Which geotargeting option to choose in Google Adwords?

Question

Google

Over the last quarter, I noticed that the cost of advertising and the cost of a click on search increased by 70%, while impressions, clicks and the percentage of received impressions remained virtually unchanged (in some places they increased by 10%). From the charts, I realized that it started in October 2020, got into the history of changes to look for what I did there - I saw a change in the targeting option from:
Presence : people who are in target locations or regularly visit them
to
Presence or interest : people who are in target locations, who visit them regularly or who are interested in them.
Does this setting really affect the quality and cost of a click? The subject of auto services (tuning).

Answer 1

This geotargeting extension really makes an impact. And in general, by default, when you launch a campaign, it initially has a wide option "Presence and interest", so it's strange that you changed from a narrow option to a wide one in October.
But in your case, the seasonal factor could affect. Auto-services are very subject to the season, and then there is quarantine, competitors could crawl out. Try to study the statistics of auctions and the average position of ads for this period.