Why's the location under my ad?

In the spirit of posting quick but useful tips, here's a question (paraphrased from a post in the AdWords Help community) that we'd like to answer:

The state of California, where my office is located, shows under my ad. Why is that there? I'm not sure I want it there, so how do I get rid of it?

Here is what's happening: When an advertiser has targeted a city or region in their campaign, the name of that city or region will show under their ad to users who are identified by the AdWords system as being located in that area. This tells the user that your product or service is especially relevant to them - and is intended to help you reach more qualified users.

What to do: If you'd prefer that your ad appear without a region name (while still reaching qualified users), you may want to consider running a country- and territory-targeted campaign with region-specific keywords and ad text, rather than a regionally targeted ad. More details may be found right here.

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew