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Geographic targeting on Facebook: how to define your area when you work locally
An area too wide makes you pay for out-of-area contacts, one too narrow wears out delivery. How to choose the area for a local Facebook ad.
Published on · Joh · 5 min read
When you sell a service or building work, you cannot work everywhere. The area of a Facebook ad is therefore one of the first settings, and one of the most badly set. The two mistakes go in opposite directions.
An area too wide
You pay to reach people you will not be able to serve. They ask for a quote, you call them back, and you lose time finding out they live three hours away. The apparent cost per contact stays low, the real cost climbs, because it includes the hours spent on the phone.
An area too narrow
The audience becomes small, the same people see the ad several times, and delivery wears out. In a narrow area where several businesses in the same trade buy the same audience, the auction rises too. You pay more to reach fewer people.
Start from what you can serve
The rule that avoids most mistakes: the area matches what you can actually cover, not what you hope for.
For a showroom, it is a distance a customer will agree to travel. For a tradesperson who travels, a distance whose journey time stays profitable. The kitchen case published on this site worked on a catchment area of 40 km. The full case.
Three questions to set it
- How far will you go for a job? For the first quote, then for the job itself.
- How many households does this area contain? A thinly populated area limits volume, whatever the budget. Sometimes you have to widen it, or accept a lower volume.
- Who else advertises there? If many competitors target the same small area, the price rises.
One question in the form
People move around, work elsewhere, fill in an approximate profile. Asking for the town or postcode in the form weeds out those outside your area before you even call. Why one more question lowers volume and raises quality.
An area gets revised
The first choice is a hypothesis. After a few weeks, look at where the enquiries that become appointments come from, not only the ones that arrive. If the best come from towns at the edge of the area, it is too narrow. If appointments cluster near you, widening will only pay for contacts who will not sign.
Further reading: How to structure a Meta campaign to get enquiries and Facebook advertising for a pool builder.
Not sure which area to target? . We look at your working radius and the volume it allows.