Jeans company True Religion needed to promote events and new products
at its retail stores. Using geo-targeted emails focused on areas in
which the brand had a high concentration of stores, True Religion was
able to serve up dynamic emails unique to each audience to drive
in-store traffic.
65,000 geo-targeted emails were opened with a 2.5% click through rate
and a 1% in-store conversion, a huge impact for one campaign with a
small data set, per
True Religion’s Director of Global e-Commerce, Gary Penn.
Examples like the above support metrics that find geotargeting
doubles the performance of all kinds of marketing methods, from email
campaigns to paid search. Per data from the Local Search Association’s
LSA Insights database,
it also doesn’t matter what vertical your business is in. The
click-through rate for geotargeted mobile display ads was higher than
the industry benchmark for all verticals.
The effectiveness of geo-targeting is only going to further improve
as mobile use grows and location data becomes more accurate and
available. The Local Search Association (LSA) just released data that
found that, for the first time,
mobile devices surpassed PC use in search for local businesses and services. As I
reported last month, the majority of searches (52%) for local information on mobile devices occur either in the car or away from home or work.
Furthermore, 70% of consumers are willing to share their location
information if they believe they are getting something of value in
return like coupons or loyalty points, according to LSA’s
Local Mobile Search Study.
This dynamically moving consumer base is only going to be more
receptive to search results and ads that are specific to their location.
Geotargeting is the practice of delivering content to a consumer —
via mobile or web — using geographic location information about that
individual. At a basic level, a business can restrict its reach to
consumers only located in a defined geographic area such as a state or a
city. But location often provides much deeper, more meaningful and
identifiable traits that tell you what a person wants, needs or is
interested in.
Here are 10 practical tips for using geo-location information to reach your target audience.
1. Find A Venue Where Your Target Audience Will Have Specific Wants Or Needs
Stadiums, airports, universities, and malls are examples of specific
venues that can be targeted in order to reach specific interest groups.
Stadiums provide a great opportunity to focus on specific short
engagement events with an audience defined by that event. They often
host fans from two specific cities or schools or fans of a specific
music genre that is heavy in one demographic. A band like One Direction,
for example, is likely to attract school-age female fans.
Use these consumer characteristics to time and target your marketing.
For example, airports on weekdays are a great source of business
travelers looking for high-end restaurants, while weekends and Spring
Break bring more leisure visitors and families looking for more casual
dining options. Likewise, dance clubs and bars can benefit by promoting
18 and over events targeted at universities whose student bodies are
largely between the ages of 18-21. These are just a few examples of how
venues define audiences that can be effectively targeted.
2. Exclude Locations Where Your Target Audience Will Not Be
Not only can you define an area you wish to reach, you can carve out
an area you wish to exclude. Exclusion can be done by venue or one side
of the street or any area that could have been specifically targeted.
For example, clubs and bars that might otherwise want to target
university students may exclude that same area during breaks or the
summer when most students are away.
Excluding locations may also be a more cost-effective way to avoid
the higher ad rates of high demand target areas. Digital marketing
agency Mediative
explains in this SlideShare
how lower-cost, broader area ad campaigns can accomplish the same
targeting goals by opting out of all areas but your desired target
location.
3. Define A Radius By Distance Or Time Around Your Store Or An Area Of Interest
Geo-fencing allows marketers to set a perimeter around a physical
location in which ads can be delivered. For geo-fencing ads, they may
include creative messages acknowledging the user’s location or may
include location-based features such as a store locator.
For example, a coffee shop can set a 1-mile perimeter around its
store and reach any user within that radius. Or, it could set a 3-mile
perimeter around a nearby office complex to reach users that may be
looking for somewhere to grab coffee before going into work. You can
also try geo-conquesting, which targets customers around a competitor’s
location.
Another way to define a perimeter is not by distance, but by time. A
company named iGeolise developed a platform they call TravelTime, an API
that allows mobile apps and sites to search by time rather than
distance. This could be useful for a condo unit near downtown looking to
attract workers with very long commutes, or a restaurant targeting
hotel patrons within a 10-minute walking distance.
Courtesy: iGeolise
4. Adjust Your Bid On Ads To Prioritize Better Locations
One concern with specific targeting is the loss in volume of
audience. Even if you have an otherworldly 10% click-through rate,
that’s just 10 click-throughs if only 100 people see your ad.
