Category: AdTech

Location intelligence, or spatial data, is a powerful tool for businesses seeking a competitive edge. By harnessing the power of data visualization and analysis, location intelligence helps companies better understand their markets, customers, and competitors.

When you can analyze extensive amounts of location-based data, you can identify patterns and trends, make informed decisions, and develop effective strategies. 

This article will explore how location intelligence can help you make better business decisions and improve your business strategy while enhancing efficient processes.

What is location intelligence?

Location intelligence is the process of gathering, analyzing, and interpreting data based on location or geography. It uses Geographic Information System (GIS) technology to provide insights into specific areas or regions. 

Location intelligence helps companies better understand their customers, competitors, and the overall market. By mapping out the data, you can better identify patterns and relationships that may not have been apparent.

Location intelligence vs. business intelligence

Business intelligence involves analyzing data from various sources to identify trends and patterns to help your business make better decisions. 

Location intelligence is a subset of business intelligence, specifically focusing on using location or geography to provide insights. While business intelligence can provide a high-level view of the overall business, location intelligence provides more granular insights into specific areas or regions.

By combining location intelligence with other forms of business intelligence, you can gain a more comprehensive understanding of your data management and operations to make more informed decisions.

Why is location intelligence important?

Location intelligence is crucial because it provides your business with a wealth of insights to make better decisions and improve valuable metrics. 

Your business can better understand its customers, competitors, and markets by analyzing location data. This information can be used to identify new opportunities, optimize marketing campaigns, and improve operational efficiency.

Location intelligence can also help your brand identify risk areas and take proactive measures to mitigate those risks.

How location intelligence works

Location intelligence analyzes geographic data to identify patterns, trends, and insights. This data can come from various sources — like GPS devices, social media platforms, and mobile apps. 

The data then gets processed and analyzed with advanced algorithms and machine learning techniques to identify correlations and insights that would not be apparent by simply analyzing the raw data.

Once you identify these insights, they can help you make more informed choices — like where to open a new store, which products to stock, and how to target specific customer segments.

Industries and use cases for location intelligence

Now that you understand location intelligence and its inner workings, let’s explore the various industries that use it and how it helps them make better decisions. Leveraging location intelligence, you can gain valuable insights into business operations and customer behavior, allowing them to optimize your strategies.

Retail

In the retail industry, location intelligence is crucial for determining store locations, managing inventory, and building an effective marketing strategy. Analyzing data on foot traffic, demographics, and competitor locations, retailers can determine the best places for their stores and tailor their offerings to meet the needs of their customers.

For example, you may use location intelligence to identify the most popular shopping areas in a city and place their store nearby. You can also use this technology to determine which products are most popular in specific regions and adjust their inventory accordingly.

Logistics and transportation

Location intelligence is vital in route optimization, asset tracking, and supply chain management in logistics and transportation. When using GPS and real-time location data, your brand can track the location and status of its vehicles and assets, optimize routes to reduce fuel costs and delivery times, and make better decisions about inventory management.

For example, a logistics company may use location intelligence to track the location of their trucks and adjust routes in real time to avoid traffic congestion or road closures. You can also use this technology to monitor the temperature and humidity of your cargo, ensuring that perishable goods are transported under optimal conditions.

Food and beverage

Location intelligence is crucial in the food and beverage industry. Your business can gain insights into consumer behavior, demographics, and market trends by analyzing geospatial data. This information can help restaurants and other food establishments decide where to open new locations, what types of cuisine to offer, and how to price their products.

For example, your restaurant chain may use location intelligence to determine the optimal location for a new restaurant based on population density, income levels, and competition.

Construction

Location intelligence is also crucial in the construction industry. Through geospatial data, construction companies can better decide where to build, what materials to use, and how to optimize their supply chains.

For example, your construction company may use location intelligence to identify areas with a high demand for affordable housing. Then, you may use that information to determine where to build new developments. Additionally, location intelligence can monitor construction sites in real time, improving safety and productivity.

Insurance

Insurance companies can also benefit from location intelligence. Using analyzing geospatial data, insurers can better understand the risks of insuring properties in different areas.

For example, your insurance company may use location intelligence to determine the likelihood of a property being damaged by a natural disaster, such as a hurricane or earthquake. This information can help you set premiums that accurately reflect the risks of different properties. 

Further, location intelligence can detect fraud by analyzing patterns of claims activity in other areas.

