As the advertising industry continues to shift and adjust to current trends and events, marketers need to be on the lookout for new ways to spend their advertising dollars. Social media will continue to take the lion’s share of digital media spend. But it’s not the only option for connecting with new customers.
One of the prime alternatives is location marketing. Research from BIA/Kelsey shows that mobile location-targeted ad spending in the US will more than double from 2017 to 2022, with spending expected to top $22 billion this year.
Location marketing allows you to generate consumer insights and understand audience behavior in the physical world in ways that traditional media targeting can’t. It’s the ideal solution when you want to act on those behaviors to drive real results, too. If you haven’t already embraced location as a complement or alternative to your social targeting, here are three simple ways to get started.
Get social
Among consumers, social media usage continues to grow. According to new 2018 data from Pew Research Center, more than two-thirds (68%) of American adults now use Facebook. Meanwhile, about 78% of 18- to 24-year-olds are Snapchat users, and a staggering 71% of them interact with the platform multiple times each day. Nearly half of those young consumers (45%) also use Twitter.
With so many active and engaged consumers, social remains a valuable channel for marketers. GroundTruth enables brands to use and amplify our audiences on social channels that include Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter.
These audiences are built using location data, but extending this targeting capability to social media ensures brands maximize both their marketing dollars and reach. Since GroundTruth maintains strict privacy and compliance standards, our audiences are a great alternative now that marketers are unable to buy 3rdparty audiences directly on Facebook.
Get in front of your key audiences
Audience targeting using location is effective and efficient. Whether you’re targeting based on a person’s past visitation behavior or their visitation habits overlaid with demographic targeting data, location is an excellent indicator of who someone is based on where they go in the physical world.
For example, one luxury auto brand leveraged GroundTruth’s Behavioral Audience to drive awareness among millennials. As a result, the brand saw a +34% increase in visitation to its dealerships within its target millennial audience. Audiences based on location data take into account active, real-world behaviors, versus passive behaviors like searching on Google or Facebook likes. Many brands are already accustomed to buying audiences based on their TV habits or which content sites they visit, so look to add location audiences to continue to connect with your key consumers.
Find new customers based on Neighborhoods
Incorporating customized geographical boundaries, Neighborhoods allows us to see location hot spots in business areas with a high visitation affinity for a particular point of interest or brand. Visitation patterns show you where potential customers are congregating, and which areas hold the most value for your brand based on your unique marketing goals. From there, we build lookalike audiences around the locations that attract customers with the highest likelihood of visiting your store.
We’ve seen great success with using this tactic to identify previously untapped audiences, increase brand awareness, and drive new visitors to retailers, auto dealerships, restaurants, and more. Based on past test campaigns, of the total visits driven by our Neighborhoods targeting, 90% came from new customers when compared with radial targeting.
Whether you use it in association with your existing marketing strategy or as a jumping-off point for powerful new campaigns, consider location data your ace in the hole. Ready to start making the most of your marketing dollars? Contact us to find out more.
