Previously in our Geo-Fencing Audience Strategy Series, we discussed why location-based marketing is an essential tactic for advertisers, and how Simpli.fi’s Geo-Fencing solution can help drive a successful customer loyalty marketing strategy. This week, we’ll dive into some of the ways that location-based marketing and Simpli.fi’s Geo-Fencing can help advertisers effectively conquest competitor locations.
Quick Refresh on Why Location-Based Marketing Matters
Have you heard the term “nomophobia”? It refers to an abnormal, irrational fear of being without one’s mobile device, or of being unable to communicate using one’s mobile device. And it’s in the dictionary. This is where we’re at with mobile obsession in our society.
Seven out of ten hours spent with digital media are on mobile devices (ComScore). Consumers are hooked on their smartphones and this obsession, paired with the ability to utilize the devices’ location services via GPS data, presents an abundance of mobile-centric opportunities for advertisers in the form of location-based marketing.
Connecting Location-Based Marketing and Conquesting
Location-based marketing has changed the face of competitor conquesting. In the past, conquesting generally entailed putting an advertisement for one’s products or services next to a competitor’s ad or other competitive-related editorial content in a magazine or other form of print media. Today, thanks to mobile devices and digital ads we have targeting opportunities that yesterday’s marketers could not have dreamed of.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that most people are glued to their mobile devices. According to a KPCB study, smartphone users pull out their phones more than 150 times a day. The next time you’re in a public place, look around and see how many people are on their smart phones. What’s so exciting for marketers is that each of these people can be targeted with digital ads on their mobile device based on their past or present physical locations. Now think about what this means for competitor conquesting.
This is where geo-fencing comes into play. Using Simpli.fi’s localized programmatic platform, advertisers can trace a precise geo-fence around a competitor’s physical location. Ads can then be served to the mobile devices of customers who have been to that location, and thanks to our variable recency, these customers can be targeted with ads from instantly or up to 30 days.
It doesn’t stop there. Wouldn’t you like to be able to gauge the success of your conquesting campaign and the effectiveness of your ads? With Simpli.fi, you can. Our Geo-Fencing with Conversion Zones solution is an award-winning tool for attributing online-to-offline conversions. And by using Simpli.fi’s Geo-Conversion Lift metrics, the advertiser can then determine which foot traffic was naturally converted vs. influenced by an ad. Advertisers get a direct view into how the conquesting campaign is performing, and can optimize throughout the campaign as needed.
Why It Works
The beauty of competitor conquesting is that you are able to target an audience that, by virtue of visiting a competitor’s location, have already expressed interest in something similar to your product or service. Furthermore, you have a good chance of reaching them while they are early in the purchasing cycle giving you the opportunity to take their business away from the competition. And if your competitor is having success bringing in new business, why not take advantage of it? They bring in new prospective customers, and you get to target them with mobile ads.
This is also a perfect opportunity to disrupt your competitors’ efforts and increase your market share by leveraging the power of mobile. Keep in mind that 60% of ads that influence purchasing decisions are viewed on a mobile device. You can target these customers with ads promoting features or benefits that make your product superior, or advertise your own price matching or other marketing efforts. One thing is for sure—you can count on most of these customers having their mobile devices with them when they’re at the targeted location, meaning you’ll having plenty of opportunities to drive your competitor conquesting efforts with mobile ads that can be delivered instantly or up to 30 days after their visit.
Geo-Fencing in Action
When a well-known automotive services brand with thousands of locations across the U.S. needed to run locally targeted campaigns at scale while still achieving delivery and performance goals, they went with Simpli.fi’s localized programmatic platform for their location-based marketing needs. By utilizing Simpli.fi’s Geo-Fencing with Conversion Zones and Geo-Conversion Lift metrics, our client was able to conquest competitor locations and measure how their ads were impacting store visits.
The results speak for themselves. Simpli.fi delivered more than 400,000 total geo-fence conversions from targeted locations over the course of the campaign, and these conversions resulted in a positive 246% surge in incremental store visits as measured using Simpli.fi’s Geo-Conversion Lift metric. For more details, check out the case study here.
The bottom line is, in the age of mobile you should be using location-based marketing to drive your competitor conquesting efforts. Stay tuned for our next post on how Simpli.fi’s Geo-Fencing can help advertisers build custom audiences.