Dynamic location targeting in Adwords

[Bagley]

Me again!

Is it possible to dynamically change location targeting in Adwords? For example, my affiliate network has a .csv URL that they automatically update with the zip codes of where they have services. (It's a huge list).

Is there a tool or app available can use this file which would then update the location targeting in my Adwords campaign whenever a zip is added or removed from the list?

Obviously there is the Location Targeting API in Adwords that I can use to build it myself, but I'm sure someone has built this tool already?

 

[awesomesauce]

Not really. I generally avoid zip targeted campaigns because they are really hard to get working unless you have really cheap traffic.

The reason they are hard to get working is because AdWords and Invoca determine the user's location differently. AdWords uses the user's actual physical location and Invoca bases the location on the area code of the phone number. Well guess what? Sometimes people move, so then when they call your number Invoca will think they don't qualify, but in reality they just kept their phone number from where they used to live.

 

[Bagley]

Woah!

I'm getting clicks and calls at the moment, but so many calls just state "there is no contractor in your area" and that's the end of the call. It's become super frustrating to a point where I'm trying to figure out a completely new game plan because targeting zips doesn't seem to be working.

My affiliate manager has given me a list of 24 000 zips as well as a top 20% zips (±4000 zips), how do I go about running a campaign then if I'm not using those zips? Do I just ask which US States they have 100% coverage in terms of contractors and then target that?

 

[awesomesauce]

We discussed this over Skype, but for everyone else in the forum, the solution is to not run zip targeted campaigns.