TLDR;
- Launching without a specific location isn't a handicap; it's a massive advantage for spotting cheaper, high-intent pockets of traffic you'd otherwise miss.
- Don't just target "The World". Group countries into economic Tiers (Tier 1, 2, 3) based on purchasing power to control your costs.
- Search intent trumps geography. If someone is searching for your exact solution, their location is secondary (provided they can pay).
- Use the interactive calculator below to estimate how your budget stretches differently across developed vs. developing markets.
- Start broad, but exclude aggressively. You'll need a solid negative keyword list and a list of countries to block immediately.
Most founders I talk to get absolutely paralyzed when they stare at the "Location" setting in Google Ads. It feels like standing on the edge of a cliff. If you don't pick a city, a state, or at least a country, won't your budget just evaporate into the ether? Won't you get thousands of clicks from bots in the middle of nowhere?
It's a valid fear. But if you're launching a digital product—a SaaS, an app, a course, or a service that can be delivered remotely—limiting yourself to "London" or "New York" is often a mistake. It’s an expensive one, too. You are opting into the most competitive auctions on earth while ignoring millions of people who have the exact same problem but live where ad inventory is half the price.
I've run quite a few campaigns for global launches now, including one app growth campaign where we drove over 45,000 signups at under £2 per signup. The trick isn't to spray and pray; it's to structure your account so you buy intent, not real estate.
Here is how you build a strategy when your market is "everywhere."
The Mindset Shift: Intent Over Geography
In traditional advertising (billboards, TV, radio), location is everything. In Google Ads, intent is everything. If I sell a project management tool for remote teams, and someone types "best remote team software" into Google, does it matter if they are sitting in a co-working space in Berlin, a cafe in Bali, or an office in Austin?
Not really. What matters is:
- Do they have the problem I solve? (Yes, evidenced by the search).
- Can they pay for my solution? (Maybe).
- Does my product work for them? (Yes, it's digital).
When you strip away the location targeting, you force yourself to get really good at keyword targeting. You have to ensure that the search terms you bid on are so specific, so problem-aware, that the user is qualified regardless of where they are. We talk about this a lot when discussing Google Ads without location targeting—the discipline of intent is what saves your buget.
Strategy Phase 1: The Tier System
The biggest mistake is setting up one campaign targeting "All countries and territories." Google will naturally spend your money where clicks are cheapest, which usually means lower-quality traffic from click farms or countries with very low purchasing power. You'll get thousands of clicks and zero sales.
The solution is Tiering. You group countries by economic similarity and purchasing power. This allows you to bid differently for a click from the UK vs. a click from India, while keeping them in separate buckets.
- USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand
- Nordics (Sweden, Norway, Denmark)
- Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands
- Spain, Italy, France, Portugal
- UAE, Singapore, Hong Kong
- Poland, Czech Republic
- India, Brazil, Mexico
- Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand
- South Africa, Turkey
When you structure your account this way, you can allocate, say, 60% of your budget to Tier 1 (where the money is) and 20% to Tier 2 and Tier 3 (where the volume is). This is essentially optimizing ad account structure for global traffic without needing to manually select every single city.
Budgeting: Estimating the Unknown
One of the hardest parts of a "no location" launch is telling your boss (or yourself) how much it will cost. If you don't know where the clicks are coming from, how do you forecast?
You have to build a blended forecast. I usually assume that Tier 1 traffic will cost 3-5x what Tier 3 traffic costs. If you are launching a B2B SaaS, your conversion rates in Tier 1 might be higher, but the cost per acquisition (CPA) will also be higher due to competition.
We've actually put together a framework for this—check out our guide on the paid ads budgeting and forecasting framework. But to give you a quick way to play with the numbers right now, I've built a calculator below. It lets you adjust the "Mix" of traffic you want. Want to go heavy on cheap, global reach? Or focused on expensive, high-intent western markets?
Search Intent: The Great Equaliser
When you aren't filtering by location, your keywords must do the heavy lifting. You cannot afford broad match keywords here. If you target "software" broadly in a global campaign, you will burn through your budget in 15 minutes and get zero value.
