When you first create a campaign with pay-per-lead goals, your targeting settings are automatically set based on data from your Google Business Profile. These settings can be edited at any time in your campaign settings. In this article, you'll learn how this targeting works and its limitations.
On this page:
How targeting works
Managing your targeting settings
- Editing service areas
- Setting ad schedules
- Managing business categories
- Selecting Service types
- Managing Direct Business Search
How targeting works
Geographic and location rules
Targeting is designed to be local and precise, to focus on spending your budget in areas where you can perform work.
- Geographic availability: During the initial launch phase, this campaign type is available only for businesses operating within the United States. To learn when service is expected to expand to other regions like Canada and Europe, refer to the Supported business verticals for Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals.
- Service areas: Your location targeting is prefilled using the service areas listed in your Google Business Profile. Note: If you don't have service areas listed in your Google Business Profile, this information may be prefilled based on your business address.
- Targeting constraints: You cannot target across different countries. Your target locations must be in the same country as your linked Google Business Profile.
Business categories vs. Service types
The system uses a two-tiered approach to map your services to local customer searches.
- Business categories: These are broad industry classifications (such as HVAC or Plumbing) synced from your Google Business Profile. The system automatically maps these categories to supported pay-per-lead categories in Google Ads.
- Service types: These are specific tasks within your business categories, such as "AC installation" or "leak repair." These are grouped by category to ensure your ads appear for relevant customer queries.
Managing your targeting settings
During the campaign creation process, you can review and edit your targeting settings to ensure they align with your business goals. While these settings are prefilled using your Google Business Profile data, they operate independently of your profile once setup is complete. This means you can customize or adjust your ad targeting (such as service areas or ad schedules) in Google Ads without affecting your organic Google Business Profile, and vice-versa.
Editing service areas
If you have defined service areas on your Google Business Profile, they will automatically prefill your campaign targeting. If no service areas are listed, the county of your business address is suggested as the target area. You can add or remove cities, counties, or ZIP codes during setup based on your actual travel limits.
Setting ad schedules
Your ad schedule defaults to run "All the time" to maximize your lead volume. You have full control to edit this schedule during or after setup. You can set specific days and hours that work best for your business, and your selections are not restricted by your Google Business Profile hours. You may also choose to sync your ad schedule to your business hours, if you only want to show ads when your business is open.
Managing business categories
Choose the categories that represent your services to help Google match your ads with relevant customer searches. This ensures your leads are aligned with the core services you offer. Here is how business categories are configured in your campaign:
- Single eligible category: If your Google Business Profile lists only one eligible business category, that category is automatically selected for your campaign and cannot be toggled off during setup.
- Multiple eligible categories: If your Google Business Profile has multiple supported categories, all of them are enabled by default. You can select a custom subset (minimum of 1, maximum of 10) to focus your campaign. If you toggle off all business categories, the system will display the error that says, "To proceed, turn on at least 1 business category.”
Setting Service types
Your service types (such as "clogged drain" or "leak repair") are prefilled based on the services listed on your Google Business Profile. You can edit and adjust these selections at any time to align with your campaign goals. To ensure you receive relevant leads, you must have at least one service type enabled for every active business category. Toggling off all service types within an active category will display the error: "To proceed, select at least 1 service type for this business category."
Managing Direct Business Search
Direct business search is a feature that helps you reach customers who search specifically for your brand or business name, as opposed to category searches like "plumber near me." When Direct Business Search is active, your ad is the only local ad eligible to appear on these brand searches, and you are only charged for leads from new customers.
To protect your budget, Google dynamically screens these brand inquiries: callers and messages are asked if they are a returning customer. If they indicate they are a returning customer, you are not charged for the lead. Direct Business Search can be toggled on or off at any time in your campaign settings under the “Profile and Budget.”
