Implementing Geo-Targeted Ads
If you run a small business in Derbyshire or the East Midlands, you have probably watched your ad budget disappear into clicks from people who will never walk through your door. I see it constantly. A salon in Matlock paying to show ads to someone in Manchester. A trades business in Belper bidding on national keywords when its van only covers a 15 mile radius.
Geo-targeted ads fix this. Done properly, they put your business in front of the people who can actually become customers, not a national audience that dilutes your budget and skews your results.
I have spent 18 years running marketing for SMBs across Derbyshire and the wider East Midlands, and geo-targeting is one of the few tactics that consistently moves the needle for local businesses with modest budgets. In this guide I will walk through how to set it up properly, what to avoid, and how it fits into a wider local marketing strategy.
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Take the ScorecardWhat geo-targeted ads actually do
Geo-targeted ads let you show different ad messages to people based on where they are, rather than broadcasting one generic message everywhere. Instead of paying to reach the whole of the UK, you can focus spend on Derby, Matlock, Ashbourne, or a five mile radius around your premises.
For a service business, this usually means radius targeting around a fixed location. For a business with several sites or a wider patch, it means building separate campaigns for each area with messaging tailored to that audience. The principle is the same either way: relevance beats reach.
Why this matters more for local businesses
A national brand can afford some wasted impressions. A local Derbyshire business cannot. Every pound spent showing an ad to someone outside your service area is a pound that did not go toward a real enquiry. Tightening your geography is usually the single biggest efficiency gain available in a local ad account, and it costs nothing to implement.
Step one: define your target locations properly
Most businesses get this step wrong by being too broad. "Derbyshire" sounds specific until you remember it covers everything from Glossop to Swadlincote. Start narrower than feels comfortable.
Identify your real catchment
Look at where your existing customers actually come from. If you have a CRM or booking system, this data is usually sitting there already. Most local businesses find their genuine catchment is smaller than they assumed, often a 10 to 20 mile radius rather than a whole county.
If you do not have this data to hand, a properly configured CRM will give you it going forward, along with a much clearer picture of where your leads are coming from.
Layer in local demographics
Once you know your geography, look at who lives there. A campaign aimed at young families in a Derby suburb needs different messaging to one aimed at retirees in the Peak District fringe villages. This is not about stereotyping a town, it is about not wasting creative on the wrong audience.
I have lost count of the number of Derbyshire businesses I have met who were running national ad campaigns on a local budget. The fix is rarely more spend. It is usually tighter targeting. Stuart Baddiley, Optimise Your Marketing
Step two: choose platforms with genuine geo-targeting depth
Not all platforms handle location targeting equally well. Google Ads and Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram) both offer strong radius and postcode-level targeting. LinkedIn Ads can target by region but is weaker on tight local radius, so it tends to suit B2B East Midlands businesses better than local retail or trades.
Build a cross-channel approach
A trades or hospitality business in the East Midlands will usually get the best return from Google Ads for intent-driven search ("plumber Matlock") paired with Meta for visibility and brand awareness in the local area. Running both lets you catch people actively searching and people who are not yet searching but will recognise your name when they are.
A Derbyshire trades business cut wasted spend by over 40 percent
We worked with a heating and plumbing business near Ashbourne whose ads were running across the whole of the East Midlands on a small monthly budget. Tightening the radius to their genuine 15 mile service area, alongside cleaner local messaging, cut their cost per enquiry significantly within the first month, without increasing spend.
See our local marketing serviceStep three: write ad content that sounds local, not generic
Geo-targeting only works if the ad itself reflects the location it is shown in. A radius-targeted ad with generic copy is still a missed opportunity.
Reference the area properly
Mention the town, the postcode area, or a recognisable local landmark. "Serving Wirksworth, Cromford and the surrounding villages" tells a reader instantly that you understand their area. It also signals to the ad platform's algorithm that your ad is genuinely relevant to that audience, which can improve delivery and cost.
Use offers that make sense locally
A discount that only makes sense to people who can physically visit you, such as a call-in offer or a local-only promotion code, works far better than a generic national discount. It filters for the right audience naturally.
Step four: set your targeting parameters with discipline
Radius targeting
Most platforms let you set a radius around a pin, typically from one mile up to 50 or more. For a single-location business in somewhere like Bakewell or Belper, a 10 to 15 mile radius is usually a sensible starting point. Test smaller and larger versions against each other rather than guessing.
Exclude what does not serve you
Just as important as defining where you want to appear is defining where you do not. If you cannot service a particular town profitably, exclude it. This keeps your data clean and your budget focused, which matters more once you start trying to optimise.
Step five: track performance properly and adjust
Geo-targeted ads are only as good as the measurement behind them. Click-through rate tells you whether the ad is engaging. Conversion rate and, where relevant, foot traffic tell you whether it is actually working.
Test one variable at a time
Run structured A/B tests, changing one thing at a time, whether that is the radius, the creative, or the offer. Without this discipline you end up with results you cannot actually learn from. This is the same test and measure approach we apply across every channel for clients, not just paid ads.
If you are running ads to your website, make sure the landing page reinforces the local message in the ad. A generic homepage undoes a lot of good targeting work.
How this fits into the BIG12 framework
Geo-targeted ads sit inside the wider local marketing pillar of our BIG12 framework, the 12 areas we believe every small business needs to get right to grow consistently. On their own, well-targeted ads bring in enquiries. Connected to your Google Business Profile, your lead generation follow-up process, and your CRM, they become part of a system rather than a one-off campaign.
This is the difference we see most often between businesses that run ads and businesses that grow from running ads. The framework, not the individual tactic, is what makes the spend pay off long term. You can read the full BIG12 framework on our online marketing training page.
See where geo-targeted ads fit in your bigger picture
Run your business through the BIG12 Scorecard to see which of the 12 pillars need attention before you put more budget into ads.
Take the ScorecardThe challenge is never learning. It is doing.
None of this is complicated in theory. Defining a catchment, writing local ad copy, setting a radius and tracking results are all things most business owners can understand within an afternoon.
The hard part is doing it properly while also running the rest of the business. I see Derbyshire and East Midlands SMBs set campaigns up well, then leave them untouched for six months because nobody has the time to keep testing and refining them. That is where the budget leaks away.
This is exactly the gap we close for clients. Eighteen years in, the businesses that get the most from geo-targeted ads are the ones with someone actually watching and adjusting the campaign week to week, not just setting it and walking away.
Book a free 90-minute audit with Stuart
We will look at your current marketing, benchmark it against the BIG12, and give you a practical set of actions to take. No sales pitch. No fluff. Just 18 years of honest advice applied to your business.
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