Hyperlocal Mobile Advertising Tips for Business Owners

  • Post category:Mobile Advertising
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  • Post last modified:April 23, 2020

If you have been following our location-based mobile advertising article, you should already have an idea on how to run hyperlocal mobile marketing ads for your business effectively.

In this post, we would like to give you more hyper-local targeting examples, mainly focusing on helping small-to-medium brick and mortar store owners like restaurants, spas, bakeries, salons, and many others. We hope you’ll get inspired with these ideas.

Firstly, let’s take a look at some do’s and don’ts of hyper-local targeting.

hyperlocal advertising for business owners

Location-based Mobile Marketing Know-How

Hyperlocal targeting simply means a way for you to pinpoint your target audience, which is within a specific radius around your business or an area, community or neighborhood, or a particular zip code.

There are a few things you need to know before talking to any advertising agents or mobile rich media vendors.

1. Understand your data source

There are many types of location data. It is important to know the source of location because it impacts the effectiveness of your campaign. Here’s a list of some hyper-local data source. Ensure to check with your vendor.

  • Latitude and longitude data (GPS coordinates) is the most accurate data among all sources for hyper local targeting. This data is collected from consumers who opt-in to provide their GPS coordinates. You can use this information for geofencing, geo-conquesting, or hyper-contextual targeting where you can pinpoint the location down to several blocks radius.
  • IP address (Internet Protocol address) or WiFi location is less accurate compared to GPS location. Use this data for targeting to ZIP code, city or country level. You can use these data do hyper-local targeting based on the physical location and/or location of interest.
  • Beacon data via Bluetooth is mainly for location-aware targeting where the data is sourced real time. Meaning, you will need to set up beacon devices, like iBeacon from Apple, around a certain location you have identified. The beacons are Bluetooth devices that will broadcast Bluetooth signals to mobile consumers who are nearby. This method is typically used for indoor locations like mall or stadium. Upon entering the defined area, you can target your ads to these consumers.

2. Geo-conquesting trumps geo-fencing

Geo conquest, sometimes known as competitive geofence, is similar to geofence but instead of targeting general areas or the radius around your store, you are targeting consumers who are nearby your competitor’s location.

Geo-conquesting campaigns are known to be more effective than typical geofence targeting. According to Howie Schwartz, CEO of Human Demand, when it comes to geo conquest versus geofence campaign, they observed

  • 1.5x more click-through rate
  • 3x higher click-to-call rate
  • 9x higher click-to-map rate

3. Hyperlocal that is too small may backfire

One of the biggest challenges for location-based marketing is defining the target area. Most businesses would focus on a few blocks radius of their store. However, that could go wrong if the addressable target consumers that enter the narrowly defined area are too little. To avoid this, you may want to test out your targeting in batches before spending too much on the entire advertising campaign. Alternatively, you can go for regional or ZIP code targeting.

4. Ad content is vital

Having great hyperlocal targeting is not enough, you have to think mobile and how your target audience behaves when browsing on their mobile devices—small screens, on the go, and short attention span. On top of it, you also have to consider the types of secondary actions you want your consumers to perform. Meaning, after they see your ad, what can they do to take one step closer to buying your products or services.

So ask yourself these:

  • Do I want them to make reservations directly from the ad? —You’ll need a one tap call feature, tap-to-call, so they can quickly call in to make bookings at your restaurant
  • Can my prospects call in to inquire about my services? —Include a tap-to-call to answer their questions regarding your service, which they may upon viewing your ad
  • Do they know where my store is? —Guide them to your store with a map and store locator
  • What else can I offer my target consumers that will increase my chances of converting them? —Think coupon giveaways, promo competition, etc.

Other rich media components you may need are:

  • Video: A 15 to 30 seconds compelling video to attract your target
  • Product Images: One of the important criteria for fashion retailers or restaurants, where the photos of your product speak louder than a thousand words.
  • Social Media Feeds: Data shows that 67% of consumers are influenced by online reviews (source: www.moz.com).

These are just the highlights of the importance of rich media features you need to consider for your ad content. To learn more, here’s an article on rich media ads examples.

5. Think beyond the location, think people and context

Location matters in ways like how the physical location changes the intent of your consumers. However, if you take a step further and focus on the people and the context, your success rate to convert them increases. Users emotional and motivation factors will influence their actions, i.e. weather and time of the day. For instance, it’s raining outside early in the morning and your target consumer is in the vicinity of your cafe. An ad that displays the image of your warm cozy cafe offering hot steaming coffee will likely bring them into your cafe. Now, imagine pushing this ad to your consumer on a hot late evening. How likely will you visit the cafe if you see the same ad in such environment and at that time of the day?

To wrap it up…

If you wish to reach out to your audience in a specific or nearby radius, location-based targeting is your best bet. Hyperlocal mobile advertising can be very useful for any brick and mortar local business when applied correctly. Thanks to improved targeting technology, increased mobile users, and enhanced measurement system, you can now easily market your offerings to the right audience, at the right time, with the right geo-targeting tactics using compelling rich media content.

If you’ve ever run any hyperlocal mobile marketing in the past, share with us your experience by leaving your comments below. Else, you could reach out to a mobile advertising platform or email to [email protected] to learn how you can get started today.

Additional Resources:
What is O2O Marketing?
– Online-to-Offline (O2O) Strategies to Grow your Retail Business
– O2O Commerce: The Challenges of an Online-to_Offline Business

 

Alvin

Alvin is the Founder and CEO of MobileAds.com. He is a go-getter, and adventurous guy who believes in working smart to gain success in his business ventures and in life. He also founded RichMediaAds.com and MobileLanders.com.