Healthcare

Location intelligence plays a crucial role in the healthcare industry by providing valuable insights for decision-making.

For example, hospitals and clinics can use location intelligence to analyze demographic data and identify areas with a high incidence of certain diseases or health conditions. This information can help you allocate resources and develop targeted prevention and treatment strategies.

Energy and utilities

The energy and utilities industry relies heavily on location intelligence to manage infrastructure, assets, and resources. 

With location intelligence, your enterprise can monitor power grids and pipelines in real time, identify areas at risk of service interruptions or outages, and optimize maintenance and repair schedules. 

Location intelligence can also identify new areas for renewable energy development, such as wind or solar farms.

Government

Location intelligence is critical for government agencies at all levels. For example, local governments can use location intelligence to manage public safety and emergency response, including predicting and mitigating natural disasters. You can use location intelligence to manage infrastructure, transportation, and land use planning.

Location intelligence can also analyze demographic data, such as population density and income levels, to inform policy and resource allocation decisions.

Benefits of location intelligence

As we’ve seen, location intelligence has become increasingly important across various industries due to its ability to provide valuable insights. But what specific benefits does it offer? Below are some of the most significant advantages of location intelligence and how it can help you make better decisions for the future.

Enhanced decision making

Location intelligence enables businesses to make better choices by giving them a deeper understanding of their data. By analyzing data in the context of location, you can gain insights you may not have otherwise discovered. For example, a retailer can use location intelligence to analyze foot traffic in their stores and understand which products are famous in specific areas.

You can then use this information to optimize store layouts and product placements, leading to increased sales.

Revealing hidden patterns and enabling real-time understanding

Location intelligence can help identify hidden patterns and trends that may be difficult to detect using traditional data analysis methods. 

You can better understand your company’s operations by overlaying location data with other sources. Then, you can use location intelligence to track the movements of your vehicles and identify potential inefficiencies in their routes. From there, your company can adjust its operations to reduce costs and improve delivery times by identifying these inefficiencies in real time.

Competitive advantage

Location intelligence can give a competitive advantage by enabling data-driven decisions that are more accurate and timely than those made without location data. While leveraging location data, companies can identify new opportunities, optimize operations, and create better customer experiences.

Using location intelligence to understand customer behavior can create targeted marketing campaigns that are more effective than generic campaigns. This can increase sales and customer loyalty, giving the retailer a competitive advantage.

Risk reduction

Location intelligence can help reduce risk by providing insights into potential hazards, risks, and threats. When understanding the impact of natural disasters, disease outbreaks, or other events, your business can take steps to mitigate risks and protect their assets. Location intelligence can assess the risk of valuing a property based on its location and historical data.

Improved customer experience

Location intelligence can improve the customer experience by giving insights into customer behavior and preferences. You can understand where your customers come from, their interests, and how they interact with your business. This information can create personalized experiences tailored to customers’ needs and preferences.

How location intelligence software unlocks business value

Location intelligence software can drive business value by providing valuable insights into consumer behavior, market trends, and operational efficiency. For example, Digital Element provides a suite of location intelligence solutions that enable businesses to gather and analyze location data in real time.

You can then use this information to optimize marketing campaigns, streamline logistics and supply chain management, and improve overall customer experience. With our technology, your company can accurately identify a user’s location down to a zip code level, which can help improve targeting and personalize content. This can lead to increased engagement, better conversion rates, and, ultimately, higher revenue.

Empower your business insights with Digital Element

Location intelligence is a powerful tool that can help you make better business decisions, gain a competitive advantage, reduce risks, and improve customer experience. Your business can unlock additional value and business insights using our location intelligence software.

By harnessing the power of location intelligence, location intelligence platforms can help you drive growth and stay ahead of the competition. Our top advantage is that our technology enables your business to gather location-based information like IP addresses to make informed decisions about customers and operations. 

If you want to enhance your business insights and gain a competitive advantage, get started with Digital Element today!

With geo-targeting, brands, businesses, and marketers have a significant advantage over their counterparts from the past. The ability to pinpoint a specific location of your intended audience in real-time gives you a decisive competitive advantage.

Because of its ability to deliver relevant ads to specific buyers, this location-based targeting has revolutionized marketing campaigns and strategies.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll review everything you need to know about geo-targeting marketing. By the end, you’ll better understand geo-targeting and its benefits. You’ll also know how to use geo-targeting to make your marketing efforts more effective and to help you get ahead of your competition.

