Geo-targeted marketing integrates geo-referenced data into marketing and publishing marketing messages based on the target audience’s location.
It enables businesses to send the right message to the right group of people. It helps them avoid the risk of spending part of their marketing budget on material that potential customers have nothing to do with.
Geographical targeting helps companies improve their bottom line by helping to expand their user base, response rates, and conversion rates.
How it works
Geo-targeting shows content to visitors based on their location, country, state, zip code, and other location data. This involves matching smartphone data from customers who agree to share their location with marketing companies.
To achieve this, you should consider using IP geolocation lookup. This tool will enable you to learn more about your user base, which will allow your company to, for example, send out promotional SMS and MMS to potential customers, informing them of new offers and services they may not have been previously aware of.
There are limits
When using location data to enhance the customer experience, there is a fine line between doing so and appearing to do so. Privacy is the biggest concern for companies that want to make the most of location-based marketing.
The GDPR, enforced in the EU, introduced stringent rules on personal data collection, with explicit consent being the best way to keep users’ location data.
While, on the other side of the pond, the CCPA requires companies to inform users which of their data is being processed.
How to target
- Radius and Location Radius Targeting: Radius and location radius targeting (also known as proximity targeting or targeting by radius) allow you to display your ads to customers within a certain distance of your business rather than choosing a single city, region, or country.
- GEO-Fencing: Geo-fencing allows marketers to specify a radius around a physical location where ads can be placed. Geo-fenced ads can contain creative messages that recognize the user’s location and include location-specific features such as store localization.
- Beaconing: Beacons work best for existing customers within a limited area by sending a signal to your mobile device through WiFi or Bluetooth, which in turn triggers a server to send content your way (push notifications, for example).
Exclusion is also beneficial
Businesses can also exclude audiences based on their location to avoid sending advertising to people who are unlikely to buy what they are selling.
For example, an online clothing store that does not ship in South America can discourage its geo-targeted advertising campaigns from appearing in certain locations. This approach can be just as successful as targeting specific areas, as it limits fruitless interactions with your content.
For all intents and purposes
Sometimes, you don’t even need to put in the work – your customers will do it for you. People often narrow down their search results by typing in their current city or district (think SEO), providing a location intent that you can then target.
Search history is another invaluable resource. For example, if a user researches the Eiffel tower, Charles de Gaulle airport, and the Louvre, a reasonable assumption can be made that they intend to visit Paris and could benefit from receiving hotel and car rental offers.
Work with what you don’t have
Due to private browsing and cookies limiting the number of ads displayed, there are a couple of creative location targeting techniques that can help advertisers improve marketing returns.
- Geo Conquesting or targeting customers with a history of visiting your competitors may make them your customers instead.
- By including weather-related adjustments, such as ads for warm drinks and indoor activities on cold and rainy days, you can steer purchasing activities in the most beneficial direction to your business.
Conclusion
Using technology to provide a better, targeted service or product to your customers will not go unnoticed. Your ROI will directly illustrate the positive response.
A whopping 80 percent of customers expect personalized interactions with a brand, making geo-targeting an indispensable marketing tool that you can use regardless of your business’s size. Whether you’re an online business or a brick-and-mortar store, traffic is sure to increase with a correctly targeted ad campaign.
