Geotargeted advertising is one of the more exceptional examples of marketing and technology working together. Geotargeting is essentially the act of serving a targeted ad to an individual based on their location. Anyone who enables location sharing on their mobile device can be exposed to this form of advertising. If your target resides in (or travels to – more on this later) specific locations, geotargeting is definitely something to look into.
How It Works
By using the GPS data from a user’s mobile device, you can filter the user’s location based on several criteria:
- Country/State/City/Neighborhood
- Zip Code
- IP Address
- Internet Service Provider (ISP)
- To name a few…
So, when a mobile user meets whatever geo-centric criteria you’ve selected, and they’re browsing the web or using an ad-supported app, they will see your geo-specific ads.
Why Use It
There are several reasons for employing geotargeting, but most applications center around pre-qualifying viewers by proximity. Are you a retailer with 23 stores in Texas? Well, why not limit your advertising scope to that state – or better yet, focus one campaign on retail store visit messaging, and then focus an out of state, e-commerce campaign on everyone outside of that targeted group.
Maybe you have a trade show coming up, and in addition to your investment in the booth, the suite for private talks and deal-closing, the sponsored happy hours, etc… why not stand out from the hundreds of booths during the event by geotargeting an audience in the immediate area surrounding the convention and the area hotels?
Proof of Concept
One of the most innovative (and successful) examples of geotargeting was courtesy of Red Roof Inns, who, combining geodata and flight cancellation information, leverage a targeted campaign aimed at airports that have a Red Roof nearby. When cancellations were noticed for a given airport, a geotargeted ad campaign was triggered and stranded travelers at a given airport were served ads informing these users that there were vacancies at their nearby Red Roof Inn. The results?
- 266 percent increase in non-branded mobile bookings, which led to a…
- 115 percent increase in non-branded mobile investment
- 650 percent increase in share-of-voice for key travel search queries
- 375 percent increase in conversion rates
- 60 percent increase in bookings across non-brand campaigns
- 98 percent increase in CTR across non-brand campaigns
Those are pretty impressive numbers by any measure.
At Enilon, we’ve embraced geotargeting for our clients, from geofencing ads for a specific event to serving up custom content based on a user’s location. Targeting – and prequalifying – your audience based on their proximity to your goods and services is one of the most effective ways to lower your Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC).
If you think a geotargeting strategy could help your incumbent marketing initiatives, or you’d like to discuss building a ground-up campaign that leverages this technology, drop us a line – we’re listening.
