Why Your Small Business Should Create Local Ads

Creating local ads can benefit your small business in a number of important ways. Geo-precise targeting benefits your customers directly, but can also indirectly affect your marketing approach generally. 

Geo-targeted marketing means you can bring customers to your retail locations when they're nearby - and steer them to you when they are near a competitor. 

How geo-precise marketing works

Geo-marketing is no longer limited to where your customers live or work (by zip code) or what computers they use (by IP address). You can now target customers by actual current location, through GPS. You can target them by where they are currently, but also by where they might be headed – factoring in their interests and online behavior at the same time.

The elements of geo-precise marketing include:

• Geo-location - pinpointing a user's specific location using a handheld device's built-in GPS chip.
• Geo-fencing - defining a geographic region which triggers some type of action when a user enters it.
• Geo-conquesting - using geo-fencing to target users near (or nearing) a competitor's space.

Your mobile geolocation campaign might involve geo-tailored display ads, related coupon notification or specially-tailored search results. 

Benefits of geo-precise marketing

Creating local ads, coupons and special search results can benefit your small business' local sales, but also global marketing efforts. 

Creating local ads benefits your potential customers

Geo-targeted marketing leverages precise locations (and times), making your business more immediately relevant to possible customers. It gives you a better chance to be where you need to be, with what your customers might need, when they might need it. This particularly helps when a customer's purchase decisions can change on a whim, or according to the weather (think swimsuits, umbrellas, coats). 

Geo-targeting local ads allows your marketing to be flexible based on events and patterns beyond your control. The home team wins a big game? A natural disaster occurs? Media makes a big locally-related announcement? Your business can be right there, on time, with something of value for mobile device users.

Local marketing helps your marketing analytics

Geolocation data sensitivity can transform your global marketing analytics, helping your small business increase online conversions generally. Analyzing in-store traffic flow through location data can help you better locate that self-service wall display. Data from visitors passing by a display can reveal its impact on buying decisions. Location data on customers can also help lessen wait times and help determine optimal shelf restocking times.