Geo-fencing is one of the newest forms of mobile advertising and it’s becoming highly popular in the auto industry. Automotive geo-fencing makes the identification of the number of ad viewers that show up to your dealership seamless. According to TechTarget.com, “Geofencing is a feature in a software program that defines geographical boundaries; this is done by using the global positioning system (GPS) or radio frequency identification (RFID). A geo-fence is a virtual barrier.” You can liken this to an invisible fence you may use for a pet. The pet has a receiver on its collar, comparable to a mobile device on a person. When that receiver makes contact with the electronic fence line, there is a shock. Don’t worry, geo-fence advertising doesn’t send a shock to your target's mobile device, but you get the idea.
How It Works
The simplest form of automotive geo-fencing allows you to set up a virtual barrier around the locations your prospects visit; an example would be another dealership. Because of its simplicity, this approach is generally the most effective. When the prospect visits your geo-fenced location, it captures the ad id of their phone when they open a browser or multiple apps on their phone. Then, your dealership’s digital ad starts being served to them within the browser/app they’re using. Each ad served to a user is an impression. The prospect gets served your dealership’s ads while they are mobile surfing, even if they leave that location. You and your agency should determine the frequency and length of the ads served.
The latest innovation in mobile geofencing is the ability to track and report how many of the ad is that were captured physically visited your dealership. Your agency should also geofence your dealership so when the mobile prospect reaches your location, ads stop being served.
Planning Your Ads
Your agency should be able to provide some ideas for the types of mobile geofencing messages that produce the best results. In general, it should be a clear offer or reason for them to consider your dealership before they buy elsewhere. You can customize the ad messages to the specific geofenced location, as a result, reporting by location is possible. Plan the messages according to ad space and your prospect’s attention span.
Geo-Fence Pricing
A fair pricing model is a cost based on the number of impressions served; this guarantees you are only paying for delivered ads. Any agency offering the geo-fence advertising service should disclose the cost per thousand (CPM) impression rate. The cost should be below $20CPM. They should also allow you to set a cap on your monthly budget and then allocate impressions for your campaign to stay within your dealership’s financial guidelines; they may also allow you to roll over any unused impressions to the next month or cycle.
Why Choose Automotive Geo-Fencing?
Automotive geo-fencing is proving to be one of the simplest, most efficient, and most accountable types of advertising a dealership can do to capture in-market car buyers. PewResearchCenter states “as of October 2015 in the U.S., 86 percent of 18-29 year-olds have a smartphone, as do 83 percent of 30-49-year-olds. Eighty-seven percent of those reside in a household earning $75,000 or more annually.” This is an upward trending market and a great market to consider when advertising for your dealership.
Most of all, automotive geo fencing is very attractive in its level of accountability; it takes the bulk of the guesswork out of determining what placements are or are not working. The electronic measurement and the reporting of impressions/click-thru rates (CTR) gives clarity to both performance and cost. Your agency should track and report the number of impressions, in addition to the CTRs to your dealership’s landing page and the number of ad ids served.
If you have a mobile-optimized website, which is pretty standard today, the initial investment is minimal. There is no extra software or hardware needed. All you need is an agency that can provide the service, a few digital ads, and a budget; you could be targeting automotive customers within a week!