The following is just my opinion based off of what I have researched. I unfortunately do not get to do this form of marketing with my stores. So here we go!

Location based marketing is a powerful tool and more marketers are investing in this tactic to meet their customer acquisition and retention strategies. In fact, eMarketer predicts that marketers will spend $26.5 billion on mobile-location marketing advertising in 2019. Today I will discuss geo-targeting which is one of the more popular location based marketing strategies.

How does geo-targeting work?

Google Ads (formerly known as AdWords) has a feature that allows search advertisers to specify a location, or a set of locations, as the only area(s) in which they want their ads to show. This is an essential tactic for businesses that depend on foot traffic and/or home deliveries, such as restaurants, brick-and-mortar stores, and e-commerce sites.

Geo targeting is basically about finding the physical location of website visitors, and then displaying content, ads, promotions, offers, and more that might be of relevance to them. Any good lead capturing strategy will take into account where the website visitors are, and then target each of them differently.

For a dealership, this is critical in order to create compelling, individualized offers or discounts that are likely to get customers much more inclined to visiting your auto dealership.

For instance, if you figure out that a customer lives not far from your car dealership, you could provide them a discount for a same-day pick-up of the vehicle for servicing. On the other hand, someone who lives further away will be more likely to respond to offers valid during the coming week or month because it gives them plenty of time to get to your dealership. This really helps when you have shoppers on your lot after business hours too. I find myself driving past the dealerships to see peoples cars parked in front walking the lot.

Driving More Foot Traffic

Geo targeting your clients this way will not only drive up foot traffic to your dealership, but also provide your sales team a good heads up to deal with the influx of customers.

Today’s websites and digital marketing tools are smart, and a smart system will also enable your auto dealership to run campaigns based on the behavioural characteristics of your customers and prospects. This allows your marketing staff to target and engage site visitors with unique offers every single time they return to your dealership website, thereby preventing your promotions from looking stale.

Having the ability to geo target means that no website engagement will be wasted or directed towards someone who has no inclination to follow through. This will help to optimize the dealership’s marketing budget and improved revenue generation from higher foot traffic as well. So if you're thinking of some creative ways to drive more traffic to your dealership, this is a good place to look.