Separate campaigns, one account or a manager structure — and the reason is not administrative. Each location has its own economics, and a shared budget across locations means the algorithm allocates against a blended target that fits none of them.

On this page

• Why does one campaign for every location fail?
• How should a multi-location account be structured?
• Should each location have its own account or its own campaign?
• What quietly breaks multi-location accounts?
• What measurement makes a multi-location structure worth it?

Why does one campaign for every location fail?

A network looks like one company from outside and behaves like a dozen businesses inside. Different average ticket, different booking teams, different competitive pressure, different capacity.

Put them in one campaign and the bidder optimises the blend. Locations with cheap leads absorb budget; locations with higher tickets and higher costs get starved even though their economics are better.

How should a multi-location account be structured?

Standardise the definitions, localise the targets.

Campaign structure, naming conventions and conversion definitions aligned across every location, so a "lead" means the same thing everywhere. Without that, comparisons are meaningless and optimisation becomes political rather than analytical.

Then set acceptable acquisition cost per location, based on that location's real economics. A target is arithmetic, not a value judgement — and saying it that way defuses most of the internal argument, because a location with a higher permitted cost is not being rewarded for underperforming.

Should each location have its own account or its own campaign?

Separate campaigns are non-negotiable. Budget is the only thing that cannot be reallocated across campaign boundaries by the bidder, so it is the only real control you have.

Separate accounts matter when locations are separately owned — a franchise network where each franchisee holds their own billing and needs their own access. Then a manager account over individual accounts is the honest structure.

If it is one business with branches, one account with clean campaign separation is simpler and gives you shared negatives and shared audiences.

What quietly breaks multi-location accounts?

Somebody else changing them. On a 12-account book over 29 days, 1,141 of 1,148 change events were mine — the other 7 were scheduled scripts on client-organisation seats, firing at fixed times, all on brand campaigns, including a budget cut that silently reversed one of my own changes.

On a franchise network with corporate tooling, assume something automated is touching the accounts until you have proved otherwise. No before-and-after read is clean on a campaign someone else is nudging.

What measurement makes a multi-location structure worth it?

Cost per booked job per location, from your own booking system. Once you have that, the structure pays for itself — you can move budget toward locations that convert and away from ones that do not, which is impossible on a blended number.

Related questions

I have several locations — should I run one Local Services Ads account or a separate one per location?

Separate profiles per location, because LSA ranking is heavily proximity-driven and a profile ranks from its address. One profile covering a wide area will lose to local competitors everywhere except near its own pin. Read the full answer.

I've got multiple locations — should I run one campaign for all of them or a separate campaign per location?

Separate campaigns. Budget is the only control that cannot be reallocated by the bidder, so one campaign per location is the only way to guarantee each market gets funded. Read the full answer.

Should I have more than one primary conversion action, or does that double-count my conversions?

Yes it double-counts, and sometimes that is fine. The real question is not how many primaries you have — it is what your bidding is actually optimising toward, and the primary flag is not a reliable answer to that. Read the full answer.

Written by Usama Khan, who runs Google Ads for e-commerce brands and home-services companies at AdventurAds. Figures are from accounts under active management and are anonymised. Last reviewed 2026-08-26.