Last updated: J2024
Google Ads Country Exclusion List:
There are many ways to indicate location within Google Ads, and other digital and social media advertising platforms. The default on Google Ads for instance is “People in or interested in” as a location. You may even want to go as far as excluding states in your Google Ads campaign.
If that geography just happened to be Seattle Washington, then people within Seattle would see the ads, but so would someone from Pittsburgh researching Seattle, as would someone in Russia or India researching about that area. If your business is unable to generate revenue from these far-off areas, you’ll need to do better with targeting. There is the ability to target based on “People who are in or regularly in” the targeted geography which would help cut down on a lot of that.
The only problem becomes, what if that person from Pittsburgh researching Seattle was a legitimate prospective buyer but those international visitors were not – using the second location targeting won’t work. Rather, you’ll have to go with the default location targeting and then exclude other countries around the world. Please see the Google Ads Country Exclusion list below that makes it easy to copy/paste these countries and exclude them from targeting.
Nearly all international locations are included except Syria, Iran, Sudan, and North Korea. Additionally, Hong Kong and Taiwan must be entered independently of China for those to show up as exclusions.
Why is Important to Exclude Certain Countries:
One of the biggest reasons to exclude certain countries, besides serving ads to people who aren’t in your target audience, is it’s more cost-effective. By using exclusions you are less likely to waste budget if your ad is shown in areas where people are not going to convert to customers. For example, someone in Russia is not going to be a customer for someone selling services in Pittsburgh, so we would exclude Russia so that Google doesn’t waste ad spend showing an ad to someone there. Someone from Russia might happen to search for a keyword that would naturally trigger our ad showing, but using exclusion prevents Google from wasting resources on someone who will never convert.
Note: As of March 2024, Google limits 120 locations to the exclusion list.
Here is a list of all countries outside of the US for a quick Google Ads country exclusion list:
You can copy the list below, or download the Location Exclusion Doc file (just simply select all, copy and paste then)
Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
American Samoa
Andorra
Angola
Anguilla
Antarctica
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belgium
Belize
Benin
Bhutan
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
British Virgin Islands
Brunei Darussalam
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cambodia
Cameroon
Canada
Cape Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
Chile
China
Hong Kong
Taiwan
Christmas Island
Cocos Islands
Colombia
Comoros
Congo-Brazzaville
Congo-Kinshasa
Cook Islands
Costa Rica
Cote d’Ivoire
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Djibouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
Egypt
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
Falkland Islands
Federated States of Micronesia
Fiji
Finland
France
French Guiana
French Polynesia
Gabon
Gambia
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Greenland
Grenada
Guadeloupe
Guam
Guatemala
Guinea
Guinea Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kiribati
Kosovo
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Martinique
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mexico
Micronesia
Moldova
Monaco
Mongolia
Montenegro
Morocco
Mozambique
Myanmar
Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
Netherlands
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Niue
Norfolk Island
North Korea
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Palau
Palestine
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Romania
Russia
Rwanda
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Samoa
San Marino
São Tomé and Príncipe
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
Somalia
South Africa
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
South Korea
South Sudan
Spain
Sri Lanka
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Sudan
Suriname
Svalbard and Jan Mayen
Swaziland
Sweden
Switzerland
Syria
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
UAE
Togo
Tonga
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Tuvalu
Uganda
Ukraine
United Kingdom
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Vatican City
Venezuela
Vietnam
Wallis and Futuna Islands
Western Sahara
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Always Use International Location Exclusions When Applicable
Even though you can explicitly target people in certain areas, as a safety redundancy, you should also be utilizing international location exclusions. This just further removes the possibility of unnecessary international spending on your ads campaigns.
When you are not utilizing explicit “Presence” and are allowing search traffic from outside of the physical geo, International Location Exclusions are even that much more beneficial. Make sure that you’re using them!
Still, seeing too much spending that looks faulty? Consider Fraudulent Click Protection – see how Corkboard Concepts can help! Corkboard Concepts has a Google Advertising Specialist team that is ready to help you build campaigns that grow your company. Feel free to contact us today!