WHAT IS GEOFENCING MARKETING?
BY HEIDI MCIVOR ALLEN
Geofencing is a powerful marketing tool that allows companies to market at a more granular and localized level. Geofencing technology continues to improve, allowing for targeting your potential customers down to the individual handheld/mobile device with ads promoting your business. With the proper tracking codes and great creative, it can be very a very effective tool to grow your business. Think of geofencing & display ads as the digital version of radio or television. It’s a frequency medium to stay top of mind to give your business the best shot of standing out in a crowded marketplace.
The McIvor Marketing team is here to take your business to the next level – we have many geofencing capabilities to help you reach your target audience effectively.
3 BENEFITS OF ADDING GEOFENCING TO YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY
ENHANCE LOCAL SALES
Being able to rank high in local searches and local optimization is extremely valuable for most businesses, especially when speaking in terms of SEO. If your current business goal is to improve your local performance, then you should consider implementing geofencing into your marketing strategy. Due to its local based system, local customers in defined areas can be easily targeted.
Geofencing can be implemented by sending push promotions and notifications via email to your local targeted audience. Promotions can be easily adapted, or users can push limited time offer promotions that will lead to increased sales.
We can even put a virtual fence around a business or household, then drop cookies on any mobile device in that “fence” to show them specific ads (coupon, special or offer) to lead them back to your website. Display advertising is a frequency medium and can help you stay top of mind with your potential customers.
INCREASE ANALYTICS AND TOOLS FOR METRIC ANALYSIS
PROVIDES PERSONALIZATION FOR CUSTOMERS
GEOFENCING ADVERTISING FOR GOOGLE ADS
Geofencing can easily be set up on Google Ads. To do so, choose a campaign and then navigate to the campaign’s settings page. Here multiple geo-targeting options such as Country, State, City, Radius, Metro, and DMA can be selected.
Google Ads geofencing on the ads displayed on search results, display, and YouTube can also be set up. By manually entering the specific location to target your business location specifically, Google displays the estimated number of users within the geofenced location that meet other defined criteria.
GEOFENCING ADVERTISING FOR FACEBOOK & INSTAGRAM
With over a billion users, Facebook offers endless opportunities to tap into your targeted audiences through paid ads to bring in new customers. To set up geofencing on your Facebook ads, first create a new standard marketing campaign. Then navigate to the ‘Audiences’ section of the campaign (at the ad set level). In the audience section you can use different factors to accurately define your audience (location & radius targeting, for example).
In the location section, specify a particular location for your target users. You may also select locations to exclude for even better accuracy. This creates a more effective and specific geofence for your Facebook advertising campaigns. If you want to drop a pin to specifically target a location, the minimum radius allowed by Facebook is 1 mile.
Since Meta allows you to advertise across all of the Meta properties, you can run very specific ads not only on Facebook but Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Marketplace. Targeting the “audience” vs the platform allows you to get more bang for your buck!
GEOFENCING ADVERTISING FOR SNAPCHAT
Much like Google and Facebook, you can also create highly targeted geofenced ads on Snapchat. The Snapchat platform makes it even easier for users to target a more specific location.
You can choose from Country, State, City, Zip Code, and other geographical divisions to target a broader audience. If you are looking to create a more specific location, you can drop a pin at a particular location to target the area. Snapchat allows you to set a minimum radius of 0.06 miles around a pinned location, allowing users to lock on a highly targeted location.
Geofencing ads on Snapchat can be used to push story ads and filters to your target audience. With this process, your ad dollars have better potential at bringing in more traffic and customers to your business. Users can also create personalized filters or promote pre-made filters based on a user’s physical location, allowing for unique promotional opportunities.
HOW MUCH DOES GEOFENCING COST?
Geofencing advertising is usually sold at a CPM (cost per thousand) and depending on the specific “tool & technology” being used, the price can be no extra charge or it can cost more. For example, using the tools on Facebook and Google have no additional costs for creating geofenced ad campaigns but using newer tech like Addressable Geofencing, Event Remarketing, Household IP Targeting and more usually costs more. Quality data prior to running a geofenced campaign is needed in order to be successful – data like the behaviors and habits of your target audience. Also, how will you be measuring success.
Much like standard ads on Google and Facebook, geofenced ads are run as Cost-Per-Thousand (CPM), Cost-Per-Impression (CPI), or Cost-Per-Click (CPC) ads. Depending on your preference, a model can be chosen that best aligns with your marketing goals.
WHO CAN HELP ME WITH MY GEOFENCING EFFORTS?
Here at McIvor Marketing, we have a whole tool-kit of geofencing capabilities to help you reach your target audience effectively. We offer everything from addressable geofencing, event remarketing and more. Contact us today to learn how adding geofencing into the mix can benefit your marketing strategy!
What Business Services Does McIvor Marketing Offer?
We are so glad you asked! From setups to start-ups, to businesses in growth and transformation, McIvor Marketing specializes in a variety of services to meet your needs. Our Phoenix based digital marketing agency can help with website design & development, logo design, branding, off-line marketing design and strategy, paid search management, social media management, email marketing, display advertising and more!
Not ready to dive into hiring a full-time marketing director? Maybe you’re just curious about how your marketing is performing. We can help you set up trackable ways to measure your marketing ROI with a project-based digital audit to gauge current performance. We can also help you get your social media advertising portals set up. We also offer training on Google Analytics, Facebook Business Manager, Facebook Ads, Google Ads, Canva, as well as how to plan content and brainstorm ideas to help you grow through research.
Check out our full list of services and reach out with any questions.
Want to Read 5 Marketing Tips for Small Businesses?
Check out this blog post and see if your business is currently tackling these Top 5 Marketing Tips. If you have questions or find you need help in an area, reach out!
Like What You Read? Share It!
