In one of our previous posts we discussed why campaigns with one objective and straightforward targeting perform better, but with so many options, how can you know which is best for your brand?
When running drive-to-store campaigns, the main targeting decision you’ll have to make is whether you want to use location-based targeting or use aggregated audience data to find your audience. Although both options can result in a successful campaign, some product categories show more affinity with one or the other.
When to use real-time location targeting
Real-time location targeting, also called proximity targeting, consists of targeting users who are in a pre-defined location at a specific point in time. The most common way to identify the target location is using a radius around coordinates, but using our drive-to-store platform Fusio you can also target people within a certain walking or driving time from your store or areas with high affinity to your specific point of sale (Psst! We wrote a whole article about rediscovering your catchment area using location targeting).
Real-time location can also be used for hyper-location targeting, where a tight radius of 30M can be set around a very concrete POI, to be used for spot targeting like users at bus stops to do an OOH ad amplification.
Taking into account consumers’ current location works best for frequent, low consideration purchases such as food and drink, high street fashion, beauty, or most grocery and household products you can find in supermarkets.
The immediacy of this type of targeting can drive on the spot visitation and purchase decisions on low involvement categories, especially if it comes with a promotion!
When to use audience targeting
Audience targeting consists of analyzing aggregated online and offline consumer behavior like historical location data to divide anonymized consumers into groups by interests or affinities, such as ‘auto enthusiasts’ or ‘early tech adopters’. Locala’s platform is agnostic, you can access any data provider of your choice to activate the right audience for your brand, plus you can also use first-party data to create your own audiences.
Audience targeting works better for targeted user segments or high-value purchases that are less frequent and where customers would not expect to make a decision on the spot. These include consumer electronics, home furnishings, or automotive.
When to combine both
If your brand sits in between the categories we’ve described above, for example, luxury fashion or affordable home decor, you might be wondering why not use both. The main disadvantage of using both together is extremely limited reach which in some cases can make your campaign unviable.
However, Fusio allows you to have a smart setup where, for example, you start a campaign using audience segments and then retarget those users when they are in the vicinity of your stores. That way you are sure you are reaching your core target audience and also reinforcing your message when it’s most relevant.
It’s worth keeping in mind that these are general rules we’ve seen in over 10 years in ad tech, but the best way of knowing what works for your brand is to run a test.
If you’re interested in knowing more about drive-to-store or want to get started, reach out to our team.