Understanding geo-targeting

Geo-targeting is a modern and strategic approach to digital marketing which involves putting your ad directly in front of a potential customer based on their physical location.

In your geo-targeting campaign, you can reach your audience based on many location factors, such as behavior and location groups near a storefront, small business, or shopping center.

This powerful way of marketing helps you improve engagement and provide a significant experience that is relevant and drives better results.

How geo-targeting works in digital advertising

Geo-targeting uses location-based data to deliver ads to your intended audience, combining the physical and digital realms. This predominantly works in two ways:

• Audience targeting: As the name suggests, audience targeting focuses on selecting a target audience for your marketing campaign. You engage all relevant ad platforms and base your audience on psychographic, behavioral, and demographic factors.

This is a solid way to captivate your intended audience at different locations as you focus on their specific interests and make calculated choices from referenced data. You can also refine your audience targeting further by incorporating a user’s location.

• Location targeting: Location targeting focuses on creating an advertising platform based on a user’s location and foot traffic. A popular method is geofencing, which uses GPS data to create boundaries and send Google ads, Facebook ads, and even push notifications to your audience’s mobile phone.

You can get as specific or broad as possible by selecting the region, neighborhood, or city where you’d like to deliver your ads.

When combined with the power of audience targeting, geo-targeting is a highly effective way of putting your practical solution in front of the right audience at the right time and place.

How to set up geo-targeting advertising

Now that we’ve explored the fundamental aspects of geo-targeting, you may be wondering how exactly you can harness the power of this robust solution.

Below, we’ve outlined some of the most practical ways to incorporate geo-targeting into your next location-based marketing campaign.

1. Choose the right platform

The platform you choose is perhaps the most critical step in geo-targeting. While the effects may be straightforward, the end-to-end process contains many moving parts that can be difficult to tie together.

You want a platform that has dynamic capabilities that align with your brand and goals. Optimizing location data, targeting local prospects, and launching meaningful (and timely) ad campaigns must work in concert for your marketing strategy to be successful.

At Digital Element, we deliver on our promise to provide the most accurate and highest quality data to our clients and partners. Our robust platform is a trusted provider of IP geolocation and intelligence solutions which help to unlock the full potential of your team and brand.

Learn how we use our world-leading IP address geolocation data to produce localized content, enhance your analytics and create a robust, targeted ad strategy.

2. Set up your target parameters

Once you have the right system and tools, start working on your next campaign. Setting up suitable parameters has everything to do with what action you want your target audience to take.

Your radius targeting strategy should be in a determined place, such as a specific area, specific countries, or even specific business locations.

Remember to narrow your focus to ensure your ads reach the right audience. Sometimes it may be tempting to increase your boundaries to a broader circumference, but this may not necessarily help your efforts.

A great way to do this is to set up areas around brick-and-mortar stores, as your ideal buyer will already be in a purchasing mindset.

For example, if you’d like to set up a discount campaign on bicycles, targeting bike repair shops, equipment stores, and the surrounding area may be more beneficial than an entire region.

3. Create your ads

This is where creative liberty kicks in. Establishing the right platform and setting up your boundaries is the groundwork. Now it’s time to start building.

Always begin by analyzing what data you have in front of you, especially the one leveraged through your comprehensive platform solution.

No one wants to feel like they’ve been “sold.” Keep the user experience high throughout the journey by putting yourself in the customer’s shoes.

Craft a compelling ad that will resonate with your target users. A specific pain point and a sense of urgency will get you the right customers.

In collaboration with the specific area you have outlined in the previous step, your user will receive these notifications in a way that is meaningful to them and will feel compelled to take action.

4. Track and monitor your results

Success isn’t just luck. As a marketer or business, you know that consistency is vital when creating a new campaign. By leveraging the right platform, setting up the correct parameters, and crafting an enticing ad, you can get the data necessary to make further choices.

Track your key metrics that make sense to the specific campaign you have launched. Your PPC and search engine ads can deliver valuable feedback such as impressions, clicks, and those who have taken action.

Wherever possible, use a data-driven approach to evaluate your engagement rates and where you can improve them. Sit down with your team to make a plan of action to regularly review ad performance campaigns and determine what changes you can make, if any.

