Solved: Facebook Ads Delivering Leads Outside Service Area

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! I had a look at the issue you're having with your Facebook lead ads. It's a really common problem, and frankly, it's one of the biggest frustrations for local service businesses trying to use the platform. You're not doing anything wrong, but you're hitting the fundamental limits of what Meta's platform is designed for.

The short answer is that Facebook's location targeting is, to be blunt, a bit rubish for this kind of specific, local need. You can't really force it to be hyper-accurate. The real solution isn't about finding a hidden setting, but about shifting your entire strategy from a platform of *interruption* to a platform of *intent*. I'll walk you through why this is happening and what you should be doing instead. It'll probably save you a lot of time and wasted ad spend chasing down leads from 100 miles away.

We'll need to look at why Facebook's location targeting is so unreliable...

First off, let's just get this out of the way. Your experience isn't unique. I've seen this exact same issue with countless local service clients, from HVAC companies to electricians. They set a tight radius and still get leads comming in from completely different counties. The reason for this is baked into how Meta collects and interprets location data, and it's not really designed for the level of precision a local service business needs.

The platform uses a mix of signals:

• Self-Reported Location: What a user puts in their profile. This is often outdated or just plain wrong. Someone might have moved years ago and never bothered to update it.
• IP Address: This can be wildly inaccurate. If someone is using a VPN, their IP could be from another country. Even without a VPN, mobile network IP addresses can often resolve to a central hub miles away from the user's actual location.
• GPS and Wi-Fi Signals: This is the most accurate signal, but it's not always on or available. A user might have location services turned off for the app, or they might be using a desktop computer without GPS. The "People living in or recently in this location" setting is the biggest culprit here. It lumps in commuters, tourists, and anyone who just passed through your area recently. You've tried switching to "People living in this location," which is the right move, but even this is just Meta's best guess based on patterns of behaviour and isn't foolproof.

You can try layering on exclusions, as in, excluding postcodes or cities where you're getting bad leads. But you'll end up playing a constant game of whack-a-mole, and it won't solve the core problem. The fundamental issue is that you're trying to use a screwdriver to hammer in a nail. Facebook is a discovery platform. People are on there to scroll through photos of their friends' kids and watch silly videos, not to hire an electrician. Your ad is an *interruption*. Because of this, the quality of intent is extremely low, and users will click on things casually without reading properly, even if your form says "locals only".

This leads us to the most important strategic shift you need to make. You need to stop fighting the platform and start fishing where the fish are actually biting.

I'd say you should focus on capturing user intent...

For a local service, the best customer is someone who has a problem *right now* and is actively looking for a solution. Their boiler has broken, a pipe has burst, they need a new patio laid. They aren't scrolling through Instagram hoping to stumble upon a solution. They are going to Google and typing in "emergency plumber near me" or "landscaper in [Your City]".

This is the difference between interruption and intent. Facebook interrupts their day with an ad they weren't looking for. Google responds to their direct, urgent intent.

This is why, for almost every local service business I've worked with, Google Search Ads outperform Meta Ads by a huge margin in terms of lead quality. The cost per lead might be higher, but the leads you get are from people who have already raised their hand and said, "I need help now." You'll spend far less time filtering out people from 100 miles away and more time talking to genuine potential customers.

The user journey is completely different, and understanding this is the key to fixing your lead generation. Here’s a visual breakdown of what that looks like:

Your entire focus should be on capturing these high-intent searches. You'd set up a campaign targeting keywords like:

• "[your service] near me"
• "emergency [your service]"
• "best [your service] in [your city]"
• "[your city] [your service] company"
• "cost of [your service] in [your area]"

You can also enable call extensions so people can phone you directly from the ad, which is brilliant for emergency services. This is how you generate leads that actually turn into jobs.

You probably should expect these kinds of costs...

Now, the immediate reaction most people have is, "But isn't Google Ads more expensive?" Yes, the cost per click (CPC) is often higher than on Facebook. But you're paying for quality, not just a click. A single, qualified lead from Google is worth ten unqualified, out-of-area leads from Facebook.

