How to Target Postcodes in Google Ads (UK Guide for 2026)

Can you target specific postcodes in Google Ads?

Yes - but not in the way most UK business owners expect. Google Ads lets you target by postcode area (the first one or two letters, like "SW" or "LS"), by postcode district (like "SW1" or "LS6"), and by postcode sector (like "SW1A 1") through bulk upload. What it does not let you do is paste a full unit postcode like "SW1A 1AA" and target only that single building. For that level of precision, you use a radius around the postcode or draw a polygon on the map.

The short version: if you run a UK service business, an e-commerce brand with regional fulfilment, or a multi-location retailer, postcode targeting is one of the highest-leverage settings in your account. Done well, Ben regularly sees a 3 to 5x lift in conversion rate when broad geographic targeting is replaced with disciplined postcode-level controls. Done badly, you'll spend most of your budget on people who can never become customers.

How Google defines a UK location

Before you choose a method, it helps to understand what Google is actually matching against. The Google Ads location targeting system operates on a hierarchy:

• Country - "United Kingdom"
• Region / nation - England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland
• County / metropolitan area - Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire
• City / town - Leeds, Manchester, Bristol
• Postcode area - 124 areas like "M", "LS", "SW"
• Postcode district - around 3,000 districts like "M1", "LS6", "SW1A"
• Custom radius - any point on the map plus a distance in miles or km
• Polygon - a custom shape you draw across the map

The Royal Mail Postcode Address File contains roughly 1.7 million live UK postcodes, but Google does not target at full unit-code level. The smallest native granularity in the Google Ads UI is the postcode district. Anything tighter than that requires radius or polygon targeting, which is precise to street level.

The 5 ways to target postcodes in Google Ads

There are essentially five practical methods. Most accounts use one. The strongest accounts combine three or four.

1. Radius targeting around a central postcode
2. Searching the location box for postcode areas and districts
3. Bulk uploading a postcode list
4. Polygon (custom map shape) targeting
5. Layered audience targeting - postcode plus first-party data

Method 1: Radius targeting around a postcode

This is the fastest method and the one Ben uses most often for service-area businesses - plumbers, dentists, opticians, conveyancers, mobile mechanics. Inside the campaign's Locations settings, click Advanced search, then Radius. Type a postcode (any UK format works - "M1 4ET", "LS6", or even "SW") and choose a distance in miles or kilometres.

Google centres the radius on the geographic centre of whatever you typed. If you enter a full unit postcode, the centre is precise to the building. If you enter a district like "LS6", the centre is the geographic middle of that district.

When to use radius targeting

• You travel to the customer (trades, mobile services)
• The customer travels to you (clinics, showrooms, restaurants)
• You only have one or two physical locations
• You want a simple, dynamic catchment that updates as you move location

Method 2: Searching postcodes in the location box

For larger catchments built from named places, type a city or postcode area straight into the location box. Google returns matching options - "Manchester, England", "M postcode area, Manchester", "M1, Manchester". Each of these targets a different shape on the map, so click the small "View" link beside each suggestion before adding it.

This method is best for multi-location retailers, regional e-commerce brands, and franchises who want clean, named catchments. The downside: postcode districts are the smallest native option and they don't always match a real-world catchment. A district like "LS1" is the entire Leeds city centre - far too broad if you only serve LS1 6 and LS1 4.

Method 3: Bulk-uploading a postcode list

If you've spent any time analysing your CRM, you probably already know exactly which postcode districts produce profitable customers. Google Ads lets you upload up to 1,000 locations per campaign in a single bulk action via Locations > Advanced search > Bulk locations.

Acceptable formats include postcode districts ("LS6"), postcode areas ("LS"), city names, and country names. Google validates each line and tells you which it couldn't match. Save the matched list as a location group so you can reuse it across campaigns - Ben's team usually maintains a "core profitable postcodes" group and an "exclusion postcodes" group per client.

UK postcode upload format

Method 4: Polygon (custom map) targeting

Polygon targeting lets you draw any shape on the map and target only inside it. It lives under Locations > Advanced search > Map view. This is the cleanest way to target a real-world catchment that doesn't follow administrative boundaries - the area inside the M25, the catchment of a specific train line, or the streets within a 12-minute drive of a clinic.