Geo-targeting methods for reaching target audiences

At this stage, you have all the preliminary knowledge to launch and evaluate your first geo-targeting campaign or improve upon an existing one.

As you explore the decisive difference between geo-targeting campaigns, you’ll want to dive further into the intricacies of your targeting options to reach your desired audience effectively.

IP targeting

Your target consumer will have a unique IP address associated with their internet connection. Anyone on a Wi-Fi network at this IP address can see your ad or campaign.

This type of targeting is beneficial in places where you know your users will frequently assemble so that you can inspire and compel them to action with a quick turnaround.

Malls are a great example of IP targeting, where everyone connects to the same network. Present a deal on baked goods around lunchtime at a mall on Saturday, and you may see some great results.

GPS targeting

GPS will always be a primary factor when considering your options, especially if you aren’t sure of the specifics of your user’s behavior — or if you’re trying to cover a larger area.

Targeting a geographic location may not necessarily present your ad to a single audience, so it may not be the best strategy in all situations.

For example, targeting a city may not make sense for a specific product or service. On the other hand, it’s a great way to get people excited about an upcoming event, festival, or local fundraiser.

Geo-fencing

Geo-fencing describes setting up a virtual boundary in the physical world in real-time. Once a user steps within the pre-determined boundary, it triggers your ad delivery.

Geo-fencing helps deliver powerful messaging to consumers that crave both trust and solutions in the messaging they see. This strategy enables you to set up different “clusters of similarity” through radius targeting to engage the right audience in your campaign.

Geo-fencing can ensure you run time-sensitive ads that bridge the connection between the real and digital worlds. It can also help improve your GPS targeting and help you better design campaigns catered to the device your audience will be viewing it on.

Location-based mobile advertising

You can combine various techniques into a location-based mobile ad campaign, including GPS targeting, geofencing, and IP targeting. Many of your consumers will likely have their smartphones on them at all times, which always helps you to deliver your contextually relevant ads.

This approach effectively drives foot traffic to brick-and-mortar stores, local events, and even limited-time offers.

Social media targeting

Geo-targeting takes a new twist on an old method. Social media marketing has been around for a long time by marketing standards. Of course, the global audience network connects on many different social media platforms where they can engage, interact, and share with others.

Social media targeting involves both organic and PPC campaigns. With geo-targeting, Facebook ads, Google ads, Snapchat posts, LinkedIn ads, and similar strategies are much more effective.

While social media targeting is primarily behavior and audience specific, you can combine this with your audience’s location to deliver timely, relevant, contextual ad campaigns.

This method is helpful for more specific and defined audiences. For example, targeting pet owners in a specific city who enjoy the outdoors and inviting them to local events like summer hiking with their furry friends.

Cross-device geo-targeting

Geo-targeting doesn’t just stop at choosing specific (or broad) locations, but the display. You’ve spent weeks creating the perfect campaign and selecting the proper parameters and creatives — but it won’t be effective if no one sees it.

There are many situations where a customer may not have a phone with an internet connection or push notification to see your ads. For example, airlines install tablets in some of their planes, and business conferences provide laptops, desktops, and other displays.

Choosing different platforms and devices to deliver your message makes sense if you want to target similar audiences.

Benefits of geo-targeting advertising

Learning more about the technology behind geo-targeting and its applications in marketing is vital to understand the holistic benefits of employing it in your strategy.

Once you have tested different parameters, methods, and delivery channels, you can refine your data-driven approach to reach your intended audience.

Here are some remarkable benefits you can enjoy when harnessing the power of location-based advertising:

• Increase click-through rates.
• Increase conversions.
• Reduce costs.
• Benefit SEO efforts.
• Coordinate e-commerce and brick-and-mortar campaigns.
• Improve ROI.
• Reach a wider audience.
• Target your ads to specific demographics.
• Target your ads to specific interests.
• Create compelling and engaging ads.
• Collect more meaningful insights into your audience.

Geo-targeting simplified with Digital Element

Geo-targeting is becoming increasingly vital to aiding digital advertising efforts. No doubt geo-targeting can complement and improve your current advertising strategy.

This guide walked you through the importance of setting up targeting parameters, creating great ads, tracking your results, and choosing the right platform to tie it all together. With the different geo-targeting methods at your disposal, you can create a hyper-focused campaign that drives results.

