Google AdWords Learning Center - How AdWords Targets Users

Objective: Learn how Google determines the location and language of a user by Google domain, query parsing, IP address, and language preference detection.

Your ads are targeted to reach a certain audience, based on your chosen language and location targeting options (see the next topic for more details). With this information, AdWords works to ensure that your ad appears to your chosen audience.

When a user searches Google or sites across the Google Network, we'll determine to show your ad based on the user's:

Google domain
Query entered (called query parsing)
Internet Protocol (IP) address
Language preference

Google has over 100 country-specific domain extensions to which AdWords ads can be shown. The domain is the suffix attached to each web address, such as .com, .fr, and .es. Google.com is geared to users in the United States, Google.fr to users in France, and Google.es to users in Spain.

When a user searches on any of the hundreds of Google domains, AdWords displays ads according to the domain used. For example, if a user located in Spain searches on Google.fr, AdWords shows ads targeted to France.

With query parsing, Google can use the user's search query to determine when to show ads targeted to a specific region or city.

For example, if a user in New York searches for hotels in Hollywood, the user sees ads targeted to the Hollywood area.

This search functionality only applies to ads that target certain areas worldwide.

Google can sometimes identify a user's IP address to determine a user's general physical location. An IP address is a unique number assigned to each computer connected to the Internet (such as 10.32.20.135). The IP address is automatically assigned by a user's Internet Service Provider (ISP).

We'll only use the IP address to show regionally (region and city) targeted or customized ads, or when a user searches Google.com from any location.

Regionally targeted and customized ads: If a Google user searches plumbers from a New York area IP address, we may display regional or customized ads targeted to New York, even though New York isn't in the search query.

Google.com searches: If a user with an IP address in France searches on Google.com, the user might see ads targeted to France, even though the user isn't accessing Google.fr.

The Preferences link on the Google homepage lets users choose the language in which they want to search. When the user sets the language preference, Google only displays ads that are targeted to the chosen language. If the user doesn't specify a language preference, the Google domain (like Google.fr) determines the default language preference (in this case, French).

For example, users who choose Spanish as their language preference see ads targeted to Spanish speakers.

Google does not translate ads. If an advertiser writes an ad in English and targets the Spanish language, the ad appears in English, regardless of the targeted language.