You need to target "High Intent" keywords. These are queries that imply the user is ready to act or has a burning problem.
For example, if you are selling an email marketing tool:
- Bad (Too Broad): "email", "marketing tips", "send email"
- Good (Problem Aware): "email marketing software for small business", "bulk email sender prices", "mailchimp alternative"
I remember one software campaign where we generated 3,543 users at just £0.96 per user using Google Ads. We focused strictly on high-intent keywords rather than broad terms. We excluded the bottom poorest countries to be safe, but left the rest open. We found that users in less competitive markets were converting efficiently, allowing us to drive volume that would have been cost-prohibitive if we had only targeted the most expensive regions.
This approach aligns perfectly with the philosophy of Google Ads: target problems, not just location. You let the user's search query qualify them, not their IP address.
The "Pre-Launch" Tactics
Since you mentioned a "product launch," I assume you might not be live yet. If that's the case, you have a golden opportunity to build a waitlist. Global traffic is fantastic for waitlists because the barrier to entry (typing an email) is low.
You can run a "Beta Tester" campaign. Frame your ads as "Looking for Beta Testers - Get Early Access." This works incredibly well in Tier 2 and Tier 3 countries where users are often eager to try new tech but are often geoblocked by US-centric companies. By opening the doors to them, you build a massive list very cheaply. We've seen this work brilliantly for beta testers with no geo focus.
The "Optimisation" Phase: Killing the Losers
Once you launch, your job is to be a gardener. You have to prune the weeds. With a global campaign, you will see data coming in from countries you've never heard of.
Step 1: The Exclusion List. Before you launch, exclude the obvious non-starters. There are lists of countries with high bot traffic or sanctions that you likely can't do business with anyway. Get those out of the way.
Step 2: Review by "User Location". In Google Ads, go to the "Locations" tab and look at the "User Location" report. Sort by Cost per Conversion. You will quickly see patterns. Maybe "Nigeria" is sending you 1000 clicks but 0 signups. Exclude it. Maybe "Germany" has a high CPA. Move it to its own campaign to control the budget better.
Step 3: Language Settings. Even if you target "All Countries," make sure your language setting is set to "English" (or your product's language). This ensures that even if the user is in Japan, they likely have their browser set to English, meaning they can probably understand your product.
Handling High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) Globally
A common fear is that "global" means "low income." That's not true. There are wealthy people everywhere. There are millionaires in Mumbai, CEOs in Sao Paulo, and decision-makers in Jakarta.
If you are selling a high-ticket item, you can overlay "Audiences" on top of your keywords. For example, you can target the keyword "luxury watch investment" globally, but layer on an "In-Market" audience for "Luxury Goods" or "Financial Services." This helps filter out the window shoppers from the buyers, regardless of where they live. For more on this, look into targeting HNWIs without a location.
The Launch Framework Checklist
To summarize, here is how I would structure your launch:
It's definitely scary launching into the void. But honestly, I reckon it's the best way to find pockets of profitability that your competitors are too lazy to look for. You aren't playing the same game as everyone else fighting over New York zip codes. You're playing a global game of arbitrage.
My Main Advice for You
I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:
| Area | Actionable Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Strategy | Ignore political borders. Build your strategy around Economic Tiers. This protects your budget while giving you global reach. |
| Budgeting | Don't use a single CPA target. Set a higher CPA target for your Tier 1 campaign and a lower one for Tier 3. |
| Targeting | Rely on Intent (Keywords) and Language (English). Be very restrictive with keyword match types (Phrase/Exact only). |
| Launches | For a product launch, consider paid ads for product launches frameworks that prioritise data gathering first, then scaling. |
If you're still feeling a bit lost in the weeds with the global setup, or if you want someone to double-check your tiered structure before you hit the "Enable" button, it might be worth getting a second pair of eyes on it.
We offer a free consultation where we can look at your launch plan and help you figure out the right mix of countries and budget allocation to ensure you don't blow your cash on junk traffic. It’s usually super helpful to just walk through the logic with someone who has spent millions in these exact markets.
Hope this helps!
