Now more than ever, consumers use digital marketing and social media to help guide their shopping decisions. Reaching your customers at the right time – and in the right place – can make all the difference. What if I told you there was a tool to help you do that? If you want to cut through the noise to unlock the power of perfect timing, geofencing is the tool for you.
So… what is geofencing?
Geofencing is a location-based digital service activated when smartphone customers enter a predetermined physical location. Think of it like an invisible virtual house you built on top of some actual location. Anybody in the house that fits your criteria can receive your ads on their smartphones. Anyone outside the house doesn’t see the ad. There can be multiple houses that trigger multiple different messages.
As you might guess, this is an insanely powerful way to reach specific groups. Geofencing-powered ads can be delivered through many different mediums and take many forms. Videos, photos, graphics, and even plain text can target specific places - and the customers you want to reach most.
How Does Geofencing Work?
A “geofence” is a virtual barrier surrounding a physical location where a business might target customers. A virtual geofence could encircle a mall, an event, or your store. Geofences around sporting events, airports or even specific streets are common. When potential customers enter through the geofence, they can be served targeted ads on their phones.
You might have noticed ads on certain GPS apps like Waze or Google Maps. These ads understand where you are in real time. Geofences work similarly – they know where your potential customers physically are. In other words, geofences serve timely, targeted, relevant ads to the people most likely to act based on…you guessed it, their location.
How Can You Track Geofencing Conversions?
Geofences make it easy to see how your customers react to your ad. Geofenced ads track not only where a user saw your ad but they can track when your potential customer visited one of your locations. This is such valuable data! You can track not only conversions, but you can track your return on investment when it comes to your ad spending. You can see which ads do the best and adjust your ad strategy accordingly.
Advertising isn’t a perfect science. It’s always a little hit-and-miss. Why not give yourself the best shot to make the right moves? If you can find your customers where they are and understand what helps them make decisions, you have the insight you need to bring more and more of them to your business.
What Types of Ads Work for Geofencing Marketing?
Geofencing ads are mobile, just like social media ads. In fact, they can be thought of pretty similarly. Like with social media, you don’t want to overload your audience with too much. Keep your copy short and sweet. You want to be memorable but clear and concise. Many geofencing ads are pop-up notifications, but not all are. Anything that can be a mobile ad can be more impactful with geofencing!
Video is a powerful tool to reach your audience. You can choose different lengths of video, depending on where you are placing your ad and what message you want to convey. Like written ads, you want to keep things quick and to the point.
How Can I Use Geofencing in my Digital Marketing Strategy?
There are so many creative ways to use geofencing to accomplish your goals. Say you open a sandwich shop near a housing development and want to increase foot traffic and get the word out about your grand opening. You could set a geofence perimeter around the entire housing development to ensure that your ads are being seen by the audience that’s most likely to check out your new shop! Here’s another example.
Let’s say you own a music supply shop. To reach your music-loving audience, you could set a geofence around all the music venues in town to make sure that musicians are seeing your ads. This is an effective way to promote your business to your target audience. No more blanket ads in the paper or on the radio. No more sticking paper fliers in every mailbox or car’s windshield wiper! This technology cuts through the fuzz to find your future customers exactly where they are.
If you’re not a business that has a physical store, don’t worry! Geofencing can still help you shape who gets your message — the example of the music shop targeting folks with a specific interest still works for you. Also, you might want to target specific geographic locations that show the most interest in your products or services. Whether you seem to get more orders in one city or area or want to shore up your advertising reach in another location, you can still benefit from this powerful tool.
You may need to consult a web developer or programmer to set up the geofencing around the area you’d like to target. Sometimes this requires software engineers, knowledge, or specific cell tower locations. Either way, it’s best to have someone on call to help you with the more technical setup.
One straightforward way to get started, though, is with Google Ads. Given certain variables, Google has tools to set up and activate your geofence perimeter. But the sure-fire way to know that you’re using this emerging tech in the best way is to contact Maennche Virtual CMO. We’ve got experts ready to help you reach a customer base like never before.
Ready to Get Started?
Our SEM specialists are dedicated to putting your company in front of the right clients at the right time. Contact our team today to learn how you can use geofencing and other online advertising strategies and get assistance with your digital marketing needs!