(By Ansel Olson) Most radio reps have asked variations of the following: “Are you familiar with Geo-fencing? Geo-farming?” We are tasked with finding robust, integrated opportunities that marry well with radio campaigns. Mobile geo-fencing and geo-farming have stepped into the spotlight recently. There are few things to remember when selling geo-fencing/geo-farming mobile solutions to your automotive clients.
Those tactics, when paired with the right strategies, can yield great funnel activity for an auto dealer. When done right, your store can reach and engage with optimal consumers, driving them to a Search Results Pages (SRPs) or Vehicle Details Pages (VDPs) in a matter of a click.
Geo-fencing, simply stated, is a method to target mobile users within a defined geographic location in real-time. Perhaps you want to reach employees that work at a neighboring company while they consume online media (i.e. mobile Web or in-app).
Without getting too much into the weeds, geo-farming is a method of capturing mobile device IDs of users who have entered a defined geographic location (during a specific timeframe), with the goal of targeting them after they have left. Case in point: A large country music concert is in town and their attendees are absolutely your target audience. Geo-fencing them during the event may be a lost cause as you are trying to compete with a live experience. Geo-farming allows a brand to access that perfect audience afterwards, sparking a digital conversation while they are at home or at work.
The inner workings of these tactics leverage longitude/latitude coordinates to outline a specific location, allowing one’s mobile device to do the rest. Whether its cell tower triangulation, connection to wifi, or you have your GPS on (rare, but it happens), your mobile device sends an exact location to the Internet, allowing brands the ability to reach you in real-time via demand-side platforms and the open exchange. An open exchange is defined as an open digital advertising marketplace for aggregated inventory from multiple partners where buyers can bid either manually or programmatically to purchase ad impressions (TubeMogul, 2017).
Strategy is imperative to turning these tactics into sales. Ask the general manager “who do you sell cars to?” Is there a prominent company nearby whose employees step onto your showroom floor to check out the latest deals on SUVs or family cars? Maybe there are a few high schools and colleges in the area that attract students in need of a “used car.” Dig deep into your client’s Finance & Insurance department in order to unlock potential companies that could be great targets? The employer data can provide you with ample information to start a successful geo-fencing/geo-farming strategy.
One of the most effective dealer strategies I have worked has been in motion for one and a half years in the highly-competitive Denver market. Brian Nicholson, the Vice President/General Manager of Kuni Honda on Arapahoe, knew he needed a strategic campaign to reach the audience he was not touching via his radio, TV, and search marketing campaigns. He began to target large companies in the area as well as colleges/universities. What he found after A/B testing numerous creatives, college students were engaging more with the Accord and Civic ads; whereas employed professionals clicked on the Odyssey and Pilot ads more. After a quick optimization of locations and creatives, Nicholson found himself driving more appropriate users to his SRPs/VDPs. After implementing his multi-tiered geo-fencing strategy, Kuni Honda on Arapahoe grew its overall share by 33% YOY, pacing +10% in 2017. The lessons from Kuni Honda on Arapahoe have become foundational in setting up new campaigns. Compared to the national average of 0.09% click-through rate (based on impressions/clicks), Kuni Honda on Arapahoe constantly drives two to three times the national average on a monthly basis.
Targeting has to make sense for your specific client. Do they have a relationship with a local professional athlete? Would it make sense to geo-fence the local stadium during game days with ads that have his/her face on it? Are you looking to guerilla market to a sports arena that may be sponsored by a competitor, thus making your dealership the unofficial mobile sponsor of pro-football/baseball/soccer? Great targets can also be companies when bonus month rolls around. For example, Maserati launched a geo-fencing campaign to a very popular tech company in Seattle when the bonuses were given. Leases on the Ghibli were through the roof that month.
Poor targeting can quickly be pivoted into a good tactic. I found locations where a lot of random people frequently yield less-than-average results. Some of you wish to target doctors and nurses at the nearby hospital. This is a poor strategy as most of your impressions will be gobbled up by patients and their family members. You’re better off executing a behavioral campaign in a large radius to that specific profession. Same applies for companies in large buildings. Maybe your ideal company target is in a building, wedged underneath a large insurance company and above a tech start-up. You run the risk of reaching every single person in that building, regardless of where they work.
There are outlier targets as well. You will need to monitor them closely then execute the optimization swiftly when you know. For another client, we targeted several Los Angeles DMA targets like Sony, Apple, Amgen, and Walt Disney Studios. All targets yielded one to three times the national average with the exception of one — Amgen. The click-through rate was underperforming at 0.05%, well below the national average. We speculated that because Amgen is a pharmaceutical company, most employees there do not access their mobile device as often as someone in a different field. Regardless, after a slowing the impressions and observing no positive change, my team swiftly pivoted to a geo-farming campaign and – lo and behold – the click-through rate grew exponentially, doubling the national average.
With a clear strategy in place and human optimization prevalent throughout the campaign, geo-fencing/geo-farming tactics add great value and efficiencies to a dealership’s radio campaign.
Ansel Olson is the Director of Digital Sales at CBS Local, Strategic Advisor to Resolut Partners – an e-Commerce Digital Marketing firm, and Advisory Board Member of Park Consulting – a Southern California-consulting firm. He can be reached at [email protected] (http://Linkedin.com/in/AnselOlson)
Great article. The ability to employ human optimization seems a critical part of the strategy, and an experienced human increases the chance of success.