If you’re in the advertising and PR agency business, you know:  the stakes for Digital Advertising are rising. Gone are the days when digital ads were a low-cost addition to the marketing budget. Today, digital advertising is often the key marketing strategy as clients struggle to pull customers through their digital sales funnel. In a world where digital advertising costs are pulling up even with traditional outlets in many cases, and the pressure for ROI is relentless, he or she with the best targeting wins.

That’s what makes the “geotargeting” strategy El Toro offers so interesting. It’s a new way of finding your audience, right where they live. We all know, of course, that Facebook or Google will allow you to target customers who show certain interests. “Women in Peoria who like knitting,” for instance. But what if you could target an online ad to a customer meeting the exact criteria you needed, at the exact address you needed, with the surgical precision of traditional direct mail?

In my opinion, you could achieve the best possible ROI for the price. And not just for the location specificity. For the results. When you work with this technology, you can be pretty well assured your target consumer will see the message nearly 100 percent of the time.  And you can do that with a message that is tailored directly to who they are and where they live, instead of what sites they visit. This generally results in click-throughs three times the industry average, with targeting six to 60 times more effective than other online ads.

So, how do you put that technology to work for you? Here’s where I see the possibilities:

Strategy #1:  Geotargeting/IP targeting as an add-on ­–  IP targeting such as is this is usually the first thing I think of when I have a client with a fairly defined customer base. Usually, for a digital campaign, you need more than one entry point for your funnel. Mounting an email campaign? Running direct mail? Do IP targeting as an add-on. In my experience, it has lifted results by as much as 20 to 30 percent overdoing just one communication strategy. 

Strategy #2: Marketing to customers in a defined area –

Opening a new store? Geotargeting could be the perfect tool for sending digital ads to the households in the 10 neighborhoods surrounding your new location. With them being so close, you could even send them an offer only they can get.

Strategy #3: Targeting specific customers in enclaves – 

Let’s say you have just opened up a high-end landscaping and outdoor patio building business, and you need to target ads to customers in an area where neighborhoods vary in income levels. With geotargeting, you can identify the exact neighborhoods you want and skip the others.

Strategy #4: Special event advertising –

Are you looking to attract customers who live in a certain area for an event? Let’s say, for instance, that you just opened up a big indoor soccer facility in your town– large enough to attract people from throughout the area. Perhaps you could have a series of open house events, based on where people live. Maybe the special free classes and exhibition for the east end of town could be on one night, the west end of town on another. You could send a direct mailer through the US mail, and augment the campaign with direct online ads from El Toro.

Strategy #5: Advertising to established customers – 

If you already have the mailing address of your regular customers, you can augment your direct email campaigns and traditional advertising with digital ads directed just to them. Why wait for cookie-dependent advertising, when you can reach them directly? Just for our rewards members:  “Pre-order the spring collection now!”  “Come to our special event!”  “Get 20 percent off in our secret sale!”

Strategy #6: Public affairs campaigns – 

Are you trying to help a client influence neighborhood groups to drop their opposition to your client’s new building project? Need people in a particular area to write a legislator to register their opinion about a controversial new measure affecting their community? El Toro can be a great tool for targeting them with messages written specifically about their neighborhood.  “Did you know – a new bus line could bring $10 million in new business development to Jonesville?  Write your legislator now…”

Strategy #7:  Community Relations – 

Do you have a client running a factory bordered by neighborhoods? Geotargeting is a great way to reach out to a specific stakeholder group located in a geographic area with high-impact messaging.  Reach out with messages such as “Come to our neighborhood health fair event,” “Sign up for our community newsletter”, or even use it to notify the neighborhood of road closures or hazards due to construction or the like at your plant.

Strategy #8:  Political Advertising ­– 

El Toro has already proven itself as a highly effective messaging tool for political candidates who want to reach out with messaging to voters in particular districts. This is great for candidates for small districts but also works for candidates in larger races who want to tailor a message to the concerns of people in a specific area.

And that is the beauty of this tool. Your ability to customize the message to their specific concerns cuts through the clutter.  Isn’t that where you want your campaign to be?