Geolocation marketing is a technique that delivers personalized content to customers based on their current physical location. Businesses can locate users accurately and provide them with contextually relevant messages, promotions, or advertisements. While geolocation marketing is an innovative technique, it does have its downsides. Be aware of the common mistakes and take appropriate measures to avoid them.

Types of Geolocation Marketing

Geotargeting

Websites commonly utilize geolocation marketing to customize the content shown to their users. With the use of IP geolocation data, websites can geolocate user’s current location from their IP address. Armed with the location data, online merchants can curate content to increase relevance to the website visitors.

Ads and promotions geotargeted to the user’s region can be more relevant than untargeted marketing. Not only does this improve user engagement, it can potentially boost the sales conversion as products and services shown are highly relevant to the viewer.

Ideal to use for:

• People who live or travel to a specific region.
• Users with additional data available, such as preferences or demographic information.

Geofencing

Geofencing function similarly to a physical fence, in that it will limit access to persons inside the fenced area. The difference is that the geofencing works based on the detected geolocation of the user. Users may be geolocated by the use of GPS, RFID, Wi-FI or cellular data.

It allows the triggering of predefined actions, such as sending notifications or promotions, whenever users enter or exit the designated area.

Ideal to use for:

• Discovering customers who are nearby your store, venue, or service.

Beacon Technology

Beacon technology utilizes Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons to detect nearby devices. People always have their mobile phones with them, frequently with the Bluetooth turned on. Merchants can capitalize on this in a retail setting to deliver personalized offers to customers in close proximity.

Ideal to use for:

• Targeting users who are in specific areas of your store.
• Users traveling on a particular bus or train.

Geolocation Marketing Mistakes & How to Solve Them

Inaccurate Targeting

Geolocation data is not perfect as there are elements of inaccuracies or margin of error involved. By relying on inaccurate geolocation data, this can lead to the delivery of irrelevant content to users.

A good example would be online ad platforms. Ad platforms often use IP addresses to determine a user’s location. Users may have locations that differ from the ones indicated by their IP addresses.

When that happens, merchants may send unrelated ads to people who don’t live in that geolocated area. A waste of a marketing opportunity, not to mention the cost involved for the ads shown.

In addition, VPN users might have an IP address that does not correspond to their actual location. This is unfortunately quite common as people try to avoid being tracked for marketing purposes.

How to avoid:

• Regularly update geolocation databases to ensure accuracy.
• Test geotargeting tools and services before full-scale implementation.
• Use reliable sources for location data to enhance precision in targeting.
• A highly reliable geolocation data source is IP2Location.com.

Data Analysis Failures

Collecting geolocation data without a robust analysis of the geolocation data with regards to sales conversions, will lead to missed opportunities for campaign optimization.

Geotargeting campaigns can yield valuable information about your customer base. By aggregating sales and marketing data enriched with geolocation info, marketing analyst can determine where and when to focus marketing efforts.

By analyzing the site analytics data, marketers can gain a deeper understanding of the audience’s needs and preferences.

How to avoid:

• Regularly review and analyze the performance of geo targeted campaigns.
• Pay attention to user behavior and engagement metrics.
• Utilize insights gained from data analysis to optimize geolocation marketing efforts.
• Implement A/B testing to assess the effectiveness of different geolocation strategies.

User Experience Neglect

Failing to optimize content for different devices like mobile, leading to a poor user experience.

How to avoid:

• Ensure that websites, landing pages, and advertisements are responsive.
• Optimize load times to accommodate users on mobile devices.

Ads Overwhelming

Overwhelming users with an excess of geolocation-based ads can lead to irritation and a negative perception of your brand. Prompt customers to disengage or opt out of location-based services.

How to avoid:

• Use frequency capping to control the number of ads within a specific timeframe.
• Determine the optimal frequency for marketing campaigns based on user engagement.

Limited Scalability Targeting

Implementing geolocation targeting in areas with limited scalability may lead to a restricted reach and suboptimal return on investment. Some areas may not be conducive to growth. Insufficient foot traffic or the market is too specialized for the region in question.

How to avoid:

• Prioritize areas where the target audience is concentrated and scalability is feasible.
• Utilize data analytics to identify regions with higher user density and growth potential.
• Concentrate resources in these areas to maximize the impact of your campaigns.

Lack of Specificity

Employing poorly defined geolocation targeting criteria can result in ineffective campaigns, as messages may not resonate with the intended audience. If your business caters to local customers then narrow down your audience. Ads can effectively target customers while still reaching a wider audience.

How to avoid:

• Combine specific demographics, interests, or behaviors with location data to craft highly targeted campaigns.
• Tailor messages to align with the preferences and needs of the local audience.

Conclusion

By addressing these common mistakes and implementing strategic solutions, businesses can enhance the impact and efficiency of their geolocation marketing campaigns.

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