Ad reach is an estimate of the number of people within a location target, based on signed-in users.
You can use the provided reach numbers to get a rough idea of how many people your ads could reach within a geographic area.
This article explains how ad reach is estimated and what happens when your location target can only reach a limited number of people.
How it works
With reach, you can estimate how many customers can see your ads in Michigan or Montana, or compare the number of people who might see your ad in Detroit and Ann Arbor. You can use those estimates to decide whether you've targeted the right areas, or if you need to select other areas that may provide the right level of exposure.
You may find some locations have limited reach, which means that ads targeting these locations may have a more limited audience.
Tip
Reach estimates should only be used as general guidance for determining the relative number of users in a location target, as compared with other location targets.
How it's estimated
Reach in Google Ads is based on an estimate of the number of people seen on Google properties within the specified geographic area. Therefore, you may find that reach numbers in Google Ads may differ significantly from census population data or other sources due to a range of factors, including:
- Number of accounts used per person
- Number of temporary visitors to a geographic location
- Length of time each person spends on a website
- Number of signed-in people
- Search partner or Google Display Network visits which aren’t included in reach number estimates
Tip
Reach helps you estimate the total number of people you could potentially reach with your ads, but it won't be able to tell you the total number of impressions your ads could receive.
Locations with limited reach
For some locations, you may see a "Limited reach" warning in Google Ads. Limited reach means we aren't able to associate people with a selected geographic location by their Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. Possible reasons include a low number of users in the location, or the quality of IP to location mapping.
