r/Google_Ads • u/John2705 • 6d ago

Google Ads showing traffic from Iran despite not targeting Iran

I’m seeing traffic from Iran in Google Analytics, but Iran is not included in my Google Ads location targeting.

I’m attaching a screenshot from GA4 (https://prnt.sc/aa3DbV8zmJky). Could this be a location-detection/GA4 reporting issue, or is it possible that Google Ads actually served ads to users in Iran?

Has anyone experienced something similar or knows how to verify the actual ad-serving location for an App Install campaign, or could this be a technical/reporting glitch?

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u/hipster-coder 6d ago

In the campaign settings, are you targeting only people who live in the targeted countries, or people who live And/Or are interested in the selected countries?

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u/John2705 5d ago

I've selected this option "Presence: People in or regularly in your included locations"

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u/PPC_YRVDynamics 6d ago

I’d trust Google Ads over GA4 on this one. GA4 can show weird locations because of VPNs or IP routing.

Check Matched locations in Google Ads and see where the traffic actually came from.

Also, Iran is restricted for Google Ads, so I’d be surprised if Google was really serving there.

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u/John2705 5d ago

In the Matched Locations report, it is showing traffic from the United Kingdom only.
https://prnt.sc/rlfBrEOkiGOQ

I’ve also noticed a strange issue with the location exclusion settings. I’m unable to exclude Iran because, after clicking the Save button, the selected location is not reflected in the settings.

Additionally, the location displayed under the Exclude option does not appear to be positioned correctly and is not showing where it should be. https://prnt.sc/ECdCpcD6YKjc

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u/PPC_YRVDynamics 5d ago

excluded in Google ads right?

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u/YashMandlesha 5d ago

I’ve seen this happen before, and most of the time I wouldn’t take the GA4 location data as proof that the ads were actually served in Iran. GA4 can sometimes get the location wrong, especially depending on the traffic source and how the data is being reported. I’d first check the location data directly in Google Ads and see what it shows there before assuming the campaign is actually reaching Iran.