Create and manage location groups

Location groups make it easier to promote nearby business locations within your ads. You group together sets of business locations and create ads based on their location details in your campaigns. Location groups also allow you to target your ads based on those business locations.

This article shows you how to build a location group using common chain businesses or custom locations from your Google My Business account.

Instructions

1. Create a location group

Select locations from a chain of businesses

You can build a location group from some or all locations in a chain of businesses. These locations are provided by Google, and don’t require you to create a Google My Business account.

You can add these location groups to your location extensions or affiliate location extensions within your search, display, and video campaigns. Keep in mind, you’ll have to first create location extensions or affiliate location extensions.

Location group supports the following filtering functionalities:

• With location extensions:
  • Pick your locations
  • Filter by GMB label
  • Upload locations in bulk
• With Affiliate location extensions:
  • Pick your locations
  • Select by chain
  • Upload locations in bulk

Important: Please allow about one day for locations to be synced fully into your location extensions or affiliate location extensions before creating the location group. You can check the status of your locations by looking at the location extensions report. If the status of the locations are “Approved”, it means that they are synced.

Select specific locations within a chain

1. Sign in to Google Ads.
2. Click the tools & settings icon.
3. Under “Shared library”, select Location groups.
4. Click the plus button.
5. Insert a name for your location group.
6. If the radio button next to "Pick your locations" isn’t selected, click it.
7. Select the chain you want to search for locations.
8. Use the search bar to search locations and click the check box next to the locations you want to include in this location group.
   • Optional: You can click the X button next to your picked locations to remove them from the list, or Clear all to empty the list.
9. Click Save.

Select all locations from a chain

1. Sign in to Google Ads.
2. Click the tool & settings icon.
3. Under “Shared library”, select Location groups.
4. Click the plus button .
5. Insert a name for your location group.
6. If the radio button next to "Select by chain" isn’t selected, click it.
7. Select one or more chains
   • All locations for the selected chains are now included in this location group.
   • If store locations are added or removed from these chains in the future, these changes will be reflected in this location group.
8. Click Save.

Select locations from Google My Business account

You can build a location group using a custom set of locations from your Google My Business account. You can either select specific locations or filter for locations that match specific criteria.

Custom locations from Google My Business can only be added to location extensions. You won’t be able to add these custom locations to your affiliate location extensions. Affiliate location extensions are designed to promote your products sold at locations owned by another business.

Select specific locations

1. Sign in to Google Ads.
2. Click the tools & settings icon .
3. Under “Shared library”, select Location groups using your Google My Business account
4. Click the plus button .
5. If the radio button next to Pick your locations isn’t selected, click it.
6. Use the search bar to search locations and click the check box next to the locations you want to include in this location group.
   • Optional: You can click the X button next to your picked locations to remove them from the list, or Clear all to empty the list.
7. Click Save.

Select locations that match a filter

1. Sign in to Google Ads.
2. Click the tools & settings icon.
3. Under “Shared library”, select Location groups.
4. Click the plus button .
5. Insert a name for your location group.
6. Click the radio button next to Filter by label.
7. Insert the name of your label next to “Label is”.
   • If your GMB account doesn’t have any labels, learn more about labels in Google My Business.
   • Optional: You can click +OR to add additional labels to your filter criteria.
8. All locations for the label are now included in this location group.
   • If you add or remove locations from this label in the future, the same change will happen to this location group.
9. Click Save.

2. Manage location groups

Steps to manage location groups

1. Sign in to Google Ads.
2. Click the tools & settings icon .
3. Under “Shared library”, select Location groups.
4. Click the name of the location group to view it.
   • Optional: If any of your group’s locations have been disapproved, the location’s status will read “disapproved” and the reason for the disapproval will show under the status. You can click on either text to view why the location has been disapproved. You can then click Read the policy to learn more or Edit in Google My Business to fix the issue.
5. Click the name of your location group.
6. You can now edit your locations list on the right either:
   • Removing the locations by checking the box next to those locations and selecting Remove from the blue belt that appears. Note: You can also delete location groups entirely from your account, which will impact any campaigns using those groups.
   • Add new locations by clicking the plus icon to curate or use labels to set new locations. If you set new locations using labels, you can also add additional labels to filter specific locations.
7. Click Save to apply your changes.

Create location groups in bulk

You can create location groups in bulk using a .CSV or .xlsx file. You can use these templates to format your files: CSV | Excel

Keep in mind: The format of the file must be in exactly the same formats as in the templates. It’s recommended to download templates and then add in locations.

The following are required fields if you’re using an address:

• Business name
• Address line
• City and country code

State, postal code, phone number are optional fields.

If you’re using a FeedItemId, only the FeedItemId is required.

Use the following steps to upload your file and create location groups in bulk:

1. Sign in to Google Ads.
2. Click the tools & settings icon.
3. Under “Shared library”, select Location groups.
4. Click the plus button.
5. Click Upload locations in bulk.

Choose a name for your location group and click Select a file from your computer. The location group will be applied automatically.

Related links

• Create a Local campaign
• About affiliate location extensions
• About location extensions