Location types are the Meta Ads setting that decides which people count as being “in” the places you target: those who live there, those who were recently there, or both. The default, and at the time of writing (October 2026) often the only choice offered, is “People living in or recently in this location”.
How location types work
When you set location targeting on an ad set, whether by country, city, postcode or a radius round a point, Meta has to decide who matches. It estimates where people live from what they have told Facebook and from long-run patterns, and where they are now from device location (when shared) and network information.
“Living in” means Meta believes the person’s home is in the area. “Recently in” means their most recent known location fell inside it, even if they live elsewhere. The default combines the two. Meta has offered narrower options in the past, including residents only, recent visitors only, and people travelling in an area far from home, but it has cut these back, and which ones appear now depends on the objective and the account. Look at the Locations section of your own ad set rather than relying on an old guide.
You can narrow delivery further with location exclusions. If your ads fall into a special ad category, such as employment, housing or financial products, Meta restricts location options more tightly still.
Why it matters
Nowhere in the UK shows the difference more clearly than London. The City and Canary Wharf fill with commuters on weekdays who live in Kent, Essex, Hertfordshire or Reading. The West End fills with visitors from all over the country. Under the default setting, all of them count as “recently in” the areas they pass through.
Whether that helps depends on what you sell. A lunch spot near Liverpool Street wants exactly those commuters. A West End show welcomes visitors. A Barnet estate agent advertising free valuations wants homeowners in Barnet, and pays for every commuter who merely passed through. A plumber covering Bromley does not want people who were in Bromley for a football match. For residence-based businesses, the combined setting quietly spends part of the budget outside the market.
Google Ads handles this differently, with explicit presence or interest options, so do not assume a setting you know from Google works the same way on Meta.
Common mistakes
- Assuming that targeting a borough reaches only the people who live there.
- Drawing a one-mile radius round a central London address, which mostly reaches workers and visitors.
- Leaving out the area from the ad, so out-of-area people enquire and waste your time.
- Not asking for a postcode on lead forms, so you cannot filter leads by area.
- Reading the region breakdown as a list of where customers live.
How to act on it
First, decide which kind of business you are. If customers must live in your area (trades, estate agents, home services, local schools), you need residents. If they only need to be nearby (cafes, gyms near stations, shops, events), presence is what counts.
Next, check which location types your ad set offers. If residents only is available and fits, use it. If only the combined option is offered, compensate: name the area in the headline (“For homeowners in Barnet and Finchley”), add a postcode question to lead forms, and exclude neighbouring areas that generate poor enquiries. For presence-based businesses, target where people actually spend time, and if you need ads only at certain hours, use a lifetime budget with a schedule.
Getting geography right is a large part of Facebook ads for local businesses, and it is one of the first things I check when a local account is producing out-of-area leads.