Why are Google Ads leads from the wrong location—even with Presence targeting?

You only serve Kuching. The campaign targets Kuching. You have already changed the location option to Presence. Yet another WhatsApp enquiry asks whether your team can come to Kuala Lumpur.

The usual advice—“change your location settings”—is not much help when you have already done it.

If you are getting Google Ads leads from the wrong location, the next step is to separate three things: where Google estimates the person is, what they searched for, and where they actually need your service. Those are not always the same place.

Table of contents

• The short answer
• The issue: Presence is not a service-area guarantee
• A practical solution for wrong-location leads
• What marketers often get wrong
• Frequently asked questions
• Get a clearer picture of your lead quality

The short answer

Presence targeting narrows who can see your ads, but it does not verify where a customer needs your service. If the wrong-location enquiries keep coming, work through these checks:

1. Confirm which enquiries actually came from the campaign.
2. Check the location settings in that campaign, not just the account you remember editing.
3. Read geographic reports without treating matched locations as verified addresses.
4. Compare Google Search and Search Partners using qualified outcomes.
5. Ask where the service is needed before calling the lead “out of area.”
6. Review search terms and measure the result of each change.

This guide focuses on Search campaigns. Do not assume the same network controls apply to Performance Max or every other campaign type.

The issue: Presence is not a service-area guarantee

Advertisers are still asking this question after changing the setting. In one discussion about completely wrong-location leads, the advertiser said Presence was already selected. One account does not prove a platform fault. But it raises the question this guide addresses: what should you check next?

Google’s advanced location guidance distinguishes the options:

• Presence or Interest: includes people estimated to be in or regularly in your target area, plus people who have shown interest in it.
• Presence: focuses on people estimated to be in or regularly in your target area.

“Regularly in” matters. Presence does not mean the person is standing inside your boundary at the moment they enquire.

Google also explains that geographic targeting uses signals such as IP addresses and device location. It can include nearby, closely related areas under certain conditions, and accuracy is not guaranteed. The map is an estimate, not a verified delivery address.

There is a practical distinction too. Someone living in Johor could be arranging repairs for a property in Kuching—a potentially good lead for a Kuching contractor. Someone physically in Kuching could need work done in Kuala Lumpur and fall outside that contractor’s service area.

Your sales team needs the job location. The campaign’s location report answers a different question.

A practical solution for wrong-location leads

1. Confirm the lead source before changing the campaign

Start with a recent batch of enquiries you can realistically review. For each one, check the available campaign, landing-page, form or call-tracking record. Include WhatsApp enquiries if your tracking reliably records where they came from.

A person saying “I found you on Google” does not distinguish a paid ad from an organic result, a Business Profile or a shared link. Equally, missing campaign data does not prove an enquiry was organic. Label it source unknown until you have better evidence.

Keep a lead log with these fields:

• enquiry date and source evidence;
• campaign and network, where available;
• requested service city or postcode;
• qualified, out of service area, duplicate, spam or unresolved;
• qualification date and eventual booking or sale.

Only collect what you need and limit who can access the log. A city or postcode is enough for this check; you do not need a customer’s full address.

2. Check Presence vs Presence or Interest against the business

Open each affected Search campaign and review its included locations, exclusions and advanced location option. Look for a broader target accidentally left in place alongside the intended city or radius.

Presence can be appropriate for a local service that only wants to reach people in its operating area. But there is no single right setting for Google Ads location targeting in Malaysia. A hotel, university or property business may deliberately want enquiries from people planning a visit or purchase from elsewhere.

Write down the rule first: “We accept jobs in these areas,” or “Our customers can live anywhere, as long as they need what we offer at this destination.” Then check that the campaign supports that rule.

Save the date of any change. Otherwise, next week’s report will mix traffic from before and after the adjustment.

3. Understand matched locations vs user location

In the Locations report, compare the available targeted and matched-location views. Google’s geographic reporting documentation explains that targeted locations show results against your selected targets; matched locations can represent a person’s physical location or a location of interest.

Do not read a matched-location row as a confirmed user address. Check the report’s dimensions, location type where available, campaign settings and date range together. Aggregate rows also cannot tell you where a specific customer needs the work done.

Compare those reports with the service locations your team actually confirmed. Several enquiries for jobs you cannot reach give you something concrete to investigate. Two location dashboards disagreeing may not.

If an area is outside your service coverage, check whether Google Ads supports an appropriate location exclusion. You will still need to ask where each customer needs the work done.

4. Check Google Search Partners lead quality separately

An overall cost per lead can hide differences between networks. Google provides a “Network (with search partners)” segment to compare Google Search, search partners and Display performance where applicable.

