What is Geofencing?
Geofencing is a newer avenue of marketing that is centered around using cell phone location services (GPS/Cellular Data/WiFi) to serve unique ads.
How does it work?
Geofencing software puts a digital “fence” around a real-world geographical location. Once someone enters the “fence” they can be served an ad for your pharmacy. These ads can appear within apps, as push notifications, or text alerts – how it appears will depend on what apps and settings the phone has.
Most apps, after being installed and opened, ask the user if they can use “Location Services” while the app is open and/or while the app is not open. In order for the user to be served ads, they must have opted-in and allow the app to use location services, which an estimated 90% of cell phone users grant permission to do so.
Example: Let’s say you start a geofencing campaign and put fences around the 3 chain pharmacies in your town. Jane Doe, who uses one of the chain pharmacies, goes in to pick up a prescription. While she waits, she opens an app on her phone to read the news, check the weather, or play a game While in one of these apps, she is served an ad for your pharmacy.
How is it tracked?
Using special software, we can track the following:
Impressions: How many people are shown your ads within each fence you have running
Click-Through-Rate (CTR): How many people clicked your ad after seeing it
Conversions: How many people saw your ads and then came to your pharmacy
Continuing our example from above, we see that in addition to Jane Doe seeing your ad, another 999 people also saw it – for a total of 1000 impressions. We can also see that of those 1000 people, 25 clicked on your ad, and 15 of them visited your pharmacy within 30 days of seeing your ad.
What can I fence?
Almost any physical location can be fenced. You can put a fence around your competitors, hospitals, clinics, veterinary offices, specialists’ offices, or any other location you are looking to target. We cannot fence pediatric facilities (playgrounds, schools, daycares, etc.), rehab facilities, mental health facilities, medical weight loss centers or cancer treatment facilities.
What does it cost?
Costs will vary depending on a variety of factors such as geographic location, population, length of campaign, and number of fences. We can provide a recommended budget once we have all the information above.
Geofencing has become a great way to market to a very specific target audience. The beauty is that you aren’t asking them to take any extra steps, you are simply marketing to them when they are in a unique place – literally. By combining the precision of location services with unique, location based ads, we are able to increase the performance of digital campaigns and hyper-focus on the audience most likely to explore what we have to offer.
For more information on geofencing, or to get started with your own geofencing campaign, call us at 515-280-2914.