
27 May The Power of Geo Targeting
Many marketers are caught in the age of mass media. They still believe that reaching as many people as possible will increase the likeliness of finding their audience. However, this type of broadcast marketing has proven unnecessary in the digital era.
As the majority of the world’s population is connected by mobile devices, location data has emerged as one of the most powerful and important data sources. The significance of location data has proved beneficial in the last couple years as emerging mobile apps have increased the convenience of, once cumbersome, daily tasks.
Imagine a world where apps like Google Maps & Uber aren’t powered by location data. This simple change has begun to change human behaviour, thus, marketing is changing too.
“Marketing agencies that integrate location data in marketing and advertising are seeing benefits across diverse metrics” (Amazon)
Marketers have since begun to leverage the potential of location data in the form of Geo-targeting.
What is Geo-targeting?
Geo-targeting is an online method of determining the geo-location of an audience or specific page visitor via geographical information. It allows us to create and deliver different content to audiences or visitors based on their location.
How does it work?
Every visitor’s access to the internet is linked to an IP address and every mobile device has a GPS location – these both indicate the users location. Whilst an IP address is relatively reliable, a GPS location is far more accurate. This allows us to pinpoint the visitor to a specific area and market to them directly. We are therefore able to target a specific person, with a specific interest, at a specific time of day, within a specific area; thus connecting with the consumer on a deeper level – as opposed to a generic advertisement. The more relevant you can be, the better.
This form of marketing focuses your advertising on the areas where you will find the right customers and restrict the areas you won’t, thus eliminating spend on low performing areas and increasing your ROI.
How can it improve ROI?
Geo-targeting decreases keyword costs. By Geo-targeting your online ad campaigns, you can reduce your average cost-per-click and drive more traffic with your budget. Lower CPCs also means a lower cost-per-acquisition for your customers. By creating a narrow audience, you can reach more of your target customers.
Geo-targeting boosts local SEO
According to Google, a third of all mobile searches are location-related. When searching on Google or Facebook, due to the increase in geographic data, mobile users expect google to know where they are when they are searching for things like the weather, petrol station or restaurant. Thus, including your location in your marketing aids google to help consumers find your business and boost your SEO.
Geo-targeting helps create effective ads that drive clicks
Geo-targeting allows you to create more relevant ads that lead to higher conversions. For example, if a company has two branches in two different locations, they can create specific ads to appeal to different customers living within these two different areas. Therefore the ad would be more relevant to the desired consumer.
Geo-targeting Increases the quality of traffic
Simply put, targeting the correct customers results in eligible traffic on your website or social media pages, which results in a lower bounce rate, increased site time and improved performance & search rankings, resulting in more organic traffic and reduced costs for paid traffic across the Google, Facebook or Audience Networks.
So what next?
First get all your owned digital assets with the correct address listed. And not the address you think it should be, but the location that the mapping systems say where you are (people living on the Mount Edgecombe Estate, say the estate is in Umhlanga, but actually, it’s in Phoenix).
Start with checking your locations on the mapping systems run by Google, Apple and Bing. Next, list on the social systems like Facebook Locations, Google My Business, TripAdvisor and Foursquare (don’t forget Foursquare, as AirBnB used it for “what to do in the area”).
If you need help. We’re only a click away.