4 Tips on Competitor Geofencing Advertising

Geofencing advertising is a break-through digital advertising strategy that allows you to target audiences by their physical location.

Remember, the places people go is the strongest indicator of their buying intent. For example, someone at a car dealership is most likely actively looking to buy a car.

Geo Conquesting

Many small and large brands use competitor geofencing advertising or geo conquesting marketing strategy to grow their business. The idea is to place geofences around competitor locations and build audiences of people attending those locations.

For instance, a restaurant can geofence several nearby restaurants. As a result, these campaigns can build active audiences of people going out to eat in the local area.  Moreover, the restaurant can send ads featuring specials and discounts to this targeted audience.

Campaigns like these can dramatically increase walk ins and generate sales.  Therefore, this strategy can effectively get consumers to choose your business over the competition.

Here is another quick example.  

Imagine you are walking down the street and see two flyers posted on a pole for bars.  Bar A, which is right by the pole advertises friendly staff and a warm atmosphere.  Bar B is 2 blocks away. It offers a $1 beer if you take a photo of the flier and show it when you order.

Which offer do you think most people will choose?

When used correctly, geo-conquesting is a great way to attract people to visit your business over competitors in the area.

In the prior example, people who saw the flyers would most likely choose bar B because of a $1 beer.  That’s a great deal!  Even though Bar A is very close, customers are willing to walk a little further for a $1 beer.

4 Geofencing Advertising Tips for Geo Conquesting

If you think your business could benefit by getting in front of audiences at competitor locations, follow the 4 considerations.

Tip #1: Know Your Audience

Make sure you understand your target audience and what motivates them. Subsequently, it will help with messaging in your advertising.

• Are they male? Female? Both?
• Where do they live?
• What is their average household income?
• Do they have any marital relationship?
• Do they have children?

Evidently, any demographic information will help significantly when drafting your advertisements. The messaging in your ads need to appeal to your audience.

Tip #2: Know Your Competitors

Gathering insight into your competition will increase understanding of your audience and simultaneously can bring a lot of advantages. 

Researching competitors increases awareness and understanding your market. Further, it gives an opportunity to review your products and services.  

You need to think what you can offer that your competitor does not have. For example, you can feature unique benefits in your advertisements. These can appeal to your local market and get customers in the door.

Above all, you should focus on competitors who are very close by.  Remember, the closer a competitor location, the more effective the geofencing advertising campaign.

Tip #3: Identify the Need or Problem of Your Targeted Audience

Your objective is to get people at competitor locations and encourage them to try your product or service. The long-term objective is to turn them into loyal customers.  So, you need to target a need or problem your target audience has and address it in your advertising.A very common strategy is to offer a discount.  Remember the example above where a customer can get a $1 beer by showing a picture of the flyer? Indeed, it’s very effective.

Tip #4: Mark Your Own Business as a Conversion Zone

Competitor Geofencing Advertising can track people who receive ads and physically visit your place of business.  This provides insight on how your campaigns are working and gives you a precise ROI.

Since other marketing channels can’t provide detailed performance, it’s essential to reap the benefits of geofencing. So, take full advantage of the precise feedback of your geofence campaigns. Besides, the real-time reports gives better understanding on the footfall attribution, click thru rates, and other performance metrics. 

 

In Summary

Geofencing builds a very targeted audience.  Physically visiting a location is the strongest indicator of buying intent.

For more information, check out these videos on geofencing.