Digital Element is a leader in geolocation technology that empowers businesses with solutions through reliable and precise data. Unlock your brand’s potential and find out more about our IP geolocation today.

Contextual advertising is an adtech approach that helps brands reach new customers and target audiences more naturally with relevant content. It’s a powerful addition to your company’s marketing strategy, though as with many advertising solutions there’s a lot going on behind the scenes to make the magic happen.

Below, we’ll show you what contextual advertising is and how it’s different from behavioral targeting. We’ll walk through common types of contextual targeting and the benefits you stand to gain by adopting this system. We’ll finish with some practical steps for getting started with contextual advertising.

What is contextual advertising?

Contextual advertising is a digital marketing technique that takes a modern approach to ad targeting, serving up ads based on the context in which the ads will be shown. It’s a rapidly growing market that one industry think tank projects will reach $562.1 billion by the year 2030. Contextual advertising is less invasive than behavioral targeting (more on that below) and leverages factors that include:

• The site or type of content on the site where the ad appears
• The location of the viewer (using geolocation data)
• The weather in that location

Contextual advertising could, for example, show ads for baseball cleats on a webpage full of content about improving a particular baseball skill, but show ads for MLB.tv when the content is about how a particular professional team performed last night.

For a while, contextual advertising fell out of favor due to the inability to understand the content of the page (airline ads appearing next to stories about airline crashes). To avoid brand safe placements, the industry moved to behavioral targeting. However, over the past 10 years, two important developments emerged:

1. The consumer rebelled against the kind of tracking that is part and parcel of behavioral targeting. The regulators stepped in, introducing privacy laws to curb it.
2. Various forms of AI now allow us to understand the sentiment of an article (e.g., distinguish between a story about flying off to romantic getaways and one about plane crash). Computer vision allows us to assess images. As a result, we are much better at assessing context for targeting purposes.

By using contextual clues fed into machine learning, contextual advertising systems can “see” the difference in audience: The first reader is much more likely to be an active player who might need to purchase cleats, while the second reader is much more likely to be a fan who might pay for Major League Baseball’s premium streaming service.

Contextual advertising vs. behavioral targeting

Contextual advertising is based on the context of an impression and some user properties — the type of device the ad is seen on, for instance. Contextual targeting is inherently privacy compliant because the consumer’s behavior isn’t tracked. 

Behavioral targeting looks at what the individual reader has been doing: if the user has been searching for baseball cleats and is then inundated with ads for baseball-related products on social media, that’s retargeting based on past behavior. Another example is when a user visits your website and then seems to see your advertisements all over the internet for a few days.

In general, behavioral targeting looks at what an individual user has been doing, using cookies to track their activity across the web. The results can be effective, but they can also be downright creepy — and they sometimes run afoul of privacy regulations.

Contextual advertising doesn’t look at the behavior of the individual user, but at the content and context of the destination. It’s an intelligent way to serve up ads that provide many of the same benefits as targeted behavioral advertising, but without the privacy concerns or potential for inaccuracies. For example, behavioral targeting may assume that because someone is visiting a parenting site, they must be female identifying and between the ages of 25 and 45. However, it doesn’t account for the fact that the person could just be visiting the site to order a gift for someone else.

Types of contextual advertising

Contextual advertising uses a range of context factors to determine what the ad should be about. But what do these ads look like?

It depends on the medium or type.

For example, consider a car ad shown in February. You can use the location context to customize an ad creative so it resonates with a reader. If the viewer is in Michigan, the car will have snow tires and be pictured driving over snowy terrain. But if the viewer is in Florida, the car may have the top down with a surfboard sticking out of the trunk. 

Most of the typical internet ad formats can support contextual advertising. Here’s how it looks across four common digital advertising methods.

Text-based contextual advertising

Text-based ads are ads that rely on words alone (or nearly so) to get the message across. These include:

• Paid search ads (the listed results are text-dependent)
• Google Ads (dynamic, auto-formatted text ads that appear across the web)
• Ad-oriented chatbots

Each of these ad formats can work in contextual advertising settings.

Image-based contextual advertising

Image-based banner ads are arguably the most familiar ad format online, and these are a very popular choice for contextual advertising. The sorts of pages that most naturally support banner ads (blog posts, articles, etc.) offer up a trove of contextual information — and there has been a lot of tech development to ensure brand safety.

