What is Geolocation and How is it Being Used in Targeting and Advertising?

Geolocation data is an essential parameter for creating an effective social advertising strategy. Location not only helps you figure out where your customer is but careful analysis of their visits and local searches can help you create relevant, personalized and targeted ads. This article discusses various Geolocation techniques that can be used for social advertising.

So, What is Geolocation?

The Global Positioning System (GPS) of a mobile device determines your Geolocation at that precise moment. With a forecast of around 2.5 billion smartphone users in 2019, marketers can use users’ Geolocation to craft targeted and relevant ads in real-time. Location-based advertising (LBA) has been around since over a decade and has proven to be an effective technique to reach out to the ‘target audience’ at the ‘opportune time’ with ‘the right offers’.

Here’s how various geolocation techniques help in social targeting and advertising:

Approaches to Advertising Using Geo-Targeting

If you are a marketer, getting your message across and making your customers seek out your product is a necessity. If you are a high-end boutique in NYC, which wants to attract customers during the holiday season, you need access to your customer’s location. This will help you use two approaches to cater to them through ads.

1. Push Approach: You target mobile devices of customers who have ‘opted-in' to receive ads. You have the data regarding your audience’s age, preferences, interests, etc. You ‘try to calculate what she came looking for’ and send a marketing message based on her location.
2. Pull Approach: With this tactic, you target users who are looking for you. For instance, if a user searched for ‘bespoke apparel’, you could send an ad and a welcome coupon for your boutique. Rather than you ‘figuring out’ a user, the user herself requests an ad.
    

Also Read: Geo-location: Never Lose Sight of your Customers

Geo-Targeting Advertising Techniques

The key to a successful marketing strategy is its relevance to its customers. Determining a potential customer’s location and serving the exact message they are looking for will move them from the awareness to the purchase stage. LBA can be used in a variety of ways.

Let’s discuss a few of them:

• Geo-Aware Targeting: It is the primary form of LBA that uses real-time data location from a mobile service provider to display ads to customers close to your location.
•  Geo-Targeting with user input: Based on the user’s location, you ask the user what kind of ads they would want to receive, their other preferences, etc. Since the data has directly come from the user, you can send specifically targeted and relevant ads. For example, after registering for an advertiser’s service, the user can see ads and deals from nearby food outlets, clothing stores, accessory shops, etc.
• Geo-Fencing: With Geo-Fencing, you can focus on potential customers within a pre-defined radius in a given location. Marketers generally use Geo-Fencing in combination with Geo-Conquesting to target customers visiting rival stores. By creating a virtual fence for a location (predefined or dynamic), you can serve ads to those who step inside your fence. For example, Walmart’s app has a store mode, which delivers coupons or deals and e-receipts when a customer is around a Walmart store. This nudges customers to buy more from that Walmart store.
• Geo Conquesting: This is when marketers try to lure away customers who are visiting their competitors using location-based ads. The idea is – the customer is in the rival’s shop to purchase a product or service you have. By promoting your product with an exciting deal, you are not only creating brand awareness but are also compelling her to make a purchase.
   

Whole Foods, a supermarket chain, teamed up with Thinknear and ‘stole’ shoppers by triggering ads and deals to customers who passed by or visited their competitors’ stores in the locality.

Also Read: Leveraging Geolocation to Reimagine Mobile Engagement

• Hyper Contextual Targeting: Uses location as well as other contexts to target customers with meaningful ads. Marketers use geographic location in combination with past locations visited, intent based on search history, geography specific events, or weather, etc. to serve them relevant ads. For example, marketers target users with ads for indoor activities on a rainy or cold day and outdoor events on a warm sunny day.  
• Geo Exclusion: It is a feature where many ad service providers, like Google Ads, allow you to exclude specific locations where you can prevent the ad from showing. You could omit poorly performing locations or locations where your ads do not have a target audience. For example, if you are promoting your business in a locality, you could exclude a school in the vicinity, where it could cause a distraction.
• Keyword Targeting: Use of keywords to limit targeting around a location is another geo-advertising technique. Instead of relying only on location, you focus on specific keywords that fit your campaign or are better suited for that location. These keywords lead searchers to the results about local businesses. The customer need not be in the location; it is her intent that matters.
   

For example, a search query for ‘Gyms in Irwin' provides location intent. You can include ZIP or area code, neighborhood, landmarks, community name, street names, popular clubs, etc. to power up your keyword-based geo-ads.

Also Read: Why Location is Everything for the Future of Retail Marketing

Conclusion

Mobile phones, especially smartphones, tell us where our customers are. And customers generally respond better to personalized and relevant marketing. While trying to use your customer’s geolocation data to your advantage, understand your targeted customers’ intention in being there, use the right LBA technique and be creative while advertising. That’s what relevant marketing is all about.

What’s your perspective on a geolocation-based social advertising strategy? Let us know in the comments below.