Geo-targeting is the tool that allows your business to identify specific consumer groups, based upon demographics or physical location, to generate more revenue and drive customers to your brand. Pay Per Call campaigns benefit greatly from geo-targeting, but what are the nuts and bolts behind geo-targeting? In this final post looking behind the curtain on geo-targeting, you’ll learn a bit about beacons and sensors.
Why Beacons and Sensors Matter
Proximity advertising and geo-targeting would be near-impossible to accomplish without the help of beacons and sensors. It is the technology present in both of these tools that allows any mobile-focused Pay Per Call campaign to detect consumers in a specific vicinity and target them with deals and ads relevant to their situation and/or location.
Beacons
Bluetooth technology has existed in phones for years, but it wasn’t until iBeacon from Apple arrived in 2013 that beacon technology was able to move to the next level. In fairness, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) was originally invented by Nokia in 2006. Geo-targeting beacons use Bluetooth technology that allows mobile devices to broadcast and receive data to support mobile ads.
BLE is a one-way communication platform wherein advertisements are broadcast over radio waves at varying intervals. The messages are sent to devices, like a smartphone, and received as a push notification.
For example, when a customer walks into a brick-and-mortar store, apps on their devices listen for beacons. When a beacon is picked up, it can send a push notification simply welcoming customers into the store or offer limited-time deals if they shop in-store that day.
Sensors
Microsoft defines a sensor as “hardware components that can provide your computer with information about location, surroundings, and more.” Generally speaking, there are two types of sensors. The first is the one already built into a computer, and the other is a sensor connected to a computer via a wired or wireless connection.
In the world of marketing, sensors are used to identify data about products being used, and can anticipate consumer needs and share information that is relevant based upon a GPS location.
Beacons, Sensors, and Geo-Targeting
You can draw all the circles on a map you want and specify ZIP codes across the country, but without beacons and sensors to help you identify when consumers enter those circles or other defined territories, your geo-targeting will fall one step short of its maximum performance level. Beacons and sensors make it easier to identify consumers based upon location and send them relevant information that is useful in that moment.
Read More: What is Programmatic GeoTargeting & Hyperlocal Targeting