What is Geofencing Marketing?

Geofencing marketing, sometimes called geo fencing or geo-fencing, is a type of location-based marketing that marries the digital and real world; it allows advertisers to meet potential customers where they are at, literally.

A form of programmatic advertising, geofencing marketing works by establishing a custom virtual boundary, or fence, around a specific geographic area in the real world. Mobile devices with location-enabled mobile apps can provide data (GPS, WiFi, RFID Bluetooth, etc.) to marketers and advertisers. Marketers can then use this data to set their ads to only appear to potential customers that enter this fence. Entering these fences can trigger an activity, like sending push notifications or displaying search ads when mobile users search target queries, like “restaurants near me.” This form of advertising therefore relies on phone and app permissions with real-time data tracking.

Unlike radius targeting (more on that below), geofencing is incredibly granular. With it, advertisers can create custom fences rather than simply creating a radius around an area. This way, advertisers can create a geofence that includes only what they want, and nothing they don’t. In other words, geofences can be as broad or as specific as advertisers would like. It all depends on what type of ad campaign they’d like to run.

Geofencing Example #1

Say you own a restaurant (yummy). It’s in close proximity to several popular locations in a bustling downtown area. Depending on the ad platform you use, you can create a unique geofence that includes not just your restaurant, but also nearby locations, like a park where people are going to work up their appetite. Your geofence excludes a nearby street, however, that contains condemned buildings and, therefore, doesn’t have any potential customers. Once you establish this geofence, you can run targeted mobile ads at peak dinner time hours to people who are physically near your establishment.

Geofencing Example #2

You’re still a restaurant owner in this example, but now you have a rival who is stealing your hungry customers. If you’re feeling mischievous, you can set up a geofence around your competitor’s location. Once people get near enough to your competitor’s store, you can target them with coupons for your business, drawing them away from your rival and into your own doors.

What is Geotargeting? And How Does It Differ from Geofencing?

Geotargeting is another form of location-based audience targeting, although it differs slightly from geofencing. Geofencing is all about advertising based on specific location data. Geotargeting allows advertisers to refine an ad campaign’s target audience by enhancing demographic metrics with specific location data. In other words, geotargeting allows advertisers to create a target audience using not just physical location (based on data like GPS and IP address), but also other data points, like age, gender, and shopping habits.

Radius targeting is a specific form of geotargeting that allows advertisers to establish a radius around a certain area, like a zip code or city. This form of targeting does not allow advertisers to exclude certain areas inside the radius.

Geotargeting Example

Say you’re a business owner with a charming boutique that stocks women’s clothing and accessories. You can set up a one-mile radius around your business. But you don’t stop there; you run a comprehensive geotargeting campaign and make sure that your ads not only reach people who are in that radius, but who are also women, between the ages of 18 to 35, and have a shopping history focusing on fashion and makeup.

What are the Benefits of Geofencing Marketing and Geotargeting?

Still on the fence about geofencing and geotargeting? Don’t be. Some of the benefits of incorporating location-targeting tech into digital marketing efforts can include:

• Improved brand awareness with local customers
• Enhanced retargeting campaigns
• Boosted conversion rates and click-through rates
• Reduced waste in ad spend
• More personalized ads, landing pages, and call to action
• Can increase walk-ins for business locations with heavy foot traffic

Don’t think that the size of your business will limit your potential with location-targeting tech. An organization of any size can benefit from advertising using location data.

Small businesses that offer location-based services, like mom-and-pop restaurants and non-chain retail stores, for instance, cannot physically sell products to customers in a state away. So, why should they waste ad dollars on them? These businesses can directly benefit from adding location-based parameters to their online ad campaigns.

Larger businesses can also make use of geotargeting and geofencing technology. These businesses can target people with different ads based on geographic location. An ad that does well in Toronto, for example, might perform much differently in London. By running different campaigns with different copy and imagery, these companies can tailor their messaging to the unique needs and wants of consumers in various regions. These customized ads can offer greater personalization and relevancy, which can boost overall conversion rates.

