When you set "rankBy" parameter to FTGooglePlacesAPIRequestParamRankByDistance "radius" value is not getting added to the request string. However, without that parameter Google API refuses to send data.
Please change 128-130 code lines in FTGooglePlacesAPINearbySearchRequest.m:
if (_rankBy != FTGooglePlacesAPIRequestParamRankByDistance) {
params[@"radius"] = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (unsigned long)_radius];
}