TLDR;
- Running "location-agnostic" or global campaigns often hides critical performance data, making optimization a nightmare.
- You can't just trust the "Global" setting; you must segment countries by economic tiers (Tier 1, 2, 3) to see where your budget is truly going.
- The "Location Not Specified" data in reports is usually due to privacy settings or IP masking, but high volumes indicate a setup issue.
- We've included an interactive Blended vs. Tiered CPA Calculator to show you how much "cheap" global traffic might actually cost you in real ROI.
- The most important piece of advice is to never mix high-cost (USA/UK) and low-cost (developing nations) traffic in the same campaign, as the algorithm will always favour the cheap, low-quality traffic.
So, you’ve launched a PPC campaign without a defined geographic target. Maybe you set it to "Worldwide," or maybe you just left the location settings wide open because your product is digital and you can sell to anyone, anywhere. Theoretically, that sounds brilliant. A massive audience, lower CPMs, and the algorithm finding your customers wherever they hide. But in practice? It’s usually a bit of a mess.
The problem you’re facing—struggling to track which regions are driving conversions—is one I see constantly. You log in, see a bunch of clicks or even leads, but you have no idea if they came from London or a bot farm in a basement halfway across the world. Without that clarity, you can’t scale. You can't double down on what works because you don’t know where it works.
I’ve managed quite a few global campaigns for SaaS and digital product clients, and the "spray and pray" approach to location targeting is a classic budget drain. The platforms (Google, Meta, LinkedIn) love it because they can sell you cheap inventory in regions that look good on a vanity metric report but do absolutely nothing for your bank balance. To fix this, we need to move from "No Location Specified" to a structured, tiered dominance strategy.
The "Location Blindness" Trap
When you run ads without strict geographic boundaries, you aren't just casting a wide net; you're handing over control of your budget distribution to an algorithm that prioritizes easy results over valuable ones. If you tell Meta or Google, "Get me conversions anywhere," they will find the cheapest place to get a conversion.
Usually, that means your budget floods into countries with lower advertising costs (CPCs of £0.05 instead of £1.50). You might see 50 conversions and think, "Great!" but if 48 of them are from regions where the currency exchange rate makes your product unaffordable, you've wasted your money. This is a common scenario I discuss in my guide on paid ads without location targeting.
The "Cheap Traffic" Illusion
Why Your Tracking Feels Broken
The frustration you feel—"difficult to track which regions are actually driving conversions"—stems from how aggregated reports work. If you run a single campaign targeting "Worldwide," the default dashboard view just shows "Campaign A: 50 Conversions." You have to dig to find the geographic breakdown.
Furthermore, privacy changes (like iOS14+) and VPN usage mean a chunk of traffic comes through as "Location Not Specified" or "Unknown." If you rely heavily on auto-placement without excluding regions, you get muddy data. I've seen accounts where 20% of spend went to "Unidentified" regions, which is terrifying if you are trying to calculate ROI. If this is happening on Facebook specifically, you might want to look at our findings on solving Meta ad targeting without location data.
The Fix: The Tiered Country Strategy
You need to stop treating the world as one big bucket. Even if your product can be sold anywhere, not every "anywhere" is worth the same to you. The most effective way to manage a global strategy is to split your campaigns by Economic Tiers.
I usually structure global accounts like this:
Tier 1 Campaign (High Competition, High Value)
Target only: USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand.
Why? These countries have high disposable income but very expensive CPMs. If you mix them with India or Brazil, the algorithm will ignore these expensive countries to get you cheaper clicks elsewhere.
Tier 2 Campaign (Moderate Competition, Good Value)
Target: Western Europe (Germany, France, Netherlands, Nordics), Japan, South Korea, Singapore, UAE.
Why? Good purchasing power, slightly lower costs than the Anglosphere, but often require language nuances.
Tier 3 Campaign (Volume & Discovery)
Target: Rest of the World (excluding sanctions lists and known bot-farm hubs).
Why? This is for scale. You get cheap traffic here. If you have a solid low-ticket offer, this can be a goldmine. But you keep it separate so it doesn't cannibalize the budget for your Tier 1 prospects.
This structure immediately solves your tracking problem. You don't need to dig into reports to know which region is performing; you just look at the campaign level. "Oh, the Tier 1 campaign has a CPA of £40, but Tier 3 is £5." Now you can make a business decision: is a £5 customer from Tier 3 worth the same as a £40 customer from Tier 1? If not, you cut the Tier 3 budget without hurting your Tier 1 visibility.
Deep Dive: Analyzing the "Hidden" Data
If you already have a campaign running broadly and you need to extract the data now before you restructure, here is how you dig it out.
In Google Ads
Google hides this a bit. Don't just look at the "Locations" tab in the left-hand menu—that often just shows you what you targeted (which might just say "World"). You need to go to:
Locations -> User Location Report (sometimes found under "Reports" -> "Predefined reports (Dimensions)" -> "Geographic" -> "User Location").
