Real Life Examples of Geotargeting
opens IMAGE file In today’s world, most people know what geotargeting is not by definition but by experience. It’s not something that’s often discussed but it’s something that affects almost every person every day. That is, every person who has a smart product. Geotargeting is that half off before 4 pm coupon you get on your phone when you walk by Starbucks. Geotargeting is also that notification from a local restaurant offering a free drink before 5pm. It is essentially a marketing tool that focuses on a select target audience by tracking people’s location. It a means of advertising that has taken the world by storm.
After this brief explanation, you may have a slightly better idea of what geotargeting is than before but here is a list of some real life examples on how companies are geotargeting to people each and every day:
Apple
The company that seems to do it all surely wouldn’t miss out on the opportunity to target to its iPhone users. They use geofences to send people reminders based on relevant locations. Pretty neat, huh?
Apple maps also uses geofences in other ways like giving notifications and traffic updates about certain remembered locations in your phone.
Starbucks
As mentioned above, Starbucks utilizes geotargeting in an enticing way. Geofences are used as a sort of threshold and once someone crosses this threshold or are within a certain proximity to a Starbucks location, they will receive a coupon or discount deal. These deals can easily entice a passerbyer because the person is both close to a location and is receiving a deal on a Starbucks item. We would call that a double whammy!
Upon using this search engine, users may find that after searching a certain product or destination, they will very likely see advertisements on different websites with deals on the product or destination they searched before. Google is remembering the person’s interests and is basically following the user around online with ads relevant to what was searched online.
Snapchat
Snapchat recently took social media by storm with the geotag and the Snapchat live stories that have made the app more exciting. These geotags that resemble a graphic display of either a location or business are then posted on a user’s snapchat or snapchat story. People that use and view snapchats are being advertised to and advertising to others through geotags. Many of the major live Snapchat stories also show clips from big events and can drive traffic or attention to events in an area.
Geotargeting was once seen as invasive but is now seen as an important means of marketing and advertising. As technology and smart products evolve and develop, geotargeting will become an even more popular way to reach consumers in a relevant way.