How to Set Up Location Targeting in Google Ads

If you’re running a nationwide campaign in Google Ads, here are the steps you can take to add a country-wide perimeter to your campaign:

1. Go to your Google Ads account.
2. Click “Campaigns.”
3. In this section’s sidebar menu, select “Campaigns.”
4. You should see “Campaigns,” “Ad Groups,” and “Ads.” Click “Campaigns.”
5. Select “Settings.”
6. Select “Locations” and choose the country you will target with your campaign.
7. Hit “Save.”

Of course, many companies run campaigns on a smaller, more local scale. The Google Ads platform lets businesses set up location targeting for smaller municipalities within a country (such as on the state or city level in the US) or even lets them create a custom geofence down to a one-mile radius.

Adding Geofencing Ads to Your Digital Marketing Strategy

There is no way around it: geofencing is an incredibly important marketing tool in the age of online and mobile marketing. It allows for enhanced ad targeting in a way that other marketing tools can’t easily replicate. When you need help with geofencing marketing campaigns, don’t leave it up to chance or guesswork. Contact the experts who have years of experience helping clients with geofencing advertising (and SEO, and social media advertising, and much, much more).

Significant changes have come and gone since — including the transition to the new GBP moniker — but a few smaller modifications have flown under the radar — including one, in particular, that has caused some confusion since its inception.

If you’re among those GBP users who have been caught off-guard by Google’s recent change to how a view is counted within the platform, don’t sweat it…

We’ve got you!

WHAT ARE GBP views & WHY ARE THEY important?

As the name implies, the views metric reflects the number of time your Google Business Profile was viewed by someone on Google Search and Google Maps, and the total includes both those users who did and did not engage the listing to land on your business’ website.

Think of views as the digital equivalent to the number of eyeballs on your TV ad or set of ears that hear your radio spot.

The rule of thumb is, the more views generated by your GBP listing, generally, the more visible your brand is within Google Search and Google Maps to the people who are looking for your product or service. This results in more opportunities to acquire new customers and/or engage with existing customers.

GBP Views: then & now

Now that we have established what views are inside the Google Business Profile platform, let’s dig into how they were calculated for years versus how they’re calculated in the wake of the recent change.

GBP Views Then

Google Business Profile views, in the olden days (in other words, prior to 2023), were operating straight out of the Wild Wild West.

For years, every time your listing appeared on someone’s screen, regardless of device, a unique view was counted. It didn’t matter if the same user viewed your listing 100 times in a day. It didn’t matter if 99 of those times were the result of that user feverishly zooming in and out for no reason on a certain portion of Google Maps from their mobile device of choice. At the end of the day, that one person was responsible for a ton of views displayed within your Google dashboard, most of which — if not all, in this case — were absolute garbage.

It did nothing to tell you an accurate story of how your GBP listing was performing — and you were probably left wondering why more meaningful activity, such as phone calls or visits to your brick-and-mortar storefront, wasn’t materializing.

GBP Views now

In February of this year, Google announced that it had come to its senses, realizing that its old way of calculating views was idiotic, at best.

Users can take comfort in the fact that views are being assessed in a manner that should have always been the case. With the change, views on Google Search and Google Maps are now measured as the number of times your profile is shown to a unique user within the span of 24 hours. No more mysteries. No more bad data. No more restless nights for business owners or hair-yanking episodes for SEO strategists (like us).

Just clean, pure, unadulterated data!

More specifically, when it comes to a view on Google Maps, which can show dozens of listings clustered together in one map, only when a user physically clicks on your profile is a view registered.

Let’s take a look at this in action:

Prior to Google’s change, this search for internet marketing near me on Google Maps would’ve resulted in a Maps view for each of the businesses shown — including those that have absolutely nothing to do with marketing.

Compare that scenario with what is shown below, in which Digital Strike is the only profile to receive a Maps view for the same search. This is because the profile itself was clicked, whereas the others were not.

How Does This Update AFFECT MY BUSINESS?