This report reveals where the user actually was physically, regardless of your target settings. You might find you're spending £500 a month in a region you didn't intend to, simply because your location settings were set to "Presence or Interest" rather than just "Presence." This is a classic Google gotcha. For a detailed breakdown on fixing this specific setting, check out our guide on Google Ads location targeting errors.
In Meta (Facebook/Instagram)
On Meta, go to your Ads Manager. On the right side, there is a "Breakdown" button.
Select Breakdown -> By Delivery -> Country (or Region).
This will expand your campaign rows to show every single country that received an impression. You can then sort by "Amount Spent" to see where your money is bleeding, or "Results" to see where conversions are happening. It’s shocking how often I see 80% of a budget spent in a country the client doesn't even ship to, just because the algorithm found cheap clicks there. If you see delivery happening in places you definitely didn't want, you might be facing the bug we discussed in solved: Meta ads delivering to wrong locations.
Blended vs. Tiered CPA Calculator
See how mixing Tier 1 (expensive) and Tier 3 (cheap) traffic affects your average reported Cost Per Acquisition (CPA).
Handling "Unknown" Locations
Sometimes, your report will literally say "Unknown" or "Location Not Specified." This is incredibly annoying, I know.
This happens for a few reasons:
- IP Masking/VPNs: Users are hiding their location.
- Privacy Settings: Users on platforms (especially Apple devices) have opted out of tracking that reveals granular data.
- Latency: The platform hasn't resolved the IP to a geo-location yet (rare, but happens with fresh data).
If "Unknown" makes up less than 5-10% of your data, ignore it. It’s the cost of doing business in a privacy-first web. However, if it's 30%+, you have a problem. This often suggests your tracking pixel isn't firing correctly, or you are capturing a lot of bot traffic which often obscures its origin. In cases like this, looking at "interest" data rather than just location can sometimes help triangulate who these people are. I’ve written about shifting focus to targeting problems not just locations as a way to circumvent poor geo-data.
Advanced Strategy: Exclusion Lists
Even if you want to run a broad "Rest of World" campaign, you must have an exclusion list. There are certain countries that generate massive amounts of click fraud or bot traffic. I won't list them all here to avoid offending anyone, but any experienced media buyer knows that if you leave "Worldwide" open, you will get thousands of clicks from click farms that bounce instantly.
Go into your analytics. Look for regions with:
- High Clicks
- Extremely Low CPC
- 100% Bounce Rate (or 0s time on site)
Exclude these immediately. This cleans up your "undefined" target data significantly because you are removing the noise. Sometimes the issue isn't the location data itself, but the quality of the data in your dashboard. If you suspect your poor ROI is linked to this bad data, it might be worth reading why ditching location data dependency and focusing on intent filtering can help.
Google Performance Max (PMax) & Location Signals
If you are using Google’s Performance Max campaigns, you have even less control. PMax loves to roam. It will find conversions wherever they are cheapest.
For PMax, it is critical to go into your campaign settings -> "Location options" and ensure you select "Presence: People in or regularly in your targeted locations."
Do NOT select "Presence or Interest."
If you select "Presence or Interest" (which is the default, cheeky Google), your ads will show to people in India who are "interested" in New York. If you are a local business or target specific regions, this destroys your budget. But even for a global digital product, it messes up your data tracking because a user in Region A is being reported based on their interest in Region B. It confuses the attribution. If you've seen your spend skyrocket with poor accuracy, check out our piece on Google Ads spend and geo-targeting accuracy.
Step-by-Step Recovery Plan
You’re currently in a bit of a fog. Here is my recommended path to get clear visibility again.
| Step | Action | Expected Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Audit | Run the "User Location" report (Google) or "Breakdown by Country" (Meta). Export to Excel. | See exactly which countries consumed your budget last month. |
| 2. Group | categorize the countries from your report into Tier 1 (High Value), Tier 2, and "Junk" (High spend, zero ROI). | A clear list of winners and losers. |
| 3. Restructure | Pause the "Global" campaign. Launch 3 separate campaigns: Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3. | Budget control. You can now allocate £1000 to Tier 1 and £100 to Tier 3 explicitly. |
| 4. Tighten | Change location settings to "Presence Only". Add negative location exclusions for known bot hubs. | Cleaner data. Less "Unknown" traffic. |
| 5. Monitor | Review ROAS per campaign, not just per account. | True profitability tracking. |
This transition from a chaotic "no location specified" setup to a tiered structure is one of the highest-impact changes you can make. It doesn't just help with tracking; it usually drops your CPA significantly because you stop overpaying for cheap traffic that doesn't convert and start bidding properly for the traffic that does.
If you’re worried that this setup sounds complicated to maintain, or if you’ve looked at your "User Location" report and it looks like a random list of 150 countries with £2 spend each, it might be time to bring in an expert eye. We specialize in untangling messy global accounts and setting up robust tracking architectures.
Consider Expert Help
Global advertising is a minefield of wasted spend and murky data. If you’re struggling to see where your conversions are coming from, you’re likely bleeding budget in places you don’t even know exist. We offer a free consultation where we can dive into your location reports with you, spot the "money pits," and map out a tiered strategy that clarifies your data and boosts your ROI. No pressure, just a clear look at where your ads are actually running.
