Imagine you are walking inside the mall and coming across a shop. Suddenly, you remember receiving a coupon a few days back on that particular brand. You will surely be interested in visiting the shop and availing the coupon. This is what geofencing does. It helps with location-based marketing and targets the local audience. If you are trying to target an audience in a particular location, geofencing is an excellent solution.
If you are still confused, the following article will help you become familiar with the geo fencing meaning, as well as learn how to get started and its many benefits.
What is Geofencing?
Geofencing is an advertising strategy that helps you target the audience of a particular location. This form of marketing leverages the benefits of GPS technology and Radio Frequency Identifiers to specify the perimeter of a particular area in the real world. Then, they create a “geofence” in the area to create a virtual barrier, and the customers inside the geofence are sent location-based advertisements on their devices. This strategy is largely used when a brand wants to excel in local SEO and appear more on local search results.
How to Get Started With Geofencing?
Geofencing optimizes the overall experience of a particular store because it targets audiences of a certain location. But having said that, geofencing is a bit more expensive than traditional forms of digital marketing. A geofencing campaign can cost anywhere between $3.50 to $15 CPM (cost per mile).
However, they bring immense success to your business, and to get started with it, you must consider the points mentioned below:
- Find the Ideal Size of Your Geofence
A larger geo fence will be more expensive than a smaller geo fence. But in this scenario, costly doesn’t mean better. Suppose you have a store in a particular location. If your geofence has a 100-mile radius, it doesn’t necessarily mean you will be receiving foot traffic from people who stay 100 miles away. In such a situation, it is better to have a smaller radius of the geo fence.
- Know Your Audience
For any marketing campaign to succeed, you must first understand your target audience. You need to understand their demography and their interests. This will help you create compelling ad copies that will increase your ROI.
- Launch an Actionable Campaign
Your campaign should not only talk about your store but also must have a selling point. If your notifications reach their devices, they most likely know who you are. However, to attract actual customers, you have to provide them with promotional discounts or rewards in exchange for responding to an ad.
- Use a Compelling CTA
A compelling CTA is like a cherry on top of the cake. It makes your geofencing campaign even more attractive and compelling. According to reports, the most compelling geofencing CTAs are:
- learn more
- shop now
- buy now
- click here
How to Track the Success of Your Geofencing Campaign
To measure the success of your geofencing campaign, you need to track some essential KPIs and metrics. The following are some of them:
- Ad Impressions or Views
- Click-Through Rate (CTR)
- Cost Per 1000 Impressions (CPM)
- Cost Per Click (CPC)
- Conversion Zone Visits
- Cost Per Visit
- Cost Per Action (Phone Call, Walk-In, Sale)
- Walk-In Rate
There are many tools and technologies that can help you measure the KPIs and gauge the success of your campaign.
Benefits of Geofencing
Now that you know how to get started with geofencing, let us look at some of the benefits that you unlock with this amazing strategy:
- Drives Local Foot Traffic:
Geofencing is a great local SEO tactic. It helps your website appear on local search results when your audience is looking for a product or service in the area you cater to. As a result, you get more foot traffic to your store.
- Get Data on Consumer Behavior:
A core aspect of geofencing is that it is highly data-driven, and the results are measurable. It gives your company essential data and numbers that help you make an informed decision. You can measure ad impressions, views, and conversion zone visits to analyze the results.
- Compete with Industry Leaders:
Another great thing about geo fencing is that you get to compete directly with the industry leaders of your business and even steal their customers. When you put a geo fence right where your top competitors have put it and entice their customers with offers they can’t resist, they will surely come to your store. This helps you gain customers who would have otherwise chosen a competitor’s services.
- Increase Brand Awareness and Engagement:
Geo fencing gives you valuable data and information which helps you craft marketing campaigns to increase your brand awareness and engagement. Remember that your customers are bombarded with sales messages every day and you don’t want to be another company with another “sales notification.” Therefore, to make your marketing campaign successful, personalization is the key, which is only possible when you have customer data obtained from geo fencing. Once you nail your personalized marketing strategy, you can give your customers offers and discounts that will hold their interest and put your brand on the forefront, leading to an increase in brand awareness.
- A Convenient Way to Reach Mobile Users:
Geo fencing is a very convenient way to reach mobile users with the help of features such as push notifications, in-app notifications, ads and emails. Moreover, even if the mobile user hasn’t opted to get these notifications on their phone, they will still get targeted ads based on their location and the radius of your geo fence.
Conclusion
Geo-fencing can help you boost traffic and sales. It is a great strategy to generate data-based results. However, remember that your potential customers are more than location-based. You also need to clearly understand your target audience and how you can create ads that directly target them. For the success of your geofencing ads, you need to consider the data, the audience, and the location. Only then will the incurred cost be worth it.
