Best Google Ads Setup for a Multi-Location Service Business

Jesse Heslinga
3 days ago
9 min read

Running Google Ads for a single-location service business is straightforward enough: one target area, one set of campaigns, one budget. Multi-location is a different problem. The same keyword can have completely different competition levels, CPCs, and conversion rates depending on the city. A budget strategy that works in one location can actively underperform in another.

Most multi-location businesses start by building one national or regional campaign and letting Google decide where to spend the budget. That approach almost always ends up over-investing in easy markets and under-investing in the competitive ones where the real growth is. The result is a blended average that looks acceptable in reporting but masks significant variance by location.

This post covers the structural decisions that actually matter for a multi-location setup: how to separate locations, how to set bids by market, what landing pages you need, and the mistakes that consistently cause budget to go to the wrong places.

The Short Answer

Separate campaigns per location (or per region) give you control over budget, bids, and performance reporting that a single geo-targeted campaign cannot.
Each location needs its own landing page. Sending multi-location traffic to a single homepage loses the message match that makes Google Ads convert.
Performance will vary significantly by location. A setup that lets you see and act on that variance is more valuable than one that averages it away.
Shared negative keyword lists across all location campaigns save time and prevent the same irrelevant searches from wasting budget in every market.
Location extensions and call extensions are not optional for a service business. They pull local intent signals and improve ad quality for nearby searches.

Why one campaign for all locations does not work

The default approach for a multi-location business is a single campaign with geo targeting set to all service areas. Google is told to show ads everywhere you operate, and budget is distributed automatically based on where clicks are cheapest or most frequent.

The problem is that Google's budget allocation optimises for volume, not value. If one city has lower CPCs and higher click-through rates, it absorbs a disproportionate share of the budget, even if that city has a lower conversion rate or lower average job value. Locations where you most want to grow (often the more competitive ones) get starved of budget.

The second problem is reporting. A single campaign covering five cities shows blended metrics. A rising cost per lead in one city can be masked by falling CPLs in another. You cannot see the problem because the data is combined.

Separate campaigns per location solve both. You control how much budget each location gets, you can see the CPL for each market independently, and you can raise or lower bids in response to real location-level performance.

Keep in Mind: Separate campaigns does not mean separate accounts. Everything runs inside one Google Ads account. It just means the campaign structure mirrors your geographic structure instead of collapsing everything into one bucket.

How to structure campaigns for multiple locations

There are two sensible approaches depending on scale.

One campaign per location. Best for 2 to 6 locations with meaningfully different markets, budgets, or competitive conditions. Each city or region gets its own Search campaign, its own budget, and location targeting set to that specific area. Performance and spend are completely transparent by location.

Regional groupings. For businesses with 10+ locations across a wide area, individual campaigns per location can become unmanageable. In this case, group locations by region (North, Midlands, South, for example) where market conditions are similar enough that blending does not materially distort the data. Each regional campaign gets its own budget.

The ad group structure inside each location campaign stays consistent: one ad group per core service, with a tightly themed keyword list in each. Keywords for "emergency boiler repair" sit in a different ad group from "annual boiler service." They have different intent, different conversion rates, and should have different bids.

Bidding by location: accounting for market differences

A flat CPC target or flat Target CPA across all locations ignores the fact that markets have different competitive dynamics. A €30 Target CPA that is profitable in a smaller city may be far below what it takes to win clicks in a major metro.

Once you have location-level campaign data (typically after 4 to 8 weeks per location), set Target CPA or Target ROAS targets per campaign based on actual performance in that location, not a single blended target.

For new locations where you do not yet have conversion data, start with Maximize Conversions bidding until the campaign has gathered enough history (typically 30 to 50 conversions) to switch to a target-based strategy. Applying a Target CPA to a campaign without sufficient conversion data causes Smart Bidding to under-serve, because it cannot reliably predict conversion rates without data to learn from.

Pro Tip: Location bid adjustments (available in manual bidding or as portfolio strategies) can be a useful middle ground if you are not yet ready to fully separate campaigns. Set a base bid and apply positive or negative adjustments per location. It gives you some control without requiring a separate campaign for each area.

Landing pages: one per location, minimum

This is the most consistently skipped part of multi-location setup and the one with the clearest impact on conversion rate.

Sending all multi-location Google Ads traffic to a single homepage or a single "services" page means every visitor sees the same message regardless of where they are. Someone searching "roof repair Glasgow" clicking an ad that takes them to a page saying "we cover the UK" has less reason to enquire than one that lands on a page saying "roof repair in Glasgow" with a Glasgow phone number and local references.

The minimum is one landing page per major location or region, with:

A headline that names the city or area
A local phone number (or at minimum a phone number that answers with a local reference)
Service-specific content relevant to what the ad promised
A form that is visible without scrolling

For franchises or businesses where locations operate somewhat independently, location-specific pages also allow you to reference local reviews, local team members, or local credibility markers that a generic national page cannot.

If you're deciding between landing page builders for this, Swipe Pages vs Unbounce vs Instapage covers the practical trade-offs for a lead-gen service setup.

Shared negative keyword lists

One of the highest-value, lowest-effort parts of multi-location account management is maintaining shared negative keyword lists that apply across all location campaigns.

Without this, you are reviewing irrelevant search terms in every location campaign independently and adding negatives one by one. The same searches (DIY instructions, job vacancies, competitor brand names, educational queries) waste budget in every market.