For example, an article on the best fiction books of 2023 is a great place for contextual ads on e-readers, reading glasses, reading lights, and so on.

Video contextual advertising

The ads populating YouTube are very often contextual: they have something to do with the video topic rather than whatever you were searching for online yesterday.

In-game contextual advertising

Video games that serve up ads can also use contextual advertising. For example, if you play a Sudoku or solitaire game that has ads, you probably get ads for other puzzle and card games. And if you play it on your iPhone, chances are those ads will be for iPhone apps available on the Apple App Store (not Android or PC exclusives).

Benefits of contextual advertising

So why are businesses gravitating toward contextual advertising over other approaches? Because contextual advertising gets results.

Consider these five powerful benefits businesses that advertise online can enjoy when they use contextual advertising strategies.

Better user privacy

First, contextual advertising doesn’t require cookies or personal information to be effective, so it’s capable of delivering a better user privacy experience.

This is a benefit in the abstract, but it has real-world implications as well: With GDPR classifying the data contained in cookies (a requirement for behavioral advertising) as personal information, managing user data is more complex than it used to be, and significant fines aren’t unheard of for businesses that get it wrong.

Improved targeting

Contextual ads are almost always relevant: The sites you might visit to learn how to fix a television are perfect destinations for big-screen TV ads. And once you’re done with your repair, you’re done seeing TV-related ads.

That’s the consumer perspective, but the business side isn’t that hard to work out: better targeting means better results.

Increased engagement rates

Some percentage of behavioral targeting ads are 100% irrelevant. Irrelevance occurs when:

• The person has already bought the item in question
• The behavior being targeted wasn’t actually related to a user’s needs (the ads from your work search history rarely lead to purchases at home)
• An otherwise-relevant ad shows up in a jarring location (even though I use CRM software and enjoy playing solitaire, I’m not likely to buy CRM software while playing Solitaire on my phone, nor am I likely to buy Solitaire Ultra Deluxe while using a CRM)

Simply put, contextual ads don’t have this problem nearly as often because they relate to the context of the page where they appear, they nearly always make sense.

It doesn’t exactly take a panel of experts to conclude that ads that make sense to the user’s context at a moment in time get more engagement than ads that don’t. But as it happens, the experts (and their research) agree: One detailed study found 43% more neural engagement with contextually relevant ads. Not only that, people were more than twice as likely to remember the content of the ad!

Enhanced user experience

Not only is contextual advertising a privacy win in terms of compliance with ever-evolving privacy regulations, but it also offers a better user experience. Despite how effective behavioral targeting can be, a significant slice of end users do not like it — and people are becoming more aware of it.

Startpage found that 42% of American users felt uncomfortable when they noticed receiving ads targeting specific behavior or traits.

In contrast, contextual advertising simply places ads relevant to the content the user is viewing. These ads are often just as relevant, and (as we noted above) people tend to accept them more easily because they make logical sense where they are. A smoother, less jarring user experience free of friction and dissonance is simply better for users. 

How to get started in contextual advertising

We’ve described how contextual advertising works in relatively simple terms because the concepts themselves are pretty simple. Any human could easily look at an article or page, determine what it’s about, and assign contextually relevant ads.

But humans aren’t doing this work manually (imagine the scale or sheer number of workers that would take!). Instead, digital systems must evaluate website content (and other factors) in real-time. So while understanding contextual advertising is pretty simple, actually executing it is a bit more complex.

Here’s how it works.

Contextual advertising relies on  several types of contextual signals that will have a direct impact on the user experience. These signals can include content and images to see if they are relevant to a brand and meet their brand safety standards. 

Importantly, it can also include IP address intelligence data — which can give us very useful information like the user’s location, device type and connection speed. The systems that make this happen are algorithm-driven and AI-infused, and they rely on techniques to refine this work and approach human-like levels of decision-making (only much, much faster).

It’s not the sort of thing that usually happens in-house.

Most businesses getting started in contextual advertising will rely on a partner that focuses on this discipline. The business needs to develop the ad campaigns and the associated landing pages (for best results, those personalized ads need to land on equally personalized landing pages), but usually the third-party ad partner handles the contextual placement.

Establish an effective contextual advertising strategy with Digital Element

Contextual advertising makes sense for just about any brand or business that devotes some of its marketing budget to online advertising. Using geo-location data can help brands create more personalized ads based on non-invasive information like weather or local language.

