cover how to find these customers, how to structure your campaigns to reach them, and, most importantly, how to measure success when a map is the least useful tool you have.

So, you've been told to "target local". Is that always good advice?

Let's be brutally honest. The default to "target local" is lazy. It's an easy-to-understand concept that makes clients and marketing managers feel like they're being specific and clever. But it's a false precision. You're not targeting people; you're targeting an area and just hoping the right people are inside it. For a digital product, that’s like trying to catch fish by draining a specific corner of the ocean.

Your ideal customer profile isn't a demographic. It isn't "males aged 35-50 in the South East". It's a state of mind. It's a specific, urgent, and often career-threatening nightmare. The Head of Sales you want to sell your CRM to isn't defined by her London postcode; she's defined by the terror of missing her quarterly target because her team's lead tracking is a mess of spreadsheets. Your ICP isn't a person, it's a problem. Once you grasp this, you realise that this exact problem is being experienced by people in Manchester, Munich, and Melbourne all at the same time. Why would you deliberately ignore the ones in Munich and Melbourne?

The whole game changes when you stop thinking about physical space and start thinking about 'problem space'. Instead of asking "Where are my customers?", you should be asking "Where do my customers go when they have the problem I solve?". The answer is almost always Google Search. They're not searching for "CRM software in London"; they're searching for "how to fix messy sales pipeline" or "best CRM for small sales teams". These are borderless problems. To learn more about this mindset shift, you need to understand how to target problems, not just locations.

Thinking about this in a structured way can help. A traditional local business has a very linear, location-dependent path to a sale. A digital business has a non-linear, location-independent path. The difference is stark.

When you see it laid out like this, it becomes obvious. For a digital business, geo-targeting isn't just a sub-optimal choice; it's a fundamental misunderstanding of how your customers find you. You're playing by the wrong set of rules.

If not postcodes, then what? Finding your audience in the digital wild.

Okay, so we agree to stop looking at maps. How do we actually find these people? The answer is to replace geographical signals with much more powerful and accurate intent signals. Google knows an incredible amount about its users – what they search for, what websites they visit, what videos they watch. This is the data we need to tap into.

Keywords are your new compass. This is the most important part. Your entire strategy rests on targeting keywords that reveal a user is in a 'problem state'. You need to think in three stages of awareness:

• Problem-Aware Keywords: The user knows they have a problem but doesn't know solutions exist. They search things like "my team communication is a mess" or "how to track project progress". These are often cheap clicks, good for top-of-funnel content, but don't expect immediate sales.
• Solution-Aware Keywords: The user knows there are solutions like yours and is actively researching them. They search for "best accounting software for freelancers" or "asana vs monday". This is the sweet spot. The intent to buy is high, and you have a chance to position your product as the best option.
• Product-Aware Keywords: They know your brand and are looking for it specifically. Things like "[Your Brand] pricing" or "[Your Brand] reviews". You must bid on these to defend against competitors.

A good keyword strategy targets all three, with budget allocated according to intent. Forget about where the searcher is; focus entirely on what their query tells you about their headspace. A badly structured account often throws money away on keywords that sound relevant but have no commercial intent, which is one of the quickest ways to stop wasting money on Google Ads.

Audiences add another layer. Beyond keywords, you can tell Google what *type* of person you're looking for, based on their recent online behaviour.

• In-Market Audiences: Google groups people who are actively researching and close to buying a certain product or service. You can literally target people "In-market for Business & Productivity Software". It's a powerful signal.
• Custom Intent Audiences: This is where it gets really clever. You can build your own audience by giving Google a list of keywords people would search for, or URLs they would visit. For example, you could create an audience of people who have recently visited the websites of your top 5 competitors. Now you're not just targeting similar intent; you're targeting people who are literally evaluating the market.

When you combine hyper-specific, solution-aware keywords with a custom intent audience of people visiting your competitors, you've created a targeting profile that is a thousand times more accurate than simply drawing a circle around Birmingham on a map. You're targeting a specific person with a specific problem at the specific moment they are looking for a solution. Their location is the least interesting thing about them.

How should I actually structure my campaigns to capture global intent?

Structure is everything. A messy account structure, even with the right keywords, will bleed money. To properly execute a "borderless" strategy, you need to segregate your campaigns by intent, not by geography. This gives you control over your budget and lets you tailor your messaging to where the user is in their buying journey.