In low performing locations, the business developed from those areas
may be outweighed by the campaign cost. By raising your bid for more
desirable target locations, you increase your exposure in that area,
while lowering your bid in other areas keeps your reach broad at a
justifiable cost. These adjustments are a way of optimizing ad
performance.
An event planning company or marketer for a musician that is hosting a
concert in Chicago may use bid adjustments to prioritize Chicago, but
also reach, at a lower cost, Milwaukee, WI and Grand Rapids, MI, both of
which are driving distance
5. Use Location-Specific Keywords For Paid Search Ads
Geotargeting doesn’t always mean you have to capture where someone is
physically located. Consumer intent is conveyed all the time by search
queries, and location is a commonly included term. Consumers often
narrow their own searches by adding in the name of a city or district.
For example, “Austin gyms” or “coffee shops near Dupont Circle” or
“uptown restaurants” provide location intent that you can target.
Include location terms such as area code, ZIP code, neighborhood,
community name, nearby landmarks, popular venues, tourist destinations,
well known street names, local jargon and other keywords that will help
you get found when a consumer is searching for businesses around you.
6. Predict Your Audience By Geography
Geography can also be used to predict desirable demographics and
information about users in that area. Neighborhoods can often be
delineated by residents’ income bracket, age, ethnicity, education, and
many other demographics or interests. Politicians often draw district
boundaries into areas of common political constituencies that also
predict demographics or common values.
Knowing your business’ target audience and matching it up with where
they live or work helps you find those who might be most interested in
your product or service. For example, a ticket broker might want to
advertise NCAA basketball tickets in the state of Kentucky and might
think of using Kentucky basketball in its messaging. However,
Louisville basketball would be preferable for any advertising within 50
miles of the city on the Kentucky side of the border and 70 miles into
Indiana due to the strength of Louisville’s fan base in those areas.
7. Discover Location Intent By Search History
Targeting ads using search history allows marketers to deliver
location specific ads to consumers, even if the consumer’s tracked
location doesn’t match the physical location of where he or she was
searching.
For example, a user searching for information on the Empire State
Building, Central Park, and Broadway tickets predicts a trip to New
York. A hotel in the area could use that search history data to deliver a
relevant and timely search related ad or message.
8. Analyze Consumer Behavior And Preference From Past Locations Visited
Location history of a consumer provides a lot of information specific
to that person: where they like to shop, what they like to buy, how
often they make the trip, and even how they get there. Obtaining this
information gives great insight to marketers that enhances the ability
to target consumers and deliver relevant, responsive location specific
ads and information, even if the consumer is not currently in that area.
For example, a bagel shop might serve up a free coffee coupon to
anyone who’s visited a Starbucks location more than once within 10
blocks of its shop. The customers may be from anywhere in the city but
their location history allows the bagel shop to target those who are
likely to be in the area in the future.
9. Use Location-Specific Landing Pages To Provide Relevant Content
It’s important not only to target the right consumers, but to provide
the most relevant information to them. If you find the right user who
clicks on your ad, but the landing page for that ad isn’t customized,
that conversion could be lost. Offer different website landing pages for
each targeted ad that match the reason that user was targeted.
Another way to get the right people to the right landing page is
through geo-aware targeting. Your site or landing page can detect where
the user is when they click on a banner or visit your website.
For example, if a user from a high income neighborhood visits a car
dealer’s site or clicks on a paid search display ad, that consumer may
be directed to a landing page displaying a luxury vehicle, while
consumers located in a lower income area may be targeted with a deal on
an economy vehicle. The higher income consumers may be more interested
in deals such as cash off or lower interest rates whereas those in lower
income brackets may be more receptive to lower monthly payments.
10. Take Advantage Of Geographic Specific Events
Lastly, geographic specific events, such as the weather or
traditional local holiday celebrations, can be used to target consumers.
Some events are known in advance, like St. Patrick’s Day in Boston.
Others are unexpected, like snow storms in Dallas.
Upon forecast of a blizzard, a hardware store may target consumers
with content promoting snow shovels or snow blowers. The week before St.
Patrick’s Day, a clothing store may promote its green colored or
festive attire. Either way, these events will spike demand for
particular items and are a great opportunity to boost sales.
In summary, these are but a few of the examples of how geography
plays such an important part in creating customized and targeted
marketing campaigns. Consumers respond better to relevant marketing
which means that ROI of targeted campaigns will increase. Mobile
consumers make geography one of the best ways to target while technology
and data make doing so a real advantage to those who use it. Sometimes
it takes a little creativity, but it is worth the effort. Especially for
the business of local.