But building an effective contextual advertising strategy comes with upfront technical questions, including a big one: Where will you get the data to inform your contextual decisions?

Digital Element is the leading provider of geolocation and ad targeting data, giving you key data insights about your audience that can fuel both your contextual advertising strategy and your broader marketing analytics.

Learn more how Digital Element can help you understand your audience better and benefit your contextual advertising campaigns.

The world of mobile marketing is constantly evolving, with businesses always looking for new and innovative ways to reach their target audience.

One such approach that has gained significant traction in recent years is location-based advertising. For example, by targeting via IP address intelligence data, businesses can know whether a user is a New Yorker and not allowed to use a gambling app for New Jersey residents.  

In this article, we’ll look closer at location-based advertising, explore some of its benefits and challenges, and highlight real-world examples of companies successfully utilizing this marketing strategy. Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or just starting, read on to discover the next frontier in mobile marketing.

Types of location-based advertising

Let’s face it; we’re moving toward a mobile-first environment. Location-based advertising has become a powerful tool for businesses looking to connect with their customers more personally. Several types of location-based advertising are available, each with unique advantages and use cases.

Geotargeting

Geotargeting targets users based on their geographic location. This technology utilizes IP addresses to determine a user’s location, allowing businesses to deliver ads tailored to that location.

Use cases for Geotargeting

• Businesses can offer promotions and deals to users within a certain radius of their physical store. This is a great way to drive foot traffic and increase sales.
• Brands can target users attending a specific event or festival and offer exclusive deals or promotions.
• Using geotargeting, businesses can personalize their messaging to specific regions or cities, making their ads more relevant.

Geofencing

Geofencing is a strategy that involves setting up a virtual perimeter around a specific geographic location. This boundary is designed to trigger a notification or message to users as they enter or exit it.

The technology behind geofencing relies on GPS or RFID to determine a user’s precise location, allowing businesses to deliver targeted and relevant advertising messages to their audience. With geofencing, companies can effectively target consumers within a specific geographical area, enabling them to deliver tailored and personalized messages more likely to resonate with their audience, even through their mobile apps.

Use cases for geofencing

• Businesses can use geofencing to deliver ads to users in a specific location, such as a mall or a park. This can be particularly effective for businesses targeting users likely to be interested in their products or services.
• Businesses can use geofencing to offer tips or promotions to users who enter their store or location. This can greatly incentivize customers to visit a business and increase foot traffic and potential customers.

Mobile targeting

Mobile targeting involves targeting users based on their device’s location data. This type of advertising uses GPS data or IP addresses to track a user’s location and deliver relevant ads to them. Mobile targeting can be done in real time, allowing advertisers to send targeted messages to users based on the site.

Use cases for mobile targeting

• Restaurants can use mobile targeting to reach nearby users and send them promotions or special offers through push notifications.
• Retail stores can use mobile targeting to send personalized messages to users near their stores, encouraging them to visit and purchase.
• Hotels can use mobile targeting to reach users in the area and promote special deals or discounts on room rates.

For more information on Mobile Targeting, check out our upcoming post: “Mobile Targeting: The Future of Location-Based advertising“

Geo-conquesting

Geo-conquesting is a location-based advertising approach that targets users near a competitor’s business location. Using geolocation data, businesses can identify users visiting a competitor’s store and send targeted messages to entice them to switch to their brand. This type of advertising can effectively attract customers already in the market for a product or service.

Use cases for geo-conquesting

• Fast-food chains can target customers near a competitor’s location with a promotion or discount offer to entice them to visit their restaurant instead.
• Car dealerships can target people visiting a competitor’s location and offer them a test drive of a similar car model with a better financing option.
• Hotels can target people staying at a nearby competitor’s property and offer them a discount or upgrade to switch to their hotel.

Best practices for launching a location-based advertising campaign

To successfully launch a location-based advertising campaign, there are certain best practices that marketers need to follow. These practices help businesses better understand their target audience and create personalized messaging that resonates with them.

This section will discuss some of the most effective best practices for launching a location-based advertising campaign.

1. Understand your target audience and create a plan

The first step in launching a successful location-based advertising campaign is understanding your target audience. This means researching to gather data on their behavior, preferences, and habits. 

Once you understand your target audience, you can create a plan tailored to their needs and interests. This may involve using different types of location-based advertising, such as geotargeting or geofencing, depending on the preferences of your target audience.

