Location Based Advertising

Location based advertising encompasses the tactics designed to help businesses plan and execute marketing activities based on the consumer’s geographic location. The success of these campaigns is largely based on our modern reliance on smartphones, which means that marketers can align marketing efforts with precisely where users are located at any one time.

Using the geo-targeting data gleaned from smartphones, advertisers are now able to personalise the messages in their ads based on the users’ location and habits.

Lately in the UK, geo-marketing activities have become more advanced, with the introduction of beacon technology. This connects and transmits information to smartphones, making location based marketing easier & more accurate. Using beacon technology, a store can send tailored messages to consumers walking by their business or to promote products & offers.

Types of Location Based Advertising

Behaviour Targeting

Behavioural targeting relies on capturing the visitor data for websites and landing pages and using that information to tailor advertisements to the users’ needs and interests. For example, if you are a frequent flyer, airports can tap into this data by looking at your GPS activity and offer you discounts on loyalty schemes.

The idea is that as the ads are more tailored to you, you are less likely to disregard them – in the case of the airport example, there is more chance you will be persuaded to fly from there more frequently.

Radius Targeting

Radius targeting is a form of advertising that allows you to display your ads to people within a certain radius of your store. Using radius targeting in conjunction beacon technology, you can send unique ads to people within a certain radius, incentivising them to pay a visit to the store.

This can be a powerful way of capturing your audience in real-time and can have a significant impact on your brand awareness.

Geotargeting

Geotargeting is the practice of delivering content or advertisements to consumers based on geographic location. With the rise in online shopping, high street stores have been struggling to drive foot traffic into their physical stores. With location based ads, brands are able to be much more strategic in targeting people within the vicinity of their store.

Why is it Effective

Personalisation

Personalised messages tend to draw users’ attention as well as offering greater engagement than generic ads, and location-based advertisements are no different. Location data ensures not only that ads are relevant to the location, but also that advertisers are able to track demand.

A great example of this is the use of beacon technology being used by retailers to track movements of people in their stores.

Audience

With smartphones being the norm, and most having built in GPS capabilities, it has become crucial for any marketer to target mobile customers.