Google Ads not running: Targeting is too narrow

While targeting settings help you find the right users that are most interested in your business, each time you add targeting or if you’ve issues with your remarketing lists, you narrow the potential reach of your ads.

What you can do

Keywords

Placement targeting

  • If you’re targeting only one placement, it may not be eligible to serve (for example, your video ad can’t serve on some YouTube channels, even if you add them to your campaign’s targeting).

Audience targeting

  • If the amount of users on the list is below our requirements, your campaign may not serve.

Location targeting

  • Targeting one postal code, a small radius, or a city with a low population may limit your campaign’s reach or prevent it from serving. Learn how to Target ads to geographic locations.

Products

Negative targeting

  • Exclusions can be helpful if you have brand safety concerns. However, targeting specific websites or remarketing lists may limit or prevent your ad from serving (for example, excluding "youtube.com" or a remarketing list that contains most of your users).

Your Google Ads account


Need something else?

Check other common reasons why your ads are not running.

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