Geo-Targeting Concept Closeup on Laptop Screen in Modern Office

How Geofencing and Geotargeting Drive Conversions

86% of senior marketers claim creating a cohesive customer journey is critical. By knowing what your customers want and need, you can create a personalized experience for each customer. For that, you need to get inside their heads a little. 

Geotargeting and geofencing can help you market to customers based on where they’re located. These marketing strategies will help you optimize opportunities and drive more conversions for your business. 

By improving your local marketing strategy, you can increase traffic to your business. 

Ready to get started? Keep reading to learn more about geotargeting, geofencing, and how they can help you boost conversions!

Table of Contents

What is Geotargeting?

Geotargeting allows you to deliver focused content to a consumer based on their geographic location. 

Map with a bullseye with a dart in it, reading geotargeting website trafficHow does geotargeting work? It all depends on the device’s IP address and global positioning signals (GPS) to determine the consumer’s location. Every internet-enabled device has its own IP address.

Understanding the customer’s location will make it easier for you to deliver relevant content. 

The first three digits of the IP address convey a country code. The digits that follow indicate specific areas in the country, state, city, and postal code. 

As more people depend on their smartphones instead of desktop devices for information, geotargeting is becoming more crucial. 

Using geotargeting, you can reach users in specific geographic areas. Then, you can focus on specific criteria, including the consumer’s demographics, interests, and buying behaviors. Narrowing your audience down by this precise criteria will help you pinpoint people most likely to become customers. 

As you use geotargeting, you’ll also develop a better understanding of your consumers and their behaviors. You can create content that’s targeted for specific buyer personas, which will make you more likely to drive leads and conversions. 

In addition to content marketing or ads, you can also use geotargeting to deliver emails or push notifications.

The main benefit of geotargeting is your ability to personalize your messaging. Focusing on the people most likely to become customers will save you time and energy. Then, you can hone in on specific consumers and exclude others.

What is Geofencing?

While geotargeting focused on the device’s IP address, geofencing focuses on GP or radio frequency identification (RFID). Then, you can define a specific geographic boundary. With geofencing, you’ll determine a virtual zone that triggers notifications when a mobile device enters that boundary.

Woman looking at a computer with geofencing displayed on the monitorThese triggers can include email alerts, text messages, and app notifications. 

You can include or exclude certain users within the target area based on demographics. Geofencing is ideal if you want to capture all users within a certain area. While it’s similar to geotargeting, geofencing allows you to target consumers with better accuracy. 

For example, a retail store might want to use geofencing to capture shoppers as they walk by the store. 

You can use geofencing to engage customers based on a local location. This marketing strategy is ideal if you want to trigger immediate sales. It’s also a great way to learn more about the consumer’s mindset. 

Any ads that trigger within a geofenced area only display on a device as potential customers are browsing. The ads will display once the consumer enters your geofenced area. These ads will help consumers become aware of local deals or how far they are from your business. 

If the geofence offer doesn’t provoke a lead, it still benefits you. You’ll understand information such as where the consumer was when they received the message. You’ll also learn about when they entered the boundary, which can help you better time ads. 

With geofencing, you can gain valuable information for optimizing your ads.

Geotargeting vs. Geofencing

Cartoon business owner throwing a dart at a targetThere are a few differences between geotargeting and geofencing.

For example, geofencing is better if you want to reach users who live in a certain area. Geofencing, on the other hand, is better for targeting users near your store or venue. With geofencing, the target area becomes smaller. 

Geofencing focuses on users within a 50-meter range. Geotargeting is ideal for a broad, general range, such as a zip code. 

You can narrow down your target audience more with geotargeting. Geofencing is better if you want to focus more on location than demographics.

5 Ways to Increase Your Conversions

50% of customers who conduct a local search will visit that business within one business day. Meanwhile, 18% of local searches lead to a sale within one day of the search. Understanding how consumers search can help you use geotargeting and geofencing to attract people to your business.

Here are five ways you can use both to increase conversions!

1. Match the Language

First, make sure the language for your ads and landing pages match the local language. Matching the language to the visitor’s country of origin will help them better understand your messaging.

2. Match the Currency

If you list prices on your website or in your ads, make sure the price matches the consumer’s country of origin as well. Matching the currency will make it easier for consumers to make buying decisions.

3. Match the Location

You can also use location-specific language to make the message more personalized. For example, if you’re targeting consumers in a specific city, mention the city’s name in your messaging. 

Don’t forget to create well-designed location-based landing pages, too!

4. Match the Message

Effective marketing comes down to the right message at the right time in front of the right person. With geotargeting and geofencing, you can run different campaigns in different locations at the same time. Take the time to experiment!

Test out different ad language and see what better appeals to your target audience. 

You can also test sending traffic to a geo-targeted landing page versus a generic landing page to see which converts better.

5. Match the Visuals

Your visual elements matter as well. Try testing different color combinations and photos. See which appeal to your target audience to optimize conversions. For instance, we ran a two-part worldwide Facebook campaign (sans the U.S., Canada, and parts of Europe) and discovered that there was one specific color that converted better than any other when used as a simple background.

Geofencing & Geotargeting: Drive Conversions Before They Drive By

Don’t let potential customers drive by! Instead, choose the best geofencing and/or geotargeting strategies for your target market to draw them in. Then, you can drive conversions and grow your business!

Ready to get started? Contact us today for a consultation and discover how we can help!

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