10 Ways Geo-Targeting Can Advance Your Marketing Campaign

Published in

Trapica

7 min readSep 30, 2019

If you’re still trying to reach out to as many people as possible at any one time, you’re doing marketing wrong. The days of this mentality are over, and we’re in a new era. Rather than producing a TV ad and hoping that a handful of people react, technology has enabled us to really refine our marketing efforts.

In order to improve performance with marketing, there are many things we can do. Today, we want to talk about geo-targeting and how this allows us to boost ROI!

What’s Geo-Targeting?

Before anything else, you might be sitting with a confused face. If this is the case, allow us to explain. Essentially, the term geo-targeting describes the process of reaching out to consumers with content based on their geographic location. This is implemented in different ways

By city or zip code
By device ID or IP address
Through geofencing, GPS signals, and other granular techniques

For audience discovery, using geographical targeting patterns is proving to be a popular option and we’re about to see why.

Benefits of Implementing Geo-Targeting for Marketing

These days, marketing strategies are probably more complex than ever before. With this in mind, you might be wondering why you should even consider another aspect to your own strategy. Here are some benefits of choosing geo-targeting;

Boost Local SEO — Did you know that 33% of all mobile searches are local-related? Also, the way that people are searching is changing. Previously, we would ask Google for the ‘weather in North Carolina’. Now, we ask if it will rain without even mentioning a location while expecting Google to know automatically.

By spending time and money on geo-targeting, your local SEO benefits and you can be the link that shows. Whether you’re a hair salon or a tailor, people will come across your brand when they search. As well as following geographical targeting patterns, you should set up specific landing pages too.

More Efficient Keyword Strategies — Let’s stick with the idea of a hair salon, using the phrase ‘hair salon’ will pit your business against thousands of other services in each search. By changing this to ‘hair salon in Mayflower Village’, the demand for such a keyword will be lower and you’ll pay less for each click.

While on the topic of lowering the cost of campaigns, it’s possible to improve performance with social media. As you narrow the audience, results will be stronger compared to pushing your name into a wider group of people. In terms of audience discovery, you’re actually finding high-quality leads.

Increase Quality with Traffic — As the third benefit of implementing geo-targeting, more local people will find your service, and this should increase conversion rates. Over time, the ROI improves and the whole business benefits. Bounce rates reduce, visitors get value from the website, and Google sends a reward in the shape of a higher ranking.

10 Ways to Get Started Today

Now you’re an expert in geo-targeting, we should look at how you can actually start today. Depending on your business, audience, budget, and other factors, you can decide which of these tactics are appropriate now and which can be implemented later.

1. Set Up Local Ads

As long as you understand your target audience, why not aim all ads towards their location? If you have a small store and only serve a limited community, there’s no point sending ads to the other side of the country. Instead, use geo-targeting and only spend your money on those likely to visit.

As we saw earlier, there are different ways to target a particular location. While some platforms and tools will allow you to type a zip code, others will let you creatively draw boundaries. Now, you aren’t wasting any money on campaigns.

2. Join a Community

Too often, we find companies working alone when they actually have plenty of opportunities to work with others. Let’s go back to the hair salon; you could try to make a name for yourself alone. Or, you could team up with local coffee shops, and offer discounts to all those who bring in a receipt for a coffee. On the flip side, a receipt from their hair appointment will earn them a discount on coffee.

From here, all you’ve got to do is push an email campaign to the local area and the results will come in. There are several benefits to this method -

You grow alongside other businesses
Brand exposure increases
Both businesses are a welcome addition to the community

3. Use Analytics Tools

Where does your traffic originate? Thanks to geo-targeting and improvements in this whole area, analytics tools can provide more detailed information than we could only imagine twenty years ago. Of course, Google Analytics is an obvious example.

How can you set up campaigns without knowledge of your audience? The more you learn and use analytics tools, the more precise your campaign. Over time, keep tabs on different metrics and continually boost the efficiency of your strategies.

4. Try Multiple Social Media Pages

We aren’t talking about a profile on Twitter and a profile on Facebook, we’re saying there’s an opportunity to set up profiles for each location. If you look at the largest companies, they differentiate between locations. Why? Because they know that each is unique.

If you’re a small, local business, this may not be useful. If you’re an e-commerce brand and sell all over the world, you could be onto a winning strategy. For those in the UK, they don’t resonate to the same content as those in the US. Why try to do everything on one profile when you can specialize?

All of a sudden, your UK page can concentrate on UK customers while the US page offers content important to the US audience.

Warning: In some cases, this can cause more confusion than anything else so run some tests. If multiple profiles mess with your brand message or image, stick with the one.

5. Introduce New Landing Pages

In addition to personalized social media accounts, we also recommend custom landing pages. These days, customers are striving for connections with brands and this comes with landing pages for different locations.

For each one, use some images that will resonate with the individual. Once you adjust the information, it really feels as though you’re speaking to that specific location rather than having one generalized website for the whole country.

6. Location-Specific Content

Starting a social media account and creating a landing page for a location is one thing, following through and showing you care with content is something different altogether. With content that speaks to people through their location, this shows that you enjoy being part of the community and aren’t just ‘another business’.

For franchises especially, using location in content is important. Sometimes, it feels as though large companies have landed in towns and villages almost accidentally. Show you care and that you’re passionate about the community with location-based content.

7. Provide Location Options

What happens when somebody from a specific area is away from home? In this case, there’s nothing wrong with offering the user choice. They may be a couple of hours away from home, they may be in a different state, but giving them the option to choose a location allows them to have the experience they seek. Even when looking up opening times and other information, they’re customizing their experience.

8. Segmentation

As part of the audience discovery process, we often find businesses targeting through gender, age, and income. Wouldn’t it be easier to understand the cities that suit these demographics before then enhancing your campaigns? Whenever you add location, segmentation in marketing becomes even more effective and you’re more likely to reach out to those who need you.

9. Get Involved in Local Events

This is one of our favorites, and it requires you to pay attention to local events. If you produce a monthly newsletter, cater the content to what’s going on in the community. If a summer fair is coming up, you can talk about the best stalls from the year before. If there’s an antique event, you include a guide on spotting rare items and fakes. Once you do this, you’re in the community and you’re also a reliable source of information.

10. Offer a General Landing Page

We’ve focused heavily on all the things you can do after recognizing geographical targeting patterns to improve performance in marketing, but not everything has to be geography-based. On your website, have a non-location-based landing page so visitors can learn everything they need about your brand. From here, they can refine their experience by choosing a location.