I remember one software client we worked with. They were obsessed with their US performance and ignored everywhere else. We restructured their account based on intent, opened up targeting to all English-speaking developed nations, and their growth exploded. We ended up driving over 45,000 signups at under £2 each, many from countries like Canada, Australia, and the UK that they'd previously ignored. That kind of scale is impossible when you're artificially limiting your audience.

Here’s a simple but incredibly effective structure to start with:

This structure works because it aligns your spend with intent. You put most of your money where the intent to buy is highest (Campaign 1). You protect your most valuable asset – your brand name – everywhere (Campaign 2). And you use a smaller portion of your budget to find new audiences who look just like your ideal customers (Campaign 3). The location setting is broad and simple; the complexity and cleverness are in the keyword and audience targeting.

Okay, but how do I know if it's working without a heat map?

This is the question that trips everyone up. They're so used to looking at a map of conversions that when you take it away, they feel blind. But geographical reporting is a vanity metric. Who cares if you got 100 conversions from London and only 10 from Dublin if the Dublin customers are worth 20 times more over their lifetime? You need to start tracking the metrics that actually impact your bank account.

The most important shift is from thinking about one-off sales to understanding the entire customer journey. This means getting comfortable with two acronyms: LTV and CAC.

• CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost): This is simple. How much did you spend on ads to get one new paying customer? If you spent £1,000 and got 10 customers, your CAC is £100.
• LTV (Lifetime Value): This is the total profit you expect to make from a single customer over the entire time they do business with you. This is the metric that separates fast-growing businesses from the ones that fizzle out.

The magic number is the ratio between these two: LTV:CAC. A healthy, scalable business typically has a ratio of 3:1 or higher. This means for every £1 you spend to get a customer, you get £3 back in profit over their lifetime. When you know this number, your entire perspective changes. Suddenly, a £100 CAC doesn't seem expensive if your LTV is £1,000. It seems like an incredible bargain. Understanding this relationship is fundamental, and it's why every founder needs to get their head around measuring and maximizing paid ads ROI properly.

To help you figure this out for your own business, here’s an interactive calculator. Play with the numbers and see how small changes in churn or average revenue can dramatically change how much you can afford to spend to acquire a customer.

Once you are focused on LTV:CAC, the geographical data becomes a secondary optimisation layer, not a primary targeting method. Instead of a map, your most important reports become:

• Conversion Rate by Country/Language: After running your campaign for a while, you can start to look for patterns. Do users from English-speaking countries in Europe convert at a higher rate? Maybe your pricing is more attractive in certain economies. This data can inform budget allocation later on.
• LTV by Acquisition Channel/Campaign: Do customers who come from your "Solution-Aware" search campaign have a higher LTV than those from your Display campaign? This tells you where your best customers are hiding.
• Lead-to-Close Rate by Keyword Theme: For B2B, this is huge. Are leads from keywords around "reporting" more likely to become paying customers than leads from keywords around "collaboration"? This helps you refine your keyword lists to focus on the most profitable problems.

These are the metrics that build empires. Clicks-by-city is the metric that keeps you small. A deep understanding of these numbers is what separates an amateur from a professional, and it's essential for anyone wanting to get to grips with their profitable metrics in the UK market and beyond.

Are there ever times when I *should* use location targeting?

Of course. I'm not saying the location targeting setting should be deleted from Google Ads. But it should be used as a scalpel, not a sledgehammer. It's an optimisation tool, not a foundational strategy. Here are the legitimate reasons to use it:

1. Logistical Constraints: This is the most obvious one. If you sell a physical product and only ship to the UK and EU, then you should absolutely restrict your shopping campaigns to those regions. Advertising to someone in the US who can't buy your product is just burning money.
2. Legal & Regulatory Constraints: Certain industries are heavily regulated by country. Gambling, financial services, healthcare – you can't just advertise these worldwide. You must target only the countries where you are legally compliant. I remember a prize draw client where this was paramount; success depended entirely on sticking to licenced regions.
3. Language: This is a sensible and necessary form of grouping. Running a campaign in German targeting Germany, Austria, and Switzerland makes perfect sense. Running another in French for France, Belgium, and Quebec is also smart. You're grouping by language and culture, which is far more meaningful than just grouping by geography. A complete guide on how to approach this can be found in our article on running Google Ads without location targeting, which sounds counterintuitive but actually covers this exact point.
4. Extreme Performance Discrepancies (Backed by Data): This is the key. You should only add geographical constraints *after* you have enough data to prove it's necessary. Let's say you've run your "Tier 1 English Speaking Countries" campaign for six months. You analyse the data and find that your LTV:CAC ratio in the UK is 8:1, but in the US it's only 1.5:1 (which is unprofitable). At this point, it would be very sensible to split the US into its own campaign with a lower budget and more aggressive bidding, or even to pause it entirely to focus on more profitable regions. You are making a data-driven decision to optimise, not an assumption-driven decision to limit your reach from the start.

