Try Location Extensions Without Address Overrides
What does it mean when you get the message in Google Adwords “Try location extensions without address overrides“?
If you setup your Adwords campaign using a Custom Location (such as 20 mile radius around your zip code) AND you entered a Places Extension separately, Google displays this message as a warning that you may be using conflicting Locations that might affect where your ads display.
Google says: here “Your ads will show to users in the locations you’ve chosen in your campaign settings. If a user’s location is outside of your targeted area, or can’t be determined by our system, we won’t show your ad in order to prevent irrelevant clicks.“.
Chances are that you are not using two different locations. You should just check your Campaign level setting to make sure.
Many people freak-out about this message. OK! Its not clear what it means unless you specialize in local search. This message is apparently meant to warn those who inadvertently put local limitations on their ads, to be aware that their ads won’t run “world wide”. But who does silly stuff like that?
Rule #1 – Google is in the business of making money on ads (advertising). If your ads run in a small geographic area (geo), well, that’s not good for GOOGs business. Can we scare some nieve people into advertising galaxy-wide, when they really only need to be seen within a 20 mile radius of their location? A $300 a month budget could become a $300 a day budget.
When dealing with Google (name your product), it a good idea to remember the timeless quote; “Don’t Panic”
So why does Google use two different location setting in Adwords? Just to make it difficult so that you have to hire an expert to run your Adwords campaigns? No. This may be the result of both complex business needs and Google Places functionality evolving over time. How Google uses Location Extensions and Custom Locations (from 2009) “we’ll dynamically match your business locations to a user’s location or search terms and show the address with your text ads. If we’re unable to determine a user’s location or if there are no relevant addresses to show, we’ll simply show your ad without an address. If you prefer not to dynamically match addresses to your ads and would rather show a specific address in one particular ad, you can do so by setting up specific location extensions for individual ads.”
Clear? Not really! So I suggest re-reading Hitchhiker’s Guide as a more productive use of your time than trying to read too much into the evolving products and not-so-well-thought-out integration of Google Products.
“In many of the more relaxed civilizations on the Outer Eastern Rim of the Galaxy, the Hitchhiker’s Guide has already supplanted the great Encyclopaedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects. First, it is slightly cheaper; and secondly it has the words DON’T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover.”