In the digital age of marketing, businesses are always seeking creative ways to leverage technology to attract clients and customers. From Pay-Per-Click to Facebook and Instagram ads, the world of advertising has moved online. A great way to attract new customers and drive business is to combine messaging people based on where they go physically and then reach them online.
Utilizing social media and Google advertising is a great way to drive leads, but is there more you can be doing? The answer is yes. Geofencing is a great way to expand your digital marketing efforts and generate solid leads. This digital marketing tactic is quickly gaining popularity due to its relatively low cost compared to the return on investment (ROI) it delivers.
Geofencing, put simply, is the targeting of prospective home buyers with online advertisements based on the physical locations they visit. To understand how geofencing works…
- Think of how you use Google Maps
- Imagine zooming in until you see the outlines of buildings on the map
- Now, draw an imaginary line around the contours of the buildings, your competition, trade show, conference center, storefront, football stadium, or other physical locations.
- Once the virtual fence is around the building or location, the technology starts to take note of everyone entering the fenced area so that later, it serves advertisements to those phones, computers, tablets, and other devices.
Geofencing draws a virtual grid around precise locations to help target quality leads for your business. When using this digital marketing strategy, the opportunities are endless. Think about your perfect client and where they like to frequent, then use geofencing to reach them directly. You can even use geofencing to target your competitors’ locations. Sending ads to consumers while they are actively shopping is highly effective.
Some Examples
Geofencing for Retailers & Other Businesses
Geofencing was made for retail. You can serve ads to your competitors’ patrons by geofencing their locations. Or, geofence your own location for repeat business. For example, car dealerships find success targeting competitor-dealership lots and their own lot to message to prospects. The audience you're targeting is already showing intent, allowing you to pay for impressions among people with real potential to buy.
Restaurants and retailers also boost revenue by targeting nearby business offices to reach prospects near their locations. Events and tradeshows are great targets because you understand the attendees’ interests. For instance, sports apparel retailers find excellent ROI by targeting sporting events. Even e-commerce companies find geofencing useful by targeting the mailing addresses in their database. Geofencing can also be a great supplement to direct mail by serving ads at the same time as direct mail in-home dates.
Geofencing for Home Builders
Geofencing is an especially great tool for home builders. Typically, people who visit sales centers and model homes are already in the market for a new home within a specified price range. By targeting your competitors’ communities, you can send their prospects advertising for your own new homes and communities. This puts you on their consideration list.
Also, home builders can achieve fantastic ROI with geofencing. Builders only need to convert one advertising lead to cover the cost of the campaign. Geofencing is a great way to reach someone who is already in the market for a new home and looking to buy now.
Measure to Ensure Your Geofencing Spend
Geofencing offers all the traditional tracking metrics, including click-through rates, conversions and impressions, as well as special metrics like conversion zones that report high-quality leads. Conversion zone measurement shows foot traffic back to your physical model home or community sales office location. This means geofencing can track how many people viewed or clicked on an ad and then physically visit your location after.
When we start a geofencing campaign for a home builder, we typically run it for 3 months. We consistently adjust, optimize, and test within the campaign to achieve maximum results. After fine-tuning the client-tailored strategy and seeing how quickly we get results, our clients almost always want to continue with their geofencing campaigns.
The last thing to remember with geofencing is that just because you aren’t using it yet, it doesn’t mean your competitors aren’t using the tool. Start geofencing today with our expert team.
MILA SORENSON, SR. DIRECTOR of MARKETING & CLIENT SERVICESWith over 25 years of marketing experience, Mila specializes in helping clients formulate marketing plans to capture more leads, sales and ROI through services such as SEO, Paid Search, Email Marketing, Social Media, Geofencing, and Website Design.