It will affect you in a number of ways, and they’re all good!

But first, a simple warning: Don’t be alarmed if (or when) when you see a sudden dip in GBP views within whatever reporting platform you use, including the GBP dashboard. This is to be completely and utterly expected, and it’s absolutely no reason to panic; actually, it’s plays right into the good stuff.

With this update having ushered the way views should have always been reported, you are now equipped with much more reliable data when assessing the performance of your GBP listing and its impact on your business’ marketing efforts.

Inherent to this is fact that the change makes user intent easier to gauge. For example, consider the scenario below using internet marketing near me search used in the previous section.

Someone in the St. Louis area needs internet marketing help. During the course of their search, they come across the GBP listings of several area digital marketing agencies, including Digital Strike, both on Google Search and Google Maps. After diligently researching each agency — which consists of viewing the listing of the same four agencies across Search and Maps — the individual decides to partner with the wonderful team at Digital Strike (THANK YOU!) later that same day.

Previously, this customer journey would have potentially resulted in a large volume of views across Search and Maps, therefore skewing the true intent behind the person’s search behavior.

Now, with that same customer journey capable of generating only one view each for Search and Maps for each agency, not only is the data cleaner for those agencies that were considered — especially Digital Strike! — but those agencies that were not considered by the individual won’t have the irrelevant views data mucking up their reporting.

key takeaways

This Google change is long overdue, and its benefits cannot be overstated.

As the owner of a Google Business Profile listing — or set of listings, if you have multiple business locations — you will likely see some volatility in the views your listings are generating, as well as some year-over-year trends that don’t seem all that savory. But again, do not worry!

We assure you that this change is the way things should been all along, so let’s rejoice together.

While we’re at it, let’s also talk about the bigger picture, because knowing how to accurately read your GBP data is only half the battle. You also need the tips and tricks of how to arm your GBP listing to rank consistently well for your business’ most important keyword searches.

Having issues with optimizing your online presence, specifically when it comes to your Google Business Profile? Digital Strike can help answer any questions you may have. Our team of SEO experts has years of experience optimizing GBP listings, helping businesses of all sizes increase online visibility and engage with customers effectively.

No business likes to receive negative feedback, but we can’t deny the rest of us love to read them. In fact, about 97% of people will read local business reviews, according to a consumer study from BIA/Kelsey.

But humans aren’t the only ones who love customer feedback. Google and other search engines do too. In fact, one important ranking signal for local SEO on Google is customer experience, measured by online customer reviews. What this fact means is that, all other factors being equal, Google will push a local business higher than its competitor in local results if it has more positive and relevant reviews.

That’s why it’s so important for business owners to not only respond in a timely manner to negative reviews when they do pop up, but to also reply to negative reviews in the right way. After all, potential customers are reading your responses too!

Getting Started: Where Can Reviews Show Up?

Let’s start at the beginning. Where do search engines pull reviews from, and where do human readers see them, good and bad alike?

There are a few primary review sites that businesses should prioritize in terms of reputation management and local SEO value, including the following.

Google Business Profile (GBP)/Google My Business (GMB)

Google Business Profile (GBP), formerly Google My Business (GMB), collects Google reviews for your business. These reviews can then appear in both Maps and search results.

For example, if someone searches organically for your business’s name, your GBP listing will often appear on the right hand side of the SERP on desktop. The searcher will be able to see your review/star rating and even select reviews that appear at the bottom of the Google listing. While you can’t manipulate which reviews Google shows at the bottom of your listing, you can properly respond (more on that in a moment).

In the chance you come across spam reviews, you can report those to Google to review for removal.

Yelp

Yelp uses an automated process to choose which reviews to recommend and which to hide from a profile. Since this process is automated, Yelp’s support team will not be able to help you unhide a review. However, you can flag a review if it goes against Yelp’s regulations. 

Have questions about using Yelp? Visit their support center to learn more.

Facebook

Visitors can recommend and review your business from your social media page. While Facebook does give you the option to turn off reviews all together, we advise against it; this practice can lead to mistrust.

