You’re a roofing contractor in Quincy. You set up Google Ads, you’re getting calls — but half of them are from people in Worcester, Providence, or somewhere on the Cape that’s a two-hour drive. You’re paying for every one of those clicks. This is one of the most common and most expensive mistakes Massachusetts contractors make with Google Ads, and it’s almost always a location setting problem, not a keyword problem.
Here’s how to fix it.
The Setting That’s Probably Burning Your Budget Right Now
When you create a Google Ads campaign and set a target location — say, Boston or a 25-mile radius around your shop in Braintree — Google gives you a choice that most contractors never notice. Under “Location options” in your campaign settings, there are two options:
- Presence or interest: People in, regularly in, or who’ve shown interest in your targeted locations
- Presence: People in or regularly in your targeted locations
The default — the one Google pre-selects — is Presence or interest. That sounds harmless until you understand what “interest” means in practice.
What “Presence or Interest” Actually Does
Google defines “interest” as someone who has recently searched for, browsed content about, or otherwise signaled interest in your target location — even if they’re physically sitting somewhere else entirely. So if someone in Springfield searches “roofing contractor Boston” from their couch, Google can show them your ad. You pay for the click. They’re not in Boston. They’re not your customer. You just donated a few dollars to Google’s quarterly earnings.
For a national e-commerce brand, this setting makes some sense. For a South Shore siding contractor who can’t drive four hours to do a job, it’s a money drain. Change this setting to Presence only immediately.
Radius vs. City Targeting: Which One Works Better for MA Contractors?
Massachusetts has a geographic quirk that makes this decision more important than it might be in a flat midwestern state: the density changes fast. A 25-mile radius from a contractor in Newton can include downtown Boston, Waltham, Framingham, and parts of the South Shore. A 25-mile radius from a contractor in Gloucester reaches deep into the ocean.
When Radius Targeting Makes Sense
Radius targeting is the right call when your service area is genuinely circular — when you’ll drive equally in any direction from your base. It works well for contractors in the 495 belt, where suburbs spread out relatively evenly. Set your radius to the honest maximum distance you’ll travel for a job, not a wishful number. If you won’t drive past Route 128 to the north, don’t target 40 miles north.
When City and Town Targeting Is More Precise
City targeting gives you more control — and for most Massachusetts contractors, that precision pays off. Instead of a radius that bleeds into areas you don’t serve, you build a list of exactly the towns and cities where you want work. A landscaping company serving the North Shore might target: Salem, Beverly, Peabody, Marblehead, Swampscott, Lynn, Nahant, and Danvers — nothing else. You can add bid adjustments on top of that, pushing spend harder toward the towns with better margins or shorter drive times.
The trade-off is that city targeting requires more maintenance. You’ll need to add new towns as your business expands, and you need to make sure you haven’t accidentally left out a municipality because you forgot it existed.
Using Negative Locations to Block Out-of-Area Traffic
Negative locations work the same way negative keywords do — they exclude places where you don’t want your ads to show. This is your second line of defense, especially if you’re using radius targeting and there are specific areas within your radius that you never serve.
Common examples for Massachusetts contractors:
- A contractor based in Plymouth who targets a 30-mile radius but doesn’t serve Cape Cod — add Barnstable County as a negative location
- A Boston-area HVAC company whose radius clips Rhode Island — add Rhode Island as a negative location
- A contractor in Lowell who wants Greater Boston traffic but not New Hampshire — add Hillsborough County, NH as a negative
To add negative locations: go to your campaign, click Locations, then click the blue pencil to edit. At the bottom of the targeting section, you’ll see “Excluded locations” — add everything you want to block there.
How to Audit Your Location Report in Google Ads
Even after you fix your settings, you need to check where your ads are actually showing. Google’s Location Report tells you the truth. Here’s how to pull it:
- Log into Google Ads and go to your campaign
- In the left menu, click Insights and reports, then Where ads showed
- Set your date range to the last 30–90 days
- Download the data or scroll through to see every geographic area where impressions and clicks happened
- Sort by clicks descending — the highest-click locations at the top
Look for anything that surprises you. If you see clicks from Worcester County and you’re a Cape Ann contractor, that’s a problem. If you’re spending in Connecticut, that’s a problem. For each anomalous location, add it as a negative location or tighten your targeting settings.
The Difference Between User Location and Location of Interest
The location report has two views: User location (where the person physically was) and Location of interest (what location they were searching about). Both matter. If you’re getting clicks from people physically outside your area, that’s the “Presence or interest” problem. If they’re in your area but searching about somewhere else, that’s usually fine.
A Quick Checklist Before You Close This Tab
- Change location targeting from “Presence or interest” to Presence only in every campaign
- Decide between radius and city targeting based on your honest service area
- Add negative locations for any areas within your radius you don’t serve
- Pull the location report and review where impressions and clicks came from in the last 90 days
- Add any surprising locations as negatives
- Set a monthly calendar reminder to re-run the location report
These changes take 20 minutes. But most contractors running Google Ads on their own have never touched these settings, and they’re losing real money on every campaign because of it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is “Presence or Interest” targeting in Google Ads?
“Presence or Interest” is Google’s default location targeting option. It shows your ads not only to people physically in your target area, but also to anyone who has recently searched for or shown interest in that location — even if they’re physically somewhere else. For local contractors, this almost always results in wasted spend. Switch to “Presence only” to limit your ads to people actually in your service area.
How do I check if my ads are showing in the wrong areas?
In Google Ads, go to Insights and Reports, then select “Where ads showed.” This opens the user location report. Filter by the last 30 to 90 days and sort by clicks. Any location outside your actual service area is waste you can eliminate by adding it as a negative location.
Does radius targeting work well for contractors?
It depends on your geography. Radius targeting works when your service area spreads evenly from a central location, like a contractor along the 495 corridor. It’s less precise when your area is irregular — if you serve specific towns but not others, or your radius clips a neighboring state. In those cases, city and town targeting gives you better control.
If you’d rather have someone who does this every day audit your campaigns and fix the settings, that’s what we do. Learn more about Google Ads management for Massachusetts contractors and see what a properly configured campaign looks like.
If you are auditing wasted spend more broadly, this breakdown of Google Ads mistakes Massachusetts contractors make explains the bigger structural issues that usually sit behind loose location targeting.