The setup: create a shared negative keyword list in Google Ads (under Tools > Shared Library > Negative keyword lists). Build a core list of irrelevant terms that apply across all your services and locations. Apply it to all location campaigns at the campaign level. When you find a new irrelevant term in any campaign, add it to the shared list so it is excluded everywhere.

For a starting point on what to include, how negative keywords work in Google Ads covers the logic and typical categories for lead-gen accounts.

Location extensions and call extensions

Location extensions pull your business address into the ad, which increases the relevance of local searches and typically improves CTR for location-specific queries. For a multi-location business, link each location's Google Business Profile to the relevant campaign, so the address shown in the ad matches the location being targeted.

Call extensions add a phone number directly to the ad. For service businesses where phone calls are the primary conversion type, call extensions are essential. They allow mobile users to call directly from the search results without visiting the landing page. Tracking those calls requires a call tracking setup, but the extension itself is always worth enabling.

For businesses with a Google Business Profile in each location, there is a secondary benefit: running Google Ads increases the likelihood of appearing in the Local Pack for relevant searches in that area. The two channels reinforce each other.

Reporting: what to track across locations

The most useful multi-location reporting gives you two views: the overall account (are we profitable?), and the location breakdown (which markets are performing well and which need attention?).

At minimum, track per location:

Cost per lead
Lead volume (week over week and month over month)
Conversion rate (clicks to leads)
Budget utilisation (is the campaign spending its full budget, or is it constrained?)

A location that is consistently below target CPL with full budget utilisation is a candidate for budget increase. One that is consistently above target CPL or underutilising budget has a different problem: either the bids are wrong, the landing page is poor, or the market itself is less fertile than expected.

If your cost per lead is climbing across multiple locations at the same time, the problem is usually not location-specific. It is more likely a market-wide shift (competition increasing, seasonality) or an account-level issue (match types too broad, landing pages degrading). See why Google Ads cost per lead goes up for the diagnostic.

Common mistakes in multi-location setups

One campaign with all locations lumped together, making it impossible to see or act on location-level performance variance.
The same landing page for all locations, removing the local relevance signal that improves both Quality Score and conversion rate.
Applying a uniform Target CPA across all locations before having location-specific conversion data to set it accurately.
No shared negative keyword list, meaning the same irrelevant searches waste budget in every market independently.
Launching all locations simultaneously on a fixed total budget, which spreads the learning phase across too many campaigns at once. Better to launch 2 to 3 locations, let them gather data, then roll out the structure to new ones.
Not linking Google Business Profiles to each location campaign, missing the local extensions that improve ad quality for nearby searches.

How I handle this for multi-location clients The setup I use for multi-location lead-gen accounts follows the same structure in every case: one campaign per location or region, consistent ad group structure across all locations, location-specific landing pages, shared negative keyword lists, and location-level Target CPA targets set from actual data once each market has enough conversion history. The first 6 to 8 weeks with a new location are always on Maximize Conversions bidding. I switch to Target CPA once there is enough data to set a target that Smart Bidding can reliably hit. Rushing that switch before there is sufficient data is one of the most common reasons multi-location campaigns underperform in the first couple of months. If you are managing multiple locations and the performance varies more than you would expect, or if you suspect budget is going to the wrong markets, an account review covers the structural issues first.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Should I run one Google Ads campaign or separate campaigns for each location?

Separate campaigns give you control over budget and bids per location and make performance transparent by market. A single campaign with geo targeting averages performance across all locations, which can mask underperforming markets and misdirect budget. For 2 to 6 locations, one campaign per location is the standard approach. For 10+, grouping locations by region is more manageable.

Do I need different landing pages for each location?

Yes, at minimum one page per major location or region. Sending all traffic to a generic national page removes the local relevance signal (city name in headline, local phone number, local references) that improves both conversion rate and Quality Score. A location-specific page consistently outperforms a generic one for the same keyword in the same area.

How do I set bids for a new location with no data?

Start with Maximize Conversions bidding and let the campaign gather 30 to 50 conversions before switching to a Target CPA strategy. Applying a Target CPA too early, before there is enough data for Smart Bidding to learn from, causes the campaign to under-serve. The first 4 to 8 weeks per location are a data-gathering phase.

What budget should I allocate per location?

Start with enough to generate at least 30 to 50 clicks per week in each location. This typically means €500 to €1,500 per location per month depending on the CPC in that market. Once you have conversion data, adjust budget based on actual CPL performance: increase budget in locations where CPL is below target, reduce or investigate where it is above.

How do I stop Google from targeting the wrong locations?

Set targeting to "people in or regularly in" your target area (not "people interested in"), use specific geo targets (city or radius, not broad regions unless you genuinely serve the whole region), and review the geographic performance report monthly to identify any locations outside your service area that are generating clicks.

Can I use Performance Max for a multi-location service business?

With caution. Performance Max campaigns can work for multi-location businesses but give less control over geo targeting and keyword intent than Search campaigns. For lead-gen specifically, a Search-first structure with location-level campaigns gives more control and more transparent data. Performance Max can be added alongside Search once the account is stable and you have conversion data to feed it.

About the author

Jesse Heslinga | Google Partner | 7+ Years Google Ads | Lead-Gen Expert

I run Google Ads for lead-gen service businesses at Groove Media across clinics, home services, and professional services, working with clients directly, no account-manager layer. I build every account around one question: is this spend turning into real customers, not just cheap form fills?