Start with spend and conversions, then check how many leads qualified where your tracking supports that breakdown. If your records cannot connect lead quality to a network, that part of the answer is still unknown. Do not assign every bad enquiry to Search Partners by guesswork.

Search partners are included by default in Search Network campaigns and can be removed through campaign settings. If the evidence shows a persistent quality problem, test removing them from the affected Search campaign while holding other major settings steady.

Treat this as a test, not evidence that Search Partners always produce bad leads. Give your team time to qualify the enquiries before comparing results, and account for changes in demand. These instructions apply to Search campaigns; they are not a way to opt out in Performance Max.

5. Ask where the service is needed

Put the service area near the enquiry button, not only in the footer. For example: “On-site servicing in Kuching and the listed surrounding areas.” Replace that example with your actual coverage and name the areas you serve.

Then ask one useful question: “Which city or postcode needs the service?”

On a form, make the answer easy to enter. On WhatsApp, include the question in the opening prompt and have the team confirm it. Let people explain exceptions rather than forcing an inaccurate selection.

Do not reject a lead solely because of a phone country code, home city or current travel location. Those details do not establish the job address. Good landing-page design makes the service boundary clear without making a legitimate customer fight the form.

6. Review search intent, then measure qualified leads

Check search terms for explicit requests involving places you cannot serve. Add negative keywords when the queries clearly describe work you do not want.

Negative keywords restrict matching searches; they do not verify a person’s location. Adding “Kuala Lumpur” as a negative is not the same as excluding people in Kuala Lumpur. It can also block a useful query, depending on its wording and match type.

After each significant change, compare enquiries from equivalent periods and give each group enough time to qualify. Use the same calculation for both:

Cost per qualified lead = campaign spend ÷ qualified leads from that campaign

For illustration only, RM1,000 spent on 50 enquiries is RM20 per enquiry. If just ten qualify, the cost per qualified lead is RM100. A later RM1,000 cohort with 25 enquiries and 15 qualified leads costs about RM66.67 per qualified lead. Fewer messages can still be the better business result.

Keep the definition of a qualified lead fixed. An enquiry you have not yet assessed is not automatically unqualified. Likewise, a lead that arrived yesterday has not had the same chance to become a booking as one your team has followed up for three weeks. This approach to paid-media measurement helps you judge whether a location change actually improved results.

What marketers often get wrong

• Repeating the Presence advice without checking it. Once that setting is correct, investigate source evidence, network performance and service location.
• Changing everything at once. New keywords, a smaller radius, a new page and a network change make it difficult to identify what helped.
• Treating every outside-city contact as wasted spend. Qualify where the job is needed, not where the buyer lives.
• Adding hundreds of place names as negatives. Query filtering and geographic targeting solve different problems; broad negative lists can remove relevant demand.
• Declaring Search Partners guilty from one bad lead. Check the network breakdown and your ability to connect it to outcomes first.
• Celebrating cheaper enquiries while bookings fall. Track serviceable, qualified demand and eventual business outcomes alongside the platform’s conversion count.

Frequently asked questions

Why am I getting wrong-location leads despite Presence targeting?

Presence includes people estimated to be in or regularly in the target area, and location signals are imperfect. The enquiry may also concern work somewhere else or have an unverified source. Check these possibilities before assuming the setting failed.

Is Presence always better than Presence or Interest?

No. It can suit tightly local services. Businesses selling a destination or serving buyers remotely may want interest-based reach. Choose based on which enquiries you can fulfil, then assess qualified outcomes.

Does a matched location show where the customer lives?

No. It can reflect a physical location or a location of interest under Google’s reporting definitions. Neither is proof of residence or the requested service address.

Should I turn off Google Search Partners?

Consider a controlled test if your Search campaign’s evidence supports it. Do not assume that every partner enquiry is poor quality, or that the same switch exists for Performance Max.

Will radius targeting stop all out-of-area enquiries?

No. A radius still relies on Google’s location signals, and it cannot establish where a person needs the service. Combine sensible targeting with clear coverage information and a service-location question.

Get a clearer picture of your lead quality

Before tightening the map again, find where the mismatch happens: the enquiry’s source, Google’s estimated location, the search query or the requested job address. Once you know which part is wrong, you have a clearer idea of what to test.

If you want help connecting those pieces:

• Message Wayne on WhatsApp.
• Use the guided project brief. It prepares an email draft; nothing is sent until you review and send it from your email app.
• Email waynegtcfx@gmail.com.
• Schedule a 30-minute discovery call.