Polygons are also Ben's preferred method for excluding tricky areas. If you're a roofer in Leeds and you don't want to drive into central Bradford, draw a polygon around Bradford and add it as an exclusion. Cleaner than typing 30 postcode districts into a list.

Method 5: Layering postcode audiences and exclusions

The best accounts don't choose between postcode targeting and audience targeting - they layer them. A typical Ben Lambotte build for a UK lead-generation client looks like:

• Location targeting: bulk-uploaded postcode districts representing the top 80% of historical revenue
• Location exclusions: any district where the historical CPA is more than 2x the account average
• Customer Match audience: existing customers, observation only, with a positive bid adjustment if performance justifies it
• Demographic exclusions: only where data clearly shows zero conversions

This pattern - precise postcode targeting plus first-party audience layering - is why a tightly built campaign on £2,000 a month often outperforms a sloppy one on £10,000.

Postcode bid adjustments that actually move revenue

Manual bid adjustments by location are still available in standard Search and Shopping campaigns - and they still work, even though many accounts have moved to Smart Bidding. The basic logic: if a postcode district consistently produces 30% more revenue per click than the campaign average, set a +30% bid adjustment on it. If a district consistently produces 50% less, set -50% (or exclude it entirely).

In Performance Max and Smart Bidding campaigns, location bid adjustments are mostly handled automatically by the algorithm - but you can still signal intent through location exclusions. Excluding a postcode district is one of the few hard levers that overrides Smart Bidding. If you don't want spend going somewhere, exclude it; don't trust the algorithm to figure it out.

Presence vs interest: the setting most accounts get wrong

This is the single biggest postcode targeting mistake Ben sees in audits. Inside Locations > Location options, Google offers two settings:

1. Presence: people in or regularly in your targeted locations (recommended)
2. Presence or interest: people in, regularly in, or who've shown interest in your targeted locations (default)

The default is "Presence or interest". That sounds harmless, but for a UK plumber targeting "Leeds" it means anyone anywhere in the world who searched something Google considers Leeds-related can see your ads. People researching a holiday, students looking up halls of residence, ex-pats reading the news - all eligible.

For 90% of UK local businesses, you should switch to "Presence: people in or regularly in your targeted locations". Same for exclusions - set them to "Presence" so you actually keep people out, not just exclude those Google thinks are interested in elsewhere.

How to measure postcode performance

Inside the campaign, go to Insights and reports > Locations > User locations. This view shows where your clicks and conversions actually came from, regardless of how you targeted. The Matched locations view shows where Google thought the user was. Compare both - the gap between them tells you how well your targeting is holding.

For deeper analysis, segment your converting customers by postcode district in your CRM, then export to Looker Studio and overlay against ad spend by location. The districts where revenue/spend is highest are your scaling targets; the districts where revenue/spend is below 1.0 are your exclusion candidates.

Common postcode targeting mistakes

• Leaving "Presence or interest" on - the default that quietly burns 20-40% of local budgets
• Targeting whole counties when you only serve three towns
• Forgetting to exclude unprofitable districts identified in CRM data
• Setting a 50-mile radius on a service business that won't drive past 15
• Using radius around the office instead of around the customer base centre of gravity
• Mixing targeting methods inconsistently across campaigns - one uses radius, one uses districts, one uses cities, and reporting becomes meaningless
• Ignoring Performance Max location signals - PMax respects exclusions, so use them

Ben's process for postcode targeting

Across 250+ UK Google Ads accounts, Ben follows the same four-step process when overhauling location targeting as part of the 90-Day Revenue Takeover:

1. Pull 24 months of CRM revenue by postcode district. Sort by revenue and identify the districts that produce the top 80%. This is the core target list.
2. Identify exclusion candidates. Districts where CPA is more than 2x the account average, or where return rates / refund rates / cancellation rates are unusually high.
3. Choose the right method per campaign. Service campaigns get radius. Multi-location campaigns get bulk upload. National brand campaigns stay at country level but use postcode bid adjustments.
4. Switch to "Presence" only and review weekly. The User Locations report runs every Monday for the first 6 weeks of the takeover; refinements are made fortnightly until the targeting stabilises.

This process - applied consistently - is one of the reasons accounts in the 90-Day Revenue Takeover average 84% revenue growth at the 90-day mark. Postcode targeting alone won't get you there, but it's almost always part of the fix.