TARGETING PRECISE LOCATIONS

Geofencing for Digital Advertising

Geofencing is a location-based targeting strategy that uses GPS, RFID, Wi-Fi, or cellular data to create a virtual perimeter around a specific geographic area. This allows advertisers to target users based on their physical location, whether they are in a specific region, near a business, or traveling in proximity to a predefined area. Geofencing is powerful for both real-time engagement and for retargeting users at a later date, using mobile devices or other digital signals.

Geofencing can be applied across various digital media formats, including display, video, CTV/OTT, audio, and digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising. It leverages real-time location data to reach the right audience with hyper-targeted, geographically relevant ads.

Geofencing Across Different Advertising Channels

1. Display Ads

Example: A coffee shop can target potential customers who are within a 1-mile radius of their location with banner ads on apps or websites.

How it Works: Display ads can be shown to users in a specific geographic area, such as a city or neighborhood. Geofencing allows advertisers to capture a user’s location through their mobile device or web browser and serve them location-based ads while they are browsing.

2. Video Ads

Example: A local car dealership could geofence around their dealership location to show video ads to potential customers in the surrounding area when they watch video content on platforms like YouTube or Hulu.

How it Works: Video ads can be delivered to users who are within a predefined geographic area. Advertisers can serve short, targeted video ads based on the user’s location, increasing relevance and engagement with content related to that region.

3. Connected TV (CTV) / Over-The-Top (OTT) Ads

Example: A fast-food chain might want to geofence around specific zip codes and deliver TV ads on platforms like Roku or Apple TV for people watching at home.

How it Works: On CTV/OTT, advertisers can target users in specific geographic areas by associating location data with IP addresses. This allows for localized ads based on the viewer’s home or location within a certain region, making the advertising more relevant to that audience.

4. Audio Ads

Example: A concert promoter can geofence around a venue and show audio ads to people nearby on platforms like Spotify or Pandora, promoting a local event.

How it Works: Audio ads can be served to users within a geographic area, leveraging GPS, Wi-Fi, or beacon data. By geofencing around specific events or venues, advertisers can target listeners near a concert hall or festival, promoting the event to them via audio ads.

5. Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH)

Example: A luxury retail brand might use geofencing to serve digital billboard ads around high-end shopping districts to attract potential customers.

How it Works: Digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising uses geofencing to serve ads on screens located in public areas like shopping malls, airports, or transit stations. By setting up a geofence around a physical location, advertisers can trigger dynamic, location-specific ads when users enter a certain area.

Geofencing Granularity: From Country to Zip Code

One of the key advantages of geofencing is its flexibility in terms of how granular the targeting can be. Advertisers can choose to target users at varying levels of geographic detail, ranging from broad to highly specific locations.

Country: Targeting a broad country-level audience. For example, targeting all users in the U.S. with a nationwide campaign.
Region: Targeting a specific region within a country, such as the West Coast, Midwest, or Southeast.
State: Targeting users in a particular state, like California or New York.
DMA (Designated Market Area): A DMA is a media market that includes one or more cities or metropolitan areas. Geofencing can be applied to a DMA to focus on a region where media consumption patterns are similar. For example, targeting users in the New York City DMA.
City: Geofencing at the city level allows advertisers to reach users in specific urban areas like San Francisco or Chicago.
Zip Code: Geofencing can also be applied at the zip code level for highly localized targeting. For example, a local grocery store could target residents in the 90210 zip code of Beverly Hills.
Lat/Long Coordinates: At the most granular level, advertisers can target specific latitude and longitude coordinates, pinpointing a very precise location. For example, targeting a user who is within 100 meters of a particular store.

Leveraging 1st Party Data for Household and Address Targeting

In addition to geographic location, 1st party data can be used to further enhance geofencing efforts. This data is directly collected from your own customers or users, allowing for deeper insights and more accurate targeting.

Example: If a retailer has a database of customer addresses, they can geofence around specific household addresses to serve ads to those users when they are near or at their home.

How it Works: By using precise address data, advertisers can create geofences around homes and track when customers or prospects are nearby. For example, if a customer has recently purchased an item, an advertiser can target them with an upsell or related product when they return to their area.
Granular Targeting: Using address-level geofencing, advertisers can reach customers when they are in proximity to their home, office, or other places they frequently visit.

Geofencing Around Specific Locations with a Mile Radius

Another common geofencing strategy is targeting users based on a radius around a specific location. For instance, an advertiser might geofence a restaurant and target users within a one-mile radius to attract them to visit the restaurant for a promotion.

How it Works: By defining a geofence with a certain radius around a business or location, advertisers can ensure that ads are served to users who enter that specific area. The radius can range from a few hundred feet (to target users entering a store) to several miles (to target users in a local community or city).

Device ID Targeting: Leveraging DID for Geofencing

DID (Device ID) targeting refers to the practice of targeting specific mobile devices based on their unique identifiers (Device IDs). This allows advertisers to target users with extreme precision, especially in terms of physical location.

Targeting Device IDs Based on Location: When a user enters a specific geofenced area, the advertiser can capture the device's unique ID and store it for future targeting.
Tracking and Retargeting: Once a device ID is captured, advertisers can use this data to retarget the same user later, even after they’ve left the geofenced area. For example, if a user walks by a retail store but doesn’t enter, the advertiser can retarget them with display ads, video ads, or even DOOH ads once they leave the area.
- Example: A coffee shop might track a user’s device ID when they walk near their store and then show them a mobile ad for a discount on coffee the next time they open their app.
Segmentation for Future Campaigns: By collecting a large number of device IDs from users who have entered specific locations, advertisers can create a segmented audience to target with future campaigns. This allows for ongoing retargeting efforts, ensuring that the user is constantly exposed to relevant ads.

Geofencing is a powerful tool for location-based targeting, providing advertisers with the ability to target users based on a variety of geographic factors, from broad locations (country, region) to highly granular targeting (zip code, latitude/longitude). By leveraging 1st party data and Device ID targeting, advertisers can go even further, targeting specific households, capturing device IDs to retarget users, and ensuring that campaigns are highly relevant and effective.

Geofencing is effective across multiple channels, including display, video, CTV/OTT, audio, and DOOH, and can be used for both immediate engagement and long-term retargeting strategies.