1. Personalized Content
Targeting based on location allows you to create ads that are really relevant to the people who see them. Personalized ads and landing pages create a better user experience. When you know your ads will only display in the locations you choose, you can talk about specific stores, local culture, sales and events, or seasonal products. These details make your message more personalized, leading to more clicks and conversions.
Local and national businesses alike have always considered location when planning advertising. Newspapers, billboards and sales staff are location-based by nature. Now, it’s easy to align digital and traditional campaigns to create relevant, cohesive marketing messages unique to your individual neighborhood or region.
2. Effective Marketing Budgets
Geotargeted marketing is beneficial for companies that only sell in specific locations. Focusing ads in the places where your products are available, necessary and/or already successful helps you allocate your marketing budget more effectively. For example, advertising snow shovels or winter coats in North Dakota is likely to lead to conversions. The same ads in Florida would be a waste of advertising dollars. Geotargeting can be very granular; a retailer in North Dakota with snow shovels in stock might want to run ads within a 20-mile radius of its location when the local forecast calls for snow.
Segmenting ads by location helps your marketing dollars go further in other ways too. As we mentioned above, location-based ads can be more personalized. You’ll see a better return on your investment when people relate to your ads. When your digital strategy includes search ads, Quality Score is an important piece of how Google determines how much you pay for a click. When your ad groups are segmented by location, your keywords, ads, landing pages and calls to action are better aligned, leading to higher Quality Scores and lower costs.
3. Product and Market Development
Testing a new product or service in a small geographic area can help you fine-tune your offerings before a larger launch. Marketers have long used this tactic with traditional marketing, like TV ads and billboards, to test new products and messaging. Digital geotargeting allows even more specific location-based testing. Another benefit of geotargeting is the ability to slowly expand your business’s reach into specific areas.
4. Build Authority
You’re likely an expert about your industry and your community. A geotargeted campaign can help you build authority as the go-to guy in your neighborhood for whatever it is that you do. Your ads could highlight information about relevant community events, answer common questions, partner with other local businesses or target locations where your potential customers spend time. Make the best use of your marketing dollars with ads that naturally connect your community and your business.
5. Hide Ads from Competitors
While hiding your ads from competitors won’t help you connect with customers, it can be helpful if you’re looking for a leg up. Exclude the locations of your closest competitors’ stores or headquarters from your campaigns. They likely won’t see your ads until well after you launch them. Even if you don’t need to protect your campaign from the prying eyes of a competitor, this tactic can help you avoid spending your marketing budget on their employees or loyal customers.
