If there’s one lesson we’ve learned while running campaigns for remodelers in dozens of markets, it’s this: your results have far less to do with how loud you shout and far more to do with where your message lands. Geotargeting is the difference between speaking to a homeowner already frustrated with their outdated bathroom and shouting into a digital void of renters, tire-kickers, and people three cities away.
In 2025, Google Ads rewards remodelers who understand local nuance. Not the broad idea of “serving the entire city,” but the very real truth that some pockets of your market consistently produce bigger projects, faster decisions, and higher conversion rates. This guide is designed to help you identify those pockets and build a geotargeting strategy that works the way homeowners actually search.
Across every remodeling account we manage, we see a recurring pattern. The leads that turn into booked consultations tend to come from the same neighborhoods again and again. They’re usually areas with older homes, stronger incomes, and homeowners who are active online researchers. This is why broad targeting rarely performs well—it treats every neighborhood like it behaves the same.
When campaigns are tightened around the right service areas, things change quickly. Costs settle. Lead quality jumps. The search terms become more focused. And suddenly, instead of sifting through calls that go nowhere, remodelers spend their time talking to clients who are already picturing their project on the schedule.
Google gives remodelers several ways to define where their ads appear, but the strategy lies in how you combine them. You can target by radius, city, or even individual zip codes. You can include areas or exclude them. And now, in 2025, Google’s “presence” settings have become one of the most important switches in the entire platform.
When you choose to only show ads to people physically within your target area, you eliminate an enormous amount of waste—people researching from out of state, people who Googled your city once, or people looking up a contractor on behalf of someone else. Local remodelers win when they keep things tight.
One of the most insightful exercises we walk remodelers through is simply mapping the last year’s job locations. Every business has patterns, even if they haven’t noticed them yet. You’ll often find three or four neighborhoods that have repeatedly hired you, asked for quotes, or referred others. Those areas become the foundation of your targeting.
But the real refinement comes when you layer in supporting data: where higher-income households are concentrated, where older homes dominate the streetscape, where home values sit well above the city median. These are the places where homeowners are more likely to search for kitchen remodels, bathroom upgrades, and whole-home redesigns.
We also evaluate drive time. A beautifully optimized campaign loses its edge if every consultation requires a 45-minute drive. Most remodelers see the best performance inside a 15–25 minute radius. Beyond that, close rates drop—even if the lead quality looks fine on paper.
Once you set your service areas, Google’s bidding algorithm begins layering its own intelligence on top of your decisions. It looks at when people in those neighborhoods tend to search. It prioritizes mobile devices if that’s where most high-intent homeowners convert. It identifies which zip codes consistently produce conversions and which ones quietly burn budget.
This interplay between your targeting and Google’s predictive systems is where the magic happens. When your boundaries are precise, automated bidding suddenly becomes much more efficient. Instead of spreading itself across a city, it concentrates your ad dollars where your best clients already live.
As your campaign runs, you’ll start noticing that certain neighborhoods outperform others. Maybe one consistently produces kitchen remodel leads that convert into high-margin projects. Maybe another is great for bathrooms but not whole‑home renovations. When you see these trends, the smart move is to lean in.
We often recommend increasing bids slightly - sometimes 20 to 30 percent, in neighborhoods that repeatedly generate profitable consultations. This isn’t about chasing cheap leads. It’s about giving Google more freedom to prioritize the areas already proving their value.
Just as important: don’t hesitate to scale back or even pause underperforming areas. Refinement is how geotargeting becomes a true competitive advantage.
Some of the most impactful improvements we make in new accounts come from unglamorous switches most remodelers never touch. For example, choosing "presence only" instead of "presence or interest" immediately tightens the audience. Adjusting household income tiers narrows your ads to homeowners likelier to invest in larger projects. Even subtle tweaks in device optimization can redirect budget toward neighborhoods where mobile users convert more effectively.
And then there’s the storytelling element: localized ad copy. When a homeowner sees the name of their neighborhood or nearby suburb in a headline, trust accelerates. Click‑through rates rise. Quality scores improve. And the entire ecosystem becomes more efficient.
Some of the most effective geotargeting strategies aren’t mentioned in help articles. They come from observing thousands of searches, hundreds of neighborhoods, and countless client patterns.
For instance, many remodelers overlook the fact that lower‑income zip codes often contain highly desirable subdivisions tucked away behind winding streets or new developments. A large zip might look unqualified on paper, yet a two‑mile radius inside it could be a goldmine.
Or consider the difference between distance and drive time. A neighborhood that’s eight miles away in a straight line may take 35 minutes during rush hour, while one twelve miles away might take half the time. Google tends to reward businesses that target areas where the in‑person experience is smooth and reliable.
We also see incredible performance gains from creating localized landing pages. A page titled "Bathroom Remodeling in Brookdale" behaves very differently from a generic service page, even though the service is the same. Homeowners respond to relevance.
You can tell quickly when your geotargeting strategy is dialed in. Click‑through rates climb into the six‑to‑ten‑percent range. Cost per click begins dropping as Google sees you as a better match for local users. Lead quality improves, and the types of projects coming in align more closely with what you want to sell.
One of the clearest signals—conversion rate. When your landing pages are properly localized and your ads match the intent of specific neighborhoods, conversions often rise into the twenty‑ to thirty‑percent range.
If numbers begin drifting—impressions in wrong areas, costs rising in certain zip codes, or an influx of low‑intent leads—it’s time to revisit the map.
One remodeling firm we worked with operated across a sprawling metro area. Their campaign targeted nearly thirty zip codes, hoping volume would offset inconsistency. Instead, their cost per lead climbed month after month.
We dug in. Nine zip codes consistently produced strong projects. Six more showed seasonal potential. The rest added noise. Once we isolated the high‑value areas and built localized ad groups—and even more localized landing pages—everything shifted. Lead costs dropped dramatically. Conversion rates rose nearly a third. Most importantly, they could finally see where their best future clients lived.
It wasn’t a budget change. It was a targeting change.
Markets move. Search patterns evolve. Competitors expand into new neighborhoods. And certain areas that once produced steady demand can slow down without warning. We audit geotargeting constantly because it influences everything else—your cost structure, your lead flow, your close rate.
The remodelers who grow consistently aren’t the ones who set their service areas once and forget. They’re the ones who refine, tighten, and expand at the pace their market requires.
Geotargeting isn’t a setting. It’s a strategy. It’s the practice of understanding your market the way homeowners live in it—neighborhoods with their own identities, search habits, home values, and histories.
When done right, Google Ads stops feeling like a cost and starts behaving like a predictable growth engine. Your ads show up where your best clients already live. Your consultations become more aligned with the type of work you want to win. And your marketing begins reflecting the real shape of your market.
If you want support building a geotargeting plan tailored to your service area, our team at B&G Growth Marketing can help you map, target, and optimize at a level that drives real ROI.
Turn tactics into traction with a strategy built to perform, no guesswork, no fluff, just results.