Tripadvisor

Users can find and leave reviews for hotels, restaurants, and other large and small businesses alike on Tripadvisor. Its brand reputation/ranking system is based on the volume of reviews, whether the reviews are positive or not, and if the reviews are recent.

Remember: The rules for leaving reviews, asking for reviews, and reporting reviews for offensive content differ drastically from site to site. Make sure to read each platform’s rules before taking action against negative reviews or before asking customers to leave reviews.

What to Know Before Responding to Negative Reviews

Before responding or reporting any negative review, make sure to do the following:

Read the review thoroughly. It sounds simple, but it can be easy to get swept up by the first few lines or headline of a negative review. Make sure to read the review completely, especially if it is detailed. Completely reading the review not only prevents you from giving an ill-informed reply, but there’s a good chance that there is valuable insight to be gained by reading the entire review— no matter how uncomfortable it may be.

Put yourself in the reviewer’s shoes. No one likes to have a bad experience, especially if the experience was something they were looking forward to doing. Now think of a time when you’ve been an unhappy customer and when you’ve left a review because of it. Did the business respond to your review? If so, did it make a difference in how you perceive them and boost (or hinder) customer loyalty? Remember that this reviewer will likely read your response (as will hundreds of other potential customers) and make a further judgment of your business based on how you handle their feedback.

Think before you write. It’s easy to give a cookie-cutter response to reviews, but don’t just think about the short-term gain of saving time. Think of the long-term consequences and the bottom line. Consider how you want customers to perceive you—both the reviewer and those silently reading the reviews.

How to Respond To Negative Reviews: 6 Tips

Is there a right or wrong way to respond to bad reviews? Absolutely. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when crafting your response.

1. Respond in less than 24 hours. Don’t allow negative reviews to linger unanswered. A timely response shows the customer that you are engaged with the business and care about what your clients think. You can set up notifications to alert you when a new review has been submitted. This way you aren’t having to proactively check all your location directories daily for new reviews.
2. Let them know you’ve heard their concern. Acknowledge that you’ve not only received their message, but that you are sorry that they had a less-than-ideal time. Be sure to include specifically the customer’s name and the specific customer complaints.
3. Call out specific issues. If they are frustrated they were unable to get ahold of the manager or customer service team when they called, mention this problem in your response. It shows that you took the time to really read their review. A generic response can come across as disingenuous, leading to reduced customer satisfaction… and a poorer online reputation.
4. Offer a solution. Provide the customer with a solution to the problem. For example, if they were unsatisfied with their service, provide a phone number to call and talk with a representative.
5. Keep it professional. Don’t take the review personally, and definitely don’t attack the customer. Remember your brand image and how you want customers to remember your business.
6. Follow up with everyone. Respond to both negative comments and positive feedback alike. Responding to dissatisfied customers is important to help them feel heard and potentially turn their negative experience into a positive one—or at least a neutral one. Responding to positive experiences can help keep happy customers just that—happy and loyal customers.

If you keep these ideas in mind, you can craft a response that’s sincere and mitigates—or maybe even reverses—damage to your brand’s reputation.

Negative Review Response Examples

Look no further than the following two businesses for examples on how to reply to negative reviews graciously.

Empire State Building – Tripadvisor

What this review does well:

• Opens with reviewer’s name
• Thanks reviewer for their time and review
• Directly addresses the concerns
• Offers a new line of communication

Steve’s Hot Dogs – Google Reviews

\

What this review does well:

• Opens with reviewer’s name
• Acknowledges customer’s disappointment
• Offers a new line of communication

Positive Review Response Examples

Looking for some inspiration for how to respond to positive reviews? The same businesses from above know how to respond to not just negative feedback, but positive experiences too.

Empire State Building – Tripadvisor

What this review does well:

• Clear enthusiasm
• Shows gratitude to reviewer

Steve’s Hot Dogs – Google Reviews

What this review does well:

• Addresses reviewer by name
• Gives thanks
• Includes specifics about the experience

Negative Review Response Template

Remember: the following are merely templates. Customize your own responses with the customer’s name, specific customer complaints, and offer a solution/way to get into direct contact with customer support or a manager (aka, include contact information like a phone number).

