Geo-fencing and Geo-targeting are taking the marketing world by storm. Have you ever been in a shopping mall, or near your favorite restaurant and a coupon or offer magically appears on your phone or in an email? That is the power of geo-fencing and geo-targeting. It is two of the most powerful methods used to reach a population that could be interested in your business, or someone who has never been to your establishment, but certainly has a reason to stop in now. With this location-based technology, GPS, Wi-Fi or cell phone data can be used to send special offers to customers when they walk or drive near a business’s location. But there is a difference between the two, and when properly set up, the benefits of geo-fencing and geo-targeting can work wonders for your business.

Let’s break it down:

Geo-fencing: Think of the word fence. A fence is a structure that encloses an area. Similar concept with geo-fencing, but with more benefits! Geo-fencing refers to drawing a virtual barrier around a location using users’ IP addresses. From there, ads are sent out based on that specific boundary and appear on a phone, computer or tablet.

• Various locations are used in order to reach an audience that may be interested in a particular offer or service
• Ads are shown to the person inside the geo-fenced radius if they are browsing the web, to alert them of a local deal
• You don’t have to worry about bombarding several users with alerts, because it is based only by who is in that particular fence.
• For a successful geo-fencing campaign to work, a one mile radius minimum is required for a successful targeting campaign.

Geo-targeting refers to delivering ads to people that meet a specific targeting criteria and are inside a defined radius.

• Geo-targeting is based on a user’s interests, behaviors, demographics and off course, location. When building a geo-targeting campaign, you can be very specific and exclude certain areas if you choose to
• It works better for larger geographical audiences because ads can be more specifically defined by demographics and keywords.
• It is the standard targeting strategy implemented by all social media platforms and Google ads.
• It is a very precise marketing tool that could work wonders for marketing, and the user as well.

If you are interested in advertising to a population of all ages and all interests, geo-fencing is perfect for you. If you are only interested in hitting only a specific consumer demographic that is more niche, then you should be doing geo-targeting. For all your marketing plans and assistance, call the professionals at E-Interactive Marketing Solutions.