Geofencing is a great tool for digital advertising in specific circumstances but is not effective in EVERY situation. The goal of digital advertising is not just to reach the right person, but to reach a large number of the right person. To geofence, a small store, restaurant, etc. is not an effective use of the tactic. To use geofencing correctly it needs to still go to a large population – for example, a trade show or hospital where large numbers of people fit the demo. Another option would be to geofence a large number of the same type of place – for instance, Hardee’s could geofence all Mcdonald’s restaurants in a radius and serve their new sandwich in an ad. A car dealer could geofence all competition in an area so that potential customers shopping at a competing dealer could be served ads promoting their deals or rates etc.
It is important to offer quality content as part of your geofencing efforts. If your ad isn’t playing to a specific demographic, chances are it won’t work as well as you hope. Geofencing focuses on specific areas, so your ad needs to reach the audience of that area with something eye-catching. Think in terms of user relationships when utilizing geofencing. Use geofences to delight your customers in ways that resonate. Think fun facts and a free cup of coffee on a cold day.
Get strategic about the size of your fence. Just placing fences around stores will only get people in that area but placing a fence around a high target area could bring in new customers. Make sure your fence is the right size for the area you are targeting … too big or too small and the fence could cause you to miss out on potential customers.
There are plenty of ways to gather data from geofencing, and the data can be used to improve your other campaigns, or even target your competitors. It’s not about targeting areas to send ads, it’s about gathering a wealth of information about those who view and respond to your ads … and those who don’t.
Geofencing sounds amazing and is the easiest of all of the digital marketing tactics to understand, so a lot of people who sell digital advertising lead with this specific item in their pitch because it dazzles the client, who knows even less about digital advertising and thinks they have hit the jackpot. Be careful in these situations, you could be wasting your money when there are a multitude of options with digital advertising that would work better and have higher value that strictly geofencing.
Call us at (217) 222-1451 or email Vervocity. We have a deep understanding of all available digital marketing tactics and are experts and finding the correct mix of those tactics to get you the correct impressions for the lowest cost and ultimately, conversions.