From my experience running campaigns for similar businesses, you're likely looking at a cost per lead (CPL) anywhere from $10 to $50. This varies massively based on your industry and how competitive your city is. For instance, one campaign we're running for an HVAC company in a competitive area is seeing costs around $60 per lead. In another case, we've run ads for childcare services where the CPL was around $10 per signup. Our best performing consumer service campaign was for a home cleaning company, which got down to an amazing £5 per lead. I usually recommend a starting budget of around $1,000-$2,000 a month to get enough data and see what works.

You can use this calculator below to get a rough idea of what your monthly ad spend might look like on Google. Adjust the sliders based on how competitive your local market is and how many leads you need per month to hit your goals.

To truly understand if that CPL is "expensive," you need to know what a customer is actually worth to you. This is where Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) comes in. If a customer pays you £500 for a job and you never see them again, your LTV is £500. But if they sign up for a £50/month maintenance contract and stay for 3 years, their value is much higher. A healthy business can often afford to spend up to a third of its LTV to acquire a customer. Knowing this number frees you from worrying about a £30 CPL and allows you to focus on profitable growth.

Let's calculate a hypothetical LTV to see how this works. This is the maths that unlocks intelligent spending.

You'll need to pre-qualify your audience better if you stick with Facebook...

Okay, let's say for whatever reason you are determined to make Facebook work, or you want to use it for supplementary brand awareness alongside a Google campaign. It's not impossible, but you have to accept that the platform's targeting is blunt, and therefore your *advertisement* has to do the sharp, precise work of filtering people out.

You need to make your ad copy and your lead form work much, much harder to pre-qualify your audience. The goal is to make it abundantly clear who should and, more importantly, who *should not* click.

1. Hyper-Local Ad Copy:

Your ad copy must scream "local". Mention specific town names, postcodes, or well-known landmarks. Don't just say "serving the [City] area." Say "From [Neighbourhood A] to [Neighbourhood B], we're your local [service] experts." This does two things: it resonates strongly with people who *are* in the area, and it immediately signals to those who aren't that this ad isn't for them.

Here's a copywriting example using the Problem-Agitate-Solve framework, tailored for a local service:

Headline: Fed up with [service] issues in [Your City]?
Body: (Problem) Is that leaking tap keeping you up at night? (Agitate) Don't wait for a small drip to turn into a major flood. National firms can leave you waiting for days. (Solve) We're your neighbours, based right here in [Your Town], offering guaranteed same-day service to all [City] and surrounding area residents. We only serve customers within a 30-mile radius. Click here for a fast, free quote from a trusted local expert.

That bolded line is importent. You are explicitly telling people the rule. Some will still ignore it, but many won't.

2. A Higher-Friction Lead Form:

The standard Facebook Lead Form is designed to be frictionless. It auto-fills name, email, and phone number, making it incredibly easy to submit with a couple of taps. For you, this is a bug, not a feature. You need to introduce a bit of "positive friction" to force the user to think for a second.

Your very first question in the form, before name or email, should be a required, open-text field: "What is your full postcode?".

This is a much stronger filter than a simple "Are you in the area?" yes/no question. It forces them to stop and type. Anyone outside the area who was just casually clicking will likely abandon the form at this point. That's a good thing. It's a self-qualifying mechanism that saves you time and money. You will get fewer leads, but their quality will be significantly higher.

This visual shows how you can combine these elements to create a much tighter, albeit smaller, audience of qualified local leads on Facebook.

This is the main advice I have for you:

To put it all together, here is a clear, actionable plan. It involves a significant shift in strategy, but it's one based on years of experience with businesses just like yours. Trying to patch a fundamentally flawed approach is far more expensive in the long run than adopting the right one from the start.

In summary, the frustration you're feeling is valid, but it stems from a mismatch between your business needs and the platform's capabilities. By shifting your primary focus to Google Ads, you align your advertising with customer intent, which is the most powerful and profitable way to market a local service. You stop chasing people and start being there when they're looking for you.

Navigating this shift can be tricky, and getting the setup on Google right from the start is definately important to avoid wasting your budget. An expert can help you bypass the costly trial-and-error phase and build a campaign that generates quality, local leads from day one.

If you'd like to go over your specific situation, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation where we can review your goals and map out a tailored strategy for you. It might be helpful to have a second pair of expert eyes on it.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh