Radius targeting lets your ads show only to people within a chosen distance of a specific point (like your office address or a ZIP code), so you can focus spend on the neighborhoods that can actually become customers.
In Google Ads, you pick a center point and a radius in miles or kilometers, and Google matches users using location signals (like device location, search context, and account settings). For most local service businesses in Orlando, the biggest “gotcha” is the location option you pick: if your goal is calls from people who are physically nearby, you typically want “Presence” (people in or regularly in your targeted locations), not “Presence or interest,” which can include people outside your service area who are just researching Orlando.
How radius targeting works in practice
Think of radius targeting as a circle, not a list of cities. If you set a 10-mile radius around Downtown Orlando, your ads can reach people in Winter Park, Maitland, Edgewater, and parts of Conway, as long as they fall inside that distance. It’s a clean way to cover a true drive-time style footprint when city lines are messy.
Radius targeting is not a perfect fence. User locations can be imprecise, and Google can still match some users just outside your circle or miss some inside it, especially around borders, lakes, and highways. That’s why we always pair radius targeting with reporting checks and exclusions, not just a single setting and hope.
| Option | What it does | Best for | Common pitfall |
|---|---|---|---|
| Presence | Targets people in or regularly in your selected areas | Local services, storefronts, clinics, urgent needs | Forgetting to switch from the default and paying for out-of-area clicks |
| Presence or interest | Can include people outside your area who show interest in it | Tourism, destination services, moving-to-Orlando searches | Lead quality drops for “near me” services |
| Radius targeting | Targets a circle around a point | Drive-time style coverage, service area businesses, franchises | Using one radius for everything, even when profitability varies by neighborhood |
| City/ZIP targeting | Targets named areas (cities, ZIPs, counties) | Clear service boundaries, multi-county coverage | City borders do not match real travel patterns |
| Exclusions | Blocks areas you do not serve | Every local campaign | Not excluding places that keep showing bad leads |
Smart ways local businesses use radius targeting
Tiered radius campaigns. If you know your close-in leads convert better, split campaigns by radius. Example: 0–5 miles (higher bids), 5–10 miles (medium), 10–20 miles (lower). This is especially useful for dentists, med spas, and urgent home services where distance strongly affects booking rates.
Multiple centers for service-area businesses. If you do pest control, lawn care, or HVAC and you cover multiple pockets around Orlando (say, Lake Nona plus Apopka), a single radius around one address can leave gaps. We’ll often build separate radius targets around the areas that matter most, then watch which one produces booked jobs, not just form fills.
Excluding “dead zones.” In Central Florida, lakes, toll roads, and tourist corridors can create weird lead patterns. If you keep getting calls from areas you do not serve (or that never turn into jobs), exclusions stop the waste fast.
What to do next if you’re setting this up
Start with a radius that matches how you actually operate, not how you wish you operated. If you tell customers “we’re usually there within 30 minutes,” map that into a realistic radius for Orlando traffic and test it. Then check your matched location report weekly for the first month and tighten exclusions when you see bad patterns. If you want help building a clean structure with tiers, exclusions, and conversion tracking, our PPC management work focuses on turning radius settings into booked calls, not just clicks.
Radius targeting also works best when your ads and landing pages match what people mean when they search, especially for urgent terms like “emergency plumber” versus research terms like “cost to replace a roof.” If you want a quick refresher on how buyers search, read our FAQ on search intent and the main types.
Finally, remember that paid ads and local visibility often support each other. If you’re trying to own your immediate area on both ads and maps, our FAQ on what local SEO is is a helpful companion, and if your landing page is slowing conversions, improving it with website design changes can raise call volume without raising your radius or budget.
