5 Tools for Point of Interest Geo-Targeting

As the technology behind the most popular geo-targeting platforms continues to improve, marketers have begun to refine their tactics to improve the ROI of their campaigns. One of the latest trends in the world of geo-targeting is known as point-of-interest (POI) targeting, or geo-conquesting.

The idea of point-of-interest targeting is simple. Rather than drawing a virtual perimeter around their own store locations — and reaching customers who were potentially already on their way in — businesses can run mobile campaigns centered around their competitor’s brick-and-mortar stores. For example, a company like American Eagle Outfitters could use POI targeting to send push notifications to smartphone users within 100-feet of any stores owned by marketplace competitors, like Abercrombie & Fitch. Research from Verve Mobile has found that geo-conquesting techniques can lead to 30% higher click-through rates, compared to traditional geo-fencing.

Here are five tools that marketers can use to capitalize on the geo-conquesting trend.

1: xAd: Connect with consumers on a granular level.
National brands that want to connect with mobile consumers can utilize xAd’s “SmartLocation” technology to ensure their ads are appearing on the right publishers in the right locations. xAd uses “historical and real-time mobile search behaviors” to locate the ideal consumer at any time, which means the fences that marketers create are always moving and shifting. (xAd calls this technology “SmartFencing.”) Marketers can limit their inventory to only serve ad requests that are both within the target area and verified as having an accurate location signal. xAd offers technology to allow for pricing based on demand for a location or point-of-interest, based on the location’s physical importance, with tighter fences generally commanding higher CPMs.

2. Thumbvista: Text your customers when they get too close to a competitor’s store.
Retailers that use Thumbvista can send text messages triggered by geo-fences. Customers opt in to receive a marketer’s messages, and that marketer creates geo-fences around areas as small as a few city blocks or as large as a few miles. Each time a customer enters the geo-fenced area, a text message alert is sent. Retailers can set up geo-conquesting campaigns to automatically send mobile coupons to customers each time they’re within the vicinity of a competing establishment. Thumbvista’s pricing includes a set-up fee for consultation and the first geo-fence, after which pricing is based on the volume of data.

3. Moasis: Add targeting rules to your geo-fencing campaign.
Small businesses, agencies, and marketers can use Moasis to send relevant messages to consumers at precise locations and times. Moasis offers tools to help SMBs build their campaigns, along with Geo-Grid technology that allows merchants to handpick the locations and channels where they want their mobile ads to appear. Advanced targeting features let businesses add detailed rules, ensuring their ads don’t appear when they’re not open for business or when the weather is below 40 degrees, for example. Businesses define their own budgets with Moasis, deciding exactly what they want to spend and paying only when a consumer sees their ads. Pricing for Moasis works on a CPM basis.

4. Placecast: Geo-fence for customer loyalty or acquisition.
Placecast offers a loyalty program that retailers can use to send push notifications to their customers’ smartphones based on physical location and other demographic factors. Placecast clients can select which pre-defined areas they would like to geo-fence, which customers they’d like to target (based on things like age and gender) and the days and times when their messages should be sent. Customers who enter these fenced areas within those days and times are send push text messages with dynamic offers based on each user’s preferences. Placecast charges a setup fee, plus additional fees based on the number of users and messages being sent.

5. Verve Mobile: Target consumers based on their real-time locations.
Verve Mobile is a location-based advertising platform that marketers can use to reach their target audience at the critical moment before a purchase is made. Advertisers can target by real-time user location, and they have the option to do that using geo-fences or “location-driven audience and behavioral targeting.” In addition to location, marketers can target based on demographic or transactional attributes. Verve’s inventory appears across all DMAs to reach more than 100 million mobile users (including the 35+ million users who visit Verve’s publisher websites).

Know of other platforms marketers can use to target customers near their competitors’ locations? Leave a description in the comments.

Stephanie Miles is an associate editor at Street Fight.

For a deeper dive into how hyperlocal targeting is playing out on the mobile platform, check out this new white paper from Street Fight Insights. Get the latest information about the exploding opportunity in mobile.