Google Ads for tourist vs. local customers in St. Augustine
Visitors and residents search differently. How to split campaigns, choose location settings, time your ads and build a landing page for each, without promises.
A St. Augustine business can have two very different customers typing into Google on the same afternoon. One lives ten minutes away and wants a dentist, a plumber or a regular lunch spot. The other is in another state, planning a long weekend. Google Ads for tourism businesses and Google Ads for local customers need different settings, different wording and different landing pages. Running both through one campaign is one of the most common reasons an account underperforms.
This guide explains how to split them. It does not promise results. No one can guarantee ad positions, clicks or leads, and anyone who does should be treated with caution.
Why one campaign for everyone falls short
A campaign has one budget, one location setting and one schedule. If visitors and residents share it, Google spends the budget wherever clicks are easiest to get, which may not be where your best customers are. You also lose the ability to see which group is paying its way.
Separate campaigns let you answer simple questions. Are visitors booking? Are locals calling? Which group should get more of the budget next season?
Tourist and local searches, side by side
- Where they are: visitors are often at home in another city when they plan, then in town for a few days. Locals are in St. Johns County all year.
- What they type: visitors add the city name and words like “things to do”, “tours”, “best” or “where to stay”. Locals type the service and often “near me” or a neighborhood.
- When they search: visitors plan in the evenings and weeks ahead, then search again on their phones during the trip. Locals search when the need comes up, often in working hours.
- What they want next: visitors want to book, reserve or buy a ticket. Locals want to call, get a quote or make an appointment.
- How often they return: a visitor may buy once. A resident can be a customer for years.
Location settings: the detail that matters most
Every campaign has a location option that decides who can see the ads. At the time of writing, Google describes two choices. “Presence” shows ads to people in, or regularly in, your chosen area. “Presence or interest” also includes people who have shown interest in that area, wherever they are. Google changes its settings from time to time, so check the wording in your own account.
For local customers
Use presence only, and target the places you actually serve: the city, Anastasia Island, St. Augustine Beach, Vilano Beach, or out toward World Golf Village and Palencia if you travel that far. A plumber gains nothing from a click by someone in another state reading about St. Augustine.
For visitors
Here the wider option can be the right one, because the person you want is not here yet. Someone at home searching “ghost tours st augustine” is a good prospect. You can also target the places your visitors travel from, if your own booking records show where that is. Use your records for this, not assumptions.
A third group sits in between: visitors who have arrived. They are physically in town and searching on a phone. A presence-only campaign with visitor-style keywords and mobile-friendly ads reaches them.
Keywords and ad wording
Build separate keyword lists. The visitor list centers on activities, experiences and the city name. The local list centers on services and needs. Add negative keywords to each so they do not overlap; for example, a local dental campaign should exclude words like “hotel” and “tour”.
Write the ads for the reader:
- Visitor ad: what the experience is, how long it takes, whether it suits families, and that booking online is quick.
- Local ad: what you fix or provide, the areas you cover, how fast you respond and that a real person answers the phone.
Do not put offers or claims in an ad that the landing page does not back up. Google checks that the two match.
Ad timing
Schedules should follow behavior, and your own data should set them. As a starting point:
- Run local service ads when someone can answer the phone. A call that goes to voicemail is usually a lost lead.
- Let visitor campaigns run into the evening, when people plan trips from the sofa.
- Raise visitor budgets ahead of holidays, school breaks and event weekends, and ease them in quiet weeks.
- Keep local campaigns steadier across the year, since residents need services in every season.
After a few weeks, look at the hour-by-hour and day-by-day reports and adjust. Our list of common Google Ads mistakes covers the scheduling errors we see most.
Landing pages: one for each audience
The page the ad leads to does as much work as the ad. Sending both groups to the homepage wastes clicks.
- Visitor page: photos first, what is included, where to meet or park, availability and a booking button that works with one thumb.
- Local page: the specific service, the neighborhoods covered, proof you are established, a phone number that dials when tapped and a short form.
Both should load quickly on mobile data and repeat the words used in the ad. See landing page design for how we build these, and web design in St. Augustine if the whole site needs attention first.
Measure the two groups separately
Decide what counts as a conversion for each campaign before it starts. For visitors that is usually a completed booking or ticket purchase. For locals it is a phone call of a meaningful length, a form or an appointment request. Track them as separate conversion actions so one cannot hide the other.
Then compare what each campaign spends with what it brings in. It is normal for one to outperform the other, and for that to flip by season. Separate campaigns let you move budget toward whichever is working.
Setup checklist
- Two campaigns at minimum: visitors and locals, each with its own budget.
- Location option chosen on purpose for each, not left on the default.
- Separate keyword lists, with negatives to stop overlap.
- Ad wording written for each reader.
- Schedules matched to planning time for visitors and answering hours for locals.
- A dedicated landing page for each campaign.
- Conversion tracking tested for bookings, calls and forms.
- Your Google Business Profile linked, so ads can show your location.
That last point connects paid and unpaid visibility: a well-kept Google Business Profile for a St. Augustine business supports both. If you would like this structure set up or reviewed, read about Google Ads management in St. Augustine or our wider Google Ads services. Our team holds every current Google Ads certification, and we can work with a St. Augustine business from our Jacksonville office. Contact us to start.
Frequently asked questions
How are Google Ads for tourism businesses different from local ads?
The customer is usually somewhere else when they start searching, they plan ahead, and they want to book online. That changes the location option, the keywords, the schedule and the landing page compared with a campaign aimed at nearby residents.
Should I target people outside St. Augustine?
For a visitor campaign, often yes, because your customer is planning from home. Use your own booking records to decide which places to include. For a local service campaign, limit ads to people in or regularly in the areas you serve.
Can one campaign serve both tourists and locals?
It can run, but it is hard to manage well. One budget, one location option and one schedule cannot suit both groups, and you cannot easily see which one is producing results. Separate campaigns are clearer.
How much budget should each campaign get?
That depends on your business, your season and what each customer is worth to you. Every account is scoped individually; request a quote and we will talk through a sensible starting split.
When should I raise visitor ad budgets?
Shortly before the periods when people plan and travel: holidays, school breaks and event weekends. Check your own past bookings to see how far ahead your customers reserve, and time the increase to match.
Can you guarantee bookings from Google Ads?
No. No one can guarantee ad positions, clicks, bookings or leads. What sound setup does is put the right ad in front of the right searcher and make it possible to measure what happens next.