Using Geofencing in Paid Ads for Holiday Campaigns

By: Brendan Finegan

When it comes to holiday advertising, your campaign will need precision and purpose. Each social media view you get should be for potential customers within certain regions. Accurate PPC (pay-per-click) location targeting will give your business an extra boost during this competitive holiday season.

Geofencing allows your marketing team to hyperfocus on a physical location for virtual advertisements. Our Marketing Choices professionals have years of experience when it comes to enhancing local PPC for the holidays. Investing time now in a geofencing strategy will help increase Return on Investment (ROI) and reduce long-term spending. 

Geofencing vs. Geotargeting: What Is the Difference?

Geofencing uses customers’ GPS location and cellular data to push notifications to them. When they enter a specific location, their phone displays advertisements based on where they are. It is a great way to ensure that people within a certain proximity can see online ads for your products. Geofencing paid ads will keep your store noticed amongst potential consumers. 

A holiday advertising strategy with Marketing Choices will first involve distinguishing between geofencing and geotargeting. While geofencing focuses on a small area, geotargeting shows ads across a broader area, such as a municipality. The scope of geotargeting is much wider than geofencing. Geotargeting can help establish the initial radius you want to hone in on. Geofencing should be used to drive sales within a small area. 

When you use geofencing, you are establishing a real-time, virtual perimeter to monitor and collect customer data. The more specific you are with your geofencing targeting, the more likely you are to send relevant ads to consumers. To drive store traffic with geofencing, you need a strategy that keeps your store relevant within a specified area.

Have a Checklist for a Holiday Geofencing Strategy

Being specific with your holiday geofencing strategy is not enough during the shopping season. You will need a clearly defined, step-by-step guide to keep your products noticeable amongst your competitors. This will keep your cost per visit CPV (cost per view) efficient and timely. An outlined plan with Marketing Choices can keep you from being another head in the crowd during competitive holiday spending. 

• Define Your Boundaries: Think of geofencing as marking your territory. Even if a competitor is operating within your geofence, you can still target potential customers. Competitor conquest geofencing allows you to display online advertisements when customers are at or near a different store. Just because a consumer visits a competitor does not mean they cannot receive push notifications of your products. With exceptional online deals, customers can shift their focus to your store.
• Choose the Right Online Platform: The options for where to advertise your social media posts can be overwhelming. After considering your options, Marketing Choices can help you pick the best option for your target audience. Some areas to consider are your clients’ age range and which platforms are popular. All social media advertisements need to be supported by high-quality content and competitive offers.
• Use Data for Post-Visit Retargeting: Getting customers to visit your store amongst a crowded field of competitors is already impressive. However, getting them to choose your store again is the next challenge. Once a customer leaves your store, geofencing can still be used to push notifications and advertisements to them. The data you gathered should be carefully monitored. Rewards can be given out to those who refer a friend or family member within your geofenced region. 

Use Relevant and Timely Geofencing Implementation

The holiday months move quickly, and you are going to have to make sure your geofencing strategies keep customers interested. In-store traffic paid ads should start with your Black Friday geofencing implementation. November is a crucial holiday month for establishing yourself amongst the competition you will face. 

When you use geofencing, you should be pushing real-time ads that will get customers to act in the moment. They may be close to your geofenced region for only an afternoon. Blowout sales, such as displaying a percent off for just the day, can get customers to visit your store. Advertisements from geofencing should be a fleeting moment that inspires consumers to choose you over qualified competitors. 

A strategy to keep your geofencing ads rolling throughout the holidays is to build momentum during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The burst of sales you receive after Thanksgiving should not stop during December. You can build upon customer loyalty by offering unique membership programs once they step into your geofenced location. Especially for customers who live near your location, geofencing should be consistent and adaptive during the holiday season.

Measure Geofencing Foot Traffic and ROI

Measuring the success and implementation of your geotagging marketing strategy will help maintain long-term advertisements. Once Thanksgiving passes, December goes by quickly, and you will want to ensure that your geotagging remains relevant. Costs can also spiral out of control if you are not monitoring your costs-per-click (CPC) and cost-per-view.

Data banks should be tracked by your marketing and SEO teams to analyze the effectiveness of keywords, CPC, and webpage views. Marketing Choices has the latest suggestions for software and SEO keywords to use. ROI is maximized when you use analytics to reduce CPC and direct traffic to your store. Data software can be used to determine which geofencing locations generated the most views and where you can move your geofencing next.

Contact Marketing Choices to Develop Your Holiday Geofencing Strategy

The holiday season can go by in a blur, and many retailers find themselves fumbling to implement effective geofencing. Consumers make decisions quickly, so geofencing can help deliver relevant, meaningful online ads based on location. Geofencing will allow you to display ads with purposeful precision. Contact us to provide the geofencing relevance you need for an impactful holiday season.

Source:

Adams, Kasandra. CSUSB ScholarWorks Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations Office of Graduate Studies. Geofencing as Applied within the Field of Cybersecurity: An Overview of Potential Risks and Advantages. 2020.