It would be difficult to find someone in the world right now without a smartphone. You might consider a phone to be the fourth basic need after food, water, and shelter. The number of people with smartphones is expected to reach 3.8 billion in 2021. Mobile advertisements have taken over the marketing world. Advertising on a mobile device makes up 65% of total internet advertising revenues. Mobile ad campaigns are new, exciting, and can be a waste of money if mismanaged.
Marketers today have to adjust to these new opportunities using a variety of options. One of the most popular categories today is location-based advertising. The location-based service is based on where your consumers are located geographically. From there, you can customize your messages based on weather, transport, time, nearby stores, and any number of variables. You’re able to see how customers behave and how they react to specific advertisements. While this may have business owners salivating at the mouth, it can quickly turn into a money pit.
The dominance of Mobile Ads.
Mobile advertising comes in many different forms. It can be a banner on a website, or an interactive screen between mobile game levels. These can be targeted ads focusing on demographic, age, gender, and of course, location. The benefits of this include cost effectiveness, consumer relations, and increased engagement. The worldwide digital ad spending will have increased by 17.6% to $333.25 billion in 2019.
There are several advantages to mobile advertisements, including the following:
- It is cost-efficient for companies. It pales in comparison to TV and Radio ads. This means marketers have more room to explore different opportunities.
- You can personalize your advertisements. Consumers can even tailor their own ads. They have the ability to suggest what brands they would like to see
- There’s no limit on creative means. You have an overabundance of options. From interactive screens to colorful banners, your advertisement has the ability to stand out.
- Tap into location and Geo-Targeting. This is the new age of advertising. When you can pinpoint where your customers are, you can tap into spending habits. A timely placed ad could turn a customer away from a competitor and onto your doorsteps.
There are several decisions to be made regarding your mobile ad campaign. What form of communication will you be using? Are you planning on creating a video or is a banner more likely to succeed? How long will the advertisement run? What devices are you using? These are essential questions that need to be addressed before any campaign begins.
You should analyze your target audience and consider what advertisement is going to be the most effective. You will save yourself time and money if you choose to study and research your campaign before dumping money into it. It’s important to understand the fundamentals of mobile advertising before jumping into an location-based advertising campaign. You can’t play basketball if you didn’t learn how to dribble. Think of location-based advertising as a sub-category to mobile marketing.
The variety of location-based techniques
When beginning an advertisement campaign, you should consider your choices carefully. While every opportunity will present a different set of parameters, there are five main categories to location-based advertising.
- Geo-Aware Targeting – The origin of location-based advertising, geo-aware has been around since 2010. Using data from a mobile provider, you can target individuals within the vicinity of your choosing. This is the most broad option of the five, but can be profitable if leveraged correctly.
- Geo-Fencing – Using longitude and latitude coordinates, a virtual fence is created around consumers. This can be used within shopping complexes or high-traffic areas to drive customers to your store.
- Geo-Conquesting – Geo-Conquesting is the act of reaching out to users while they are in or around your competitor’s store. It is designed to take the customers right out of your competitors hand.
- Place-Based Targeting – These types of location-based advertising campaigns are based on a specific time and place. These ads could be leveraged during a soccer match, or a political convention. You’re able to target prospects and offer an exclusive coupons or discounts depending on the situation.
- Hyper-Contextual Targeting – This is where the rubber meets the road. With hyper-contextual campaigns, you can pinpoint your ads directly to consumers under specific circumstances. Perhaps an area of your city is prone to flooding. An insurance group can send out a banner ad to a 5-mile radius affected. It only appears when it begins to storm. Add a call to action such as “tap-to-call” and you have a winner.
Each choice presents a distinct opportunity to reach a different crowd. You should consider your budget for advertisements and what you want to accomplish with each ad. Your campaign should be monitored and tracked. If you can’t collect data and metrics from your plan, you will lose money. If you work with an agency, you should be receiving reports and tracking the number of calls, bookings, and leads you receive from your campaign.
Who needs Location-Based Advertising?
If you’re reading this and own a small-to-medium sized business, there is no reason you shouldn’t be jumping on this opportunity with both feet in. This is the California Gold Rush of Marketing, but instead of pandering for gold, you’re selling the shovels to the prospectors. Any size business can thrive with location-based advertising, but it can be especially useful for brick-and-mortar shops. Perhaps you own a restaurant next to a stadium. You need to attract as many people as possible to your establishment as possible. This is a perfect time to offer them a discount for their meal. You could own a bakery and see that a competitor has recently opened up a few blocks away. This would be a perfect time to remind customers in the area of your award-winning soufflé. There is no better time to get into Location-Based Advertising than now.