What is Geofencing Marketing? 

Facebook advertising is built to drive success for businesses. A major piece of what makes advertising on Facebook such a powerful digital marketing tool is the platform’s targeting capabilities. More specifically – Location-based targeting.

Geofencing marketing, or geofencing targeting, is a form of location-based targeting where advertisers build a “fence” around a geographic location and target users that enter that area. This means that you create the ad you want, and Facebook will then place it on the feed of users located in the targeted geographic circle. For franchise brands, this is marketing gold! When a brick-and-mortar franchise business expands to a new location, for example, it can be challenging to effectively engage with the community, stay ahead of local competitors, or boost foot traffic. Thanks to geofencing marketing, franchise brands can use Facebook advertising as a secret weapon to reach a local target audience in a way that’s efficient, timely, and effective.

Why You Need Geofencing Advertising For a Localized Marketing Strategy  

Advertisers could create the perfect ad with a compelling graphic and genius ad copy, but how effective will that be if you can’t place it in front of people that will actually convert? With geofencing, you can target customers within a circumference as close as one mile of the desired location. Enter a ZIP code, town, state, or get specific & use a complete address!

One of the great benefits of this marketing technique is that, even with a hyper-focus on targeting a specific geographic area, this doesn’t mean you’ll be missing the opportunity to have your ads seen by users outside of the targeted area. Facebook still shows your ads to users who are not within the targeted virtual boundaries, as long as they are interested in your product or service.

Here are 3 of the primary benefits of geofencing marketing: 

#1 Build a stronger connection with local audiences: The right time and place mean everything when it comes to Facebook ads. Ensure your brand is front of mind for people in the geographic area.

#2 Boost in-store foot traffic & local sales: Encourage the local community to visit your franchise location and make purchases by using your ads to promote discount offers or promo codes. 

#3 Target competitor’s customers: Take the attention away from your local competitors and build your geofence around the competition to draw more customers.

Targeting Strategies to Spark Ideas

Competitor’s Locations Near Your Local Business: Here’s a chance to let your competitive side shine. Target the geographic area between your location and a nearby competitor to win over any customers lost to the competition. 

Specific Buildings: Work smarter, not harder! Reach a wide audience while building a geofence around a small area such as targeting apartment buildings/residential communities, large hotels, event venues, etc.

Nearby Street or Areas of a Highway: This comes in handy if your business is located near a highway or busy street because you can target an area at a greater distance away from your location and still reach a wide audience efficiently. 

Colleges and Universities: If it makes sense for your brand and correlates with your target demographic, play around with targeting a college or university campus and the surrounding communities.

Sports or Music Events: Keep an eye out for sports, music, or even trade events that relate to your industry, and target the event venues where potential customers could be located.

Geofencing Marketing Tips & Best Practices

Do Your Research

As with any marketing campaign, for geofencing marketing to work properly, you need to first know your target demographic – Gender, age, interests, consumer behavior, all of it. Once you’ve identified who you are targeting, then you can start strategizing where you are targeting, starting with the ideas we just covered above!

Track Your Success

It’ll be difficult to grow if you just set it and forget it. Every business is different so it’s crucial to track the performance of your geofencing marketing campaigns, measure the effectiveness, and optimize as needed to maximize results. Start by focusing on metrics such as:

• Click-Thru Rate
• Cost Per Click
• Impressions or Ad Views

Choose a Call-To-Action Wisely

When building your ad, it’s typically best practice to use a call-to-action (CTA) that promotes immediate action. Lead generation ads use CTAs that direct users to a lead form and web traffic ads direct users to a designated landing page! According to Reveal Mobile, here are a few of the top-performing CTAs for geofencing marketing:

• Order now
• Click to save
• Call now
• Shop online

Wrapping It Up

The key to success for franchise social media marketing is all about the right message at the right time. Geofencing marketing on Facebook allows franchise brands to do exactly that! Create an ad designed to meet your business’s objectives and place those ads in the perfect location to drive the results you want. 

How will you implement geofencing marketing into your Facebook advertising strategy? If you want any help, give us a call!