What is Geofencing Marketing with Justin Croxton of Propellent Media

Online marketing is a mixed bag of tips and tricks that are constantly growing and changing. Keeping up with all of these up and coming trends might seem a bit overwhelming for some people, but when new things emerge on the scene, we want to make sure you’re the first to know! Which is why we’ve got something new that’s innovative, and proving to work with small businesses—geofencing.

This week, we’ve got geofencing expert Justin Croxton of Propellent Media—an ad agency based out of southern Atlanta, Georgia—here to tell us all about geofencing! What it is, what it does, and how it can benefit your business. Justin really knows his stuff and offers so many good examples and situations where geofencing is relevant and successful. Let’s get started!

IN THIS EPISODE YOU WILL LEARN:

All about who Justin is, and what he does with Propellent Media. Primarily, they’re focused on geofencing, but they also help with AdWords, SEO, Facebook advertising, and PaperClick advertising. While they do offer these services, Justin states that they lead with geofencing because it’s unique, different, and what a lot of people are asking for. It adds a nice marketing mix for people who’re looking for something a little more targeted.
Justin explains to us what geofencing is, stating that it gives people the ability to serve ads to individuals based on the physical places they know. With geofencing, you can target people in very precise areas—for example, business buildings, events, parks, conventions, trade shows, and so on. Instead of targeting people by state, or city, or zip code, you can target people in very small, dense areas, giving you a chance to build geofences around the contours of a building.
Justin gives us an idea of how geofencing can work through the example of a car dealership. In this instance, you’d use geofencing to target people who are looking for a new car. Clients of Justin’s will geofence their competitors—when this happens, it means that when someone walks into the geofenced building, Justin’s company can capture the mobile device that they’re using. From that point, they have the ability to serve ads to them for 30 days, in 2 different ways!
The two ways are as follows—the first being mobile applications. Think of things like Angry Birds, Words with Friends, or even The Weather App. With geofencing, you can serve ads through those individual applications, and Justin’s company has access to over 6,000 of them! The second way is through mobile websites that accept advertising like you’d see on a computer or desktop. With this said, it’s important to note that geofencing is JUST for mobile devices—geofencing does not connect to Facebook, Instagram, Google, or other social media applications.
Justin explains the cool thing about geofencing, stating that it’s less about which application the person goes on, and more about the audience and where they’re going. With geofencing, you can follow them for up to 30 days, and that time gives you a large chance to think about all the practical uses of geofencing. It’s less about being intrusive, and more about someone being able to target you because you happen to be in a particular location. Justin says that it’s not that different, conceptually, from someone who wants to target at the zip code or state level. This way, you’re just targeting a smaller audience.
Justin does explain that there are certain laws that exist that prevent people from doing certain levels of targeting, namely laws that prohibit geofencing elementary schools and lower, due to the children being under 13 years of age. There are also laws that prevent geofencing certain medical centers, too.
Justin wraps it up with the explanation of what geofencing truly is, explaining that it gives you the right to do what you want to do when you want to do it. The multiple uses of geofencing make you think strategically about where your customers spend time and figuring out how to reach out to them in ways that are better and different than other platforms out there.
Justin explains the targeting system, explaining that people are targeted based on their intent. The system is more passive—compared to applications that feed you push notifications—and the process is figuring out how to micro-target these people within the 30 days you’ve got.
When compared to other marketing techniques, Justin explains that geofencing isn’t really more or less effective compared to other approaches. What gives geofencing the extra edge is the ability to measure foot traffic back to a client’s storefront, whereas other platforms don’t offer that. With geofencing, you can go into a platform and consider who you’re trying to target, while also building a “conversion zone”, or geofence around the client’s location. With this, you can measure the number of times people went to other places, and then came back to the initial client!
With that technique, you’re getting more efficiencies in your adspend—meaning, you’re not targeting a whole swath of people that you don’t intend to reach. With Facebook, you can get down to individual that you’re looking for who can share your content, however with geofencing, you’re getting down to the building that people are walking into.

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Did Justin not have time to answer a burning question on the back of your mind? No problem! You can reach Justin at any of the social media links listed above. Justin is a very interesting guy chock full of super useful information on geofencing, and hopefully, he’s taught you as much as he’s taught us!