My global campaign is getting clicks but no conversions. What's gone wrong?

This is a common frustration. You've followed the advice, opened up your targeting, you're getting traffic... and then, nothing. Crickets. When this happens, it's rarely a problem with the traffic itself. It's a disconnect between the ad, the landing page, and the user's expectation. This is a classic case where many businesses find that their Google Ads leads are not converting for reasons they hadn't considered.

Here are the usual suspects:

• The Mismatched Offer: Your ad talks a big game about solving a global problem, but your landing page screams "small local business". Is your pricing only listed in pounds (£)? Are all your customer testimonials from people in Slough? Do you only list a UK phone number? These small signals destroy trust for an international visitor. They immediately feel like they're in the wrong place and that your service isn't for them. Use IP-detection to show local currency, include testimonials from diverse locations, and make it clear you're a global business.
• Low-Intent Keywords: You've cast the net too wide. You're bidding on "what is financial forecasting" instead of "financial forecasting software for SaaS". The first person is a student doing research; the second is a Head of Finance with a credit card. You need to relentlessly prune your keyword list and build a massive negative keyword list to filter out this informational, non-commercial traffic.
• Technical Funnel Breakdowns: This is a painful one. The user wants to buy, but you won't let them. Your lead form has a mandatory "Postcode" field that won't accept a US ZIP code. Your payment processor declines non-UK credit cards. You need to test your entire conversion funnel from the perspective of an international user. Use a VPN to see what your site looks like from different countries.
• Cultural Nuance in Copy: Language is tricky. The same word can mean different things in different places. Your clever, pun-filled headline that works brilliantly in the UK might fall completely flat or even be confusing in the US or Australia. When in doubt, go for clarity over cleverness. Keep your language simple, direct, and focused on the benefit.

Troubleshooting these issues is a process of elimination. Start with the landing page and the offer, as that's usually the biggest lever. Ensure a user from anywhere in the world can understand your offer, trust your business, and complete a purchase. If that's all sorted, then you can start digging into the more granular details of your keyword strategy, which is often a complex task best left to those with experience in advanced troubleshooting for Google Ads performance.

So, what's the plan? Here's what to do next.

We've covered a lot of ground, moving from high-level strategy to nitty-gritty tactics. It can feel like a lot to take in. The key is to stop thinking like a local newspaper advertiser and start thinking like a global problem solver. Your market isn't a place; it's a collection of people with a shared pain point. Your job is to find them, wherever they are.

To make it concrete, here is a step-by-step action plan. This is the main advice I have for you:

Feeling a bit overwhelmed? Maybe it's time for some expert help.

Look, I get it. This is a complete reversal of how most people think about Google Ads. Shifting from a comfortable, location-first mindset to a more abstract but powerful intent-first strategy isn't easy. There are dozens of ways it can go wrong, from picking the wrong keywords to misinterpreting the data and making the wrong optimisations.

Doing this properly requires expertise, experience, and a relentless focus on the metrics that actually grow a business. It's about more than just setting up an ad; it's about building a scalable, predictable engine for customer acquisition that isn't limited by your own postcode.

If you've read this far and you're feeling a mix of excitement about the potential and anxiety about the execution, that's completely normal. This is precisely where professional help can make a huge difference. We specialise in this exact approach, helping digital businesses break free from geographical constraints to find their best customers, wherever they are in the world.

If you'd like a second pair of expert eyes on your current strategy, we offer a completely free, no-obligation 20-minute consultation. We can review your account, discuss your goals, and give you some honest, actionable advice on whether a "borderless" approach is right for you. It's a chance to get some clarity and see what's truly possible when you stop looking at maps and start looking for problems to solve.