Location-based marketing is a long-proven marketing strategy. Whenever it becomes apparent that a large portion of one’s best potential customers reside in a particular geographic location, a business will focus its marketing activities on that location. Start the process with this geofencing advertising guide.
Geofencing is an innovative online marketing strategy using location. You can target your ideal customers when they are in a particular geographic area. Also known as geo-targeting, the technology makes use of location data, including; cellular data, Wi-Fi, satellite, global positioning, and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) to target only users meeting your criteria within the specified geographic location, known as a geofence or geo-target.
Once a geo-target is identified (such as a 2-mile radius of your store), location information triggers programmed actions. For instance, a marketer may choose to send a push notification, an SMS message, or display a targeted ad to all subscribed users within that location. With a phone number and permission, a text messaging service can be used to send drip texts over time as well. See a list of the best text messaging service to evaluate options further.
This geofencing advertising guide looks at how marketers can set up and benefit from geo-fenced ad campaigns on Google and Facebook.
To set up a geofenced campaign for Google advertising, begin by selecting the campaign you’d like to geo-fence, click campaign Settings, and select Location settings.
Google Ads allows for geo-fencing of search ads, display ads, and YouTube campaigns. Each campaign can be geo-fenced by country, state, DMA, Metro, Zip Code, and radius. This means that you can set your fence to include only consumers within a one-mile radius.
There are even more options when geofencing an AdWords campaign. In this case, you can target these locations:
As you add the locations, the potential Reach of the selected area(s) is displayed prominently so you can decide whether or not you’re reaching enough people.
It gets better. You can choose to exclude a section or sections of the selected location(s)! For instance, after selecting the entire US, you can exclude certain states or cities. When you do this, your ads do not show to people living in excluded locations.
Geo-fencing in Facebook advertising is set up when selecting audiences. It is at this stage that marketers get to select which countries, states, cities, or ZIP codes to target.
One thing that stands out here is the possibility to define the radius you’d like to target within the selected location. For instance, if you choose to target Dallas, you can decide to concentrate your efforts within a five-mile radius of the Dallas Zoo.
Additionally, as with Google, you can choose to exclude locations from the selected geo-target. This allows marketers to focus their activities in locations where they are certain of getting a high ROI.
According to newgenapps.com, the biggest benefit of geo-fenced advertisement campaigns is increased ROI. On average, marketers see a 20% increase in conversions. Aside from that, marketers can expect;
Data has become more important to marketing than ever; brands with better data easily outperform their competitors. Geo-fencing allows marketers to acquire quality data.
Marketing isn’t just about getting sales. It’s also about doing so with as little effort as possible. Geo-fencing allows marketers to get more with fewer resources.
Geo-fenced ad campaigns also generate better engagement. Why? Because you’re reaching only people with an established interest in your products. Therefore, people who certainly want to learn more.
If used right, geo-fenced campaigns can also help boost customer relationships. If you’re always sending relevant ads and messages, consumers will slowly become attached to your brand and start looking forward to your updates.
Geo-fenced campaigns don’t always deliver instant sales. This doesn’t make the effort pointless. It just means you have to set your objectives right. Instead of aiming for instant purchases, target early-stage metrics such as leads.
Geofencing is a marketer's dream. Are you up on this newer technology? It’s the perfect blend of digital media and location based advertising working together for local businesses. After all, what could be better than reminding your customers of a great deal when they're right near your store?
It works fairly simply….smartphone users with location-based services on are able to be identified and are given a push notification with an offer when they are in the “geo-located set area” (geofence). There are countless stories of how creative marketers have used geofencing directed to smartphone users to drive more sales at malls, special events, trade shows and more.
How do you get started? We’ll it’s not so hard with some new tools on the market. The first step is to choose your tools. We've rounded up some of the best, to make your choice a little easier.
Koupon Media not only delivers location-specific ads and messages based on their customer's geofence area, but they also offer in-depth targeting that allows you to narrow down the demographic.
We all know targeted marketing is the best way to reach people who want to buy what you're selling, and this platform allows you to do just that.
xAd is a traditional geofencing tool, that's heavily location weighted. They call it proximity targeting, and the idea is simple: if people are already in or near your store, why not steer them towards purchases that they don't know they need to make (yet!)
NextBee is another great choice, but in this case, the platform is all about location-based rewards. So when a customer is near your store, they receive a message about a limited time special offer on one of your products. Very few people can resist a great deal, and since they're there already, it's a very easy sell!
LocationSmart uses a combination of big data from devices and carrier networks to match the right offers to the right target customers and send marketing messages within the geofenced area. So it's all about saying the right thing to the right person, at the right time. Like the best salesperson, you never had.
Imagine targeting potential customers with great offers, while they're at your competitor's stores. That's the sort of functionality that Ninth Decimal offers. There's also a convenient store locator that makes it easy to direct those customers to your store once you've reached them.
The right tools for any job make the task much easier. Any of these geofencing tools can help you to capture your potential customers' attention when they're conveniently close by.
For retail businesses, restaurants and other brick and mortar companies, geofencing is one of the most innovative marketing technologies. Begin to experiment so you can be at the front-end of the curve and grab your share of new business!
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