Geotargeting
Also known as: Location Targeting, Radius Targeting
Geotargeting restricts your ads to people in specific locations — a country, city, ZIP code, or a radius around an address.
What it actually means
Geotargeting is the practice of limiting ad delivery by physical location. On Meta you can target countries, regions, cities, ZIP codes, or draw a radius around a pin — and you can choose whether to include people who live in the area, were recently there, or are merely traveling through. For local businesses this is the single most important targeting decision: a tight, accurate radius ensures every dollar reaches people who can actually become customers. Getting it wrong wastes budget on people too far away to ever visit. Radius size should reflect how far customers realistically travel for your service, which differs sharply between a coffee shop and an orthodontist.
Set your radius to match real driving behavior, and always choose 'people who live in this location' so you are not paying to reach tourists who will never return.
Related terms
A core audience is a targeting group built from Meta's own data — location, age, gender, interests, and behaviors — rather than from your customer lists.
An audience is the defined group of people your ads are eligible to reach, built from location, demographics, interests, behaviors, or your own data.
Interest targeting reaches people based on topics, pages, and activities Meta has associated with them, such as 'yoga' or 'small business owners'.
Reach is the number of unique people who saw your ad at least once during a given time period.
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