2. Tell a story by using personalized messaging

Personalized messaging is a powerful tool for creating an emotional connection with your target audience. Using customized messaging, you can tell a story that resonates with your target audience, encourages them to act, and, more importantly, build trust. This may involve using location-specific languages, such as referencing nearby landmarks or events, to make your messaging more relevant and relatable.

3. AB test campaigns

AB split testing is a common practice in digital marketing that involves testing two different campaign versions to see which performs better. This can be especially effective when launching a location-based advertising campaign. It allows you to try different messaging or other targeting options to see which resonates best with your target audience. 

Always split-testing your campaigns can optimize your results and ensure you get the most out of your advertising budget.

4. Make sure ads aren’t disputing user experience

Guaranteeing that ads don’t disrupt the user experience is a critical best practice when launching a location-based advertising campaign. Intrusive ads can annoy users and negatively impact their mobile experience, potentially decreasing customer engagement, brand awareness, and ad spend.

To prevent this, it’s essential to consider the frequency and timing of your ads and the content and format. For example, it’s best to avoid ads that pop up suddenly and cover the entire screen, which can be particularly annoying.

Instead, opt-in for less intrusive formats such as banner ads or native ads that blend in with the app or website’s content. By contextualizing your digital advertising, you can create a positive customer experience that promotes local businesses and supports your location-based marketing strategy.

5. Collect proper location data

Accurate location data is crucial to the success of a location-based advertising campaign. To collect valuable location data, ensure that your app or website is set up to track user location data accurately. You can do this with GPS, Wi-Fi, and cellular data. Obtaining the user’s permission before collecting data is vital to ensure you comply with privacy regulations.

6. Analyze and adjust the budget according to performance

After launching a location-based advertising campaign, regularly analyze and adjust your budget according to performance. This involves tracking metrics such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and ROI to determine the effectiveness of your campaign. 

Based on these metrics, you can adjust your budget and optimize your ad targeting to improve performance. For example, if you find that specific locations or demographics are responding particularly well to your ads, you can allocate more of your budget toward targeting those areas or audiences.

Best location-based advertising tools

As location-based advertising grows in popularity, businesses need the right tools to target their audience effectively. This section will introduce some of the best location-based advertising tools available today.

Digital Element

Digital Element is a geolocation technology provider that enables businesses to determine a user’s location based on their IP address. Our tool is excellent for location-based advertising because it allows businesses to create personalized content and targeted ads based on a user’s location. 

Digital Element’s technology is highly accurate and provides real-time data, making us a valuable asset for businesses looking to launch location-based advertising campaigns.

Ready to take your location-based advertising campaigns to the next level? Don’t miss the opportunity to enhance your marketing strategy and drive more conversions: Browse our website and discover how our innovative tools can help you reach your target audience precisely and effectively! 

Semrush

Semrush is a marketing toolkit that includes features for location-based advertising, among other tools. It gives businesses insights into their target audience‘s online behavior and helps them create effective marketing campaigns. 

Semrush allows companies to track their competitors’ online presence and monitor their performance, making it a valuable tool for businesses looking to launch successful location-based advertising campaigns.

Semrush’s location-based advertising features allow businesses to track their local search rankings, monitor local reviews, and analyze their competitors’ local SEO strategies.

HYP3R

HYP3R is a location-based marketing platform that enables businesses to engage with consumers in real time by leveraging location data from social media. The tool allows marketers to track and analyze customer behavior, gather insights, and target specific audiences based on their location and social media activity.

Flame analytics

Flame analytics is a location-based analytics tool that helps businesses understand customer behavior and optimize their marketing strategies. The agency provides real-time data on foot traffic, dwell time, and customer demographics, allowing companies to tailor their messaging and offerings to their target audience.

Uncover 40+ data points to refine location-based advertising with Digital Element

Digital Element is a powerful tool for location-based advertising that offers over 40 data points to refine ad targeting. With our data, marketers can improve the accuracy of their campaigns, boost engagement rates, and ultimately drive conversions.

By leveraging various techniques and tools, marketers can use Digital Element to create highly targeted and personalized campaigns that resonate with consumers on a deep level. With the right approach, businesses can unlock tremendous value from location-based advertising efforts and succeed.

To learn more about how Digital Element can help you optimize your location-based advertising campaigns, browse our website today.