Thank you for responding, [Customer Name]. We are sorry to hear about your experience at [Company Name] where you experienced [insert Customer Complaint]. We strive to offer the best experience and excellent customer service. We would love to make things right with you. Please contact [insert Manager Name] at [insert Contact Information].

Don’t run from bad reviews again. Instead, use the tips above to reply to negative reviews and make a real impact.

Want to learn more about review platforms, local SEO, local listings, and practical digital marketing solutions available to you? Contact our team today.

Hold up, wait a minute.

What is a location page?

And what is local SEO?

Okay, say you want to search for “best taco places in STL.”

All of the results on that page are there because of local SEO. It’s SEO for local businesses are in the community IRL (not internet businesses). Like the really good taco places in St. Louis.

Or dentists, grocery stores, nail salons, pizza joints, etc.

Local SEO helps local customers find you before they make a purchasing decision. 

Google can tell when there’s a local intent behind the search. For something like “best taco places in STL,” Google knows that I’m looking for the best place to get a taco in St. Louis. Or if I searched for “best taco places near me,” or even just “best taco places,” then it would use my location data to figure out that I’m in St. Louis and serve me results in that area only.

If you have a brick and mortar business, then a local strategy is crucial to the success of your business. If people can’t find you, then you won’t get any new businesses. Word of mouth is always great, but people are using the internet more and more to find new businesses in their area.

Part of a local SEO strategy is creating individual pages on your website for each location. It’s not good enough to have a single page on your website that lists all locations.

The goal of local SEO is so that people can find businesses or services they need near their area. If you want to learn more about it, check out our Digital Marketing 101 Guide.

But how do you optimize those individual location pages on your website? 

1. Optimize meta description

It might seem really basic to still say “optimize your meta description,” but it’s displayed in search results. It’s like a mini-ad that needs to be carefully crafted. You know what it’s like to search for something and then you skim the meta descriptions. Potential customers are doing the exact same thing.

2. Optimize title tags

Another basic tip, but your title tag is the other piece that shows up on search results pages. You need to use your title tags wisely and make sure they won’t be cut off in search results.

3. Optimize URL

Make sure your URL includes the place name of each location. That way your customers know they’re looking at the correct location and you can track which location gets the most traffic.

4. Include headings with keywords around targeted location and service

Make sure Google knows what your page is about with relevant keywords. If you’re a taco place in South St. Louis County, make sure to mention something like “South County Taco Place” in your headings. People will be searching with their locations in mind.

5. Embed a map

You want to make it as easy as possible for people to find you. What better way to show people where you are than a map? You can embed a map from Google Maps so easily on your page. Then all people have to do is click the map and then they’ll be on their way.

6. Make sure the page has all of the basic info:

• Name
• Address
• Phone number
• Business hours

That’s information people need to know about your business. It’s not just a user experience thing. It’s vital so they know how to find you, where to contact you, and when you’re available. Make sure it’s accurate and on the page.

7. Optimized images of the business

People want to see images of your business! The internet is a very visual place and if you aren’t showing off what your business looks like, then you’re missing out on an opportunity.

For example, if you’re a restaurant, show off pictures of the food, the seating areas, and people looking happy while they’re in your business.

8. Calls to action

Okay, you got people to the location page. What’s next? What are they supposed to do once they’re there?

Including a contact form and a prominent call to action is a great way to get leads and provides an easy way for potential customers to reach out.

9. Include content with keywords around targeted location and service

That’s right. You have all of this information on the page already, and you still need to add more.

Describe your business and the location that particular branch, office, or franchise is in. Talk about what you have to offer and why customers should come in. This is your chance to sell your business a little and to entice potential customers into visiting your business.

Looking to expand your SEO strategy? Digital Strike will develop a results-driven digital strategy with your company’s goals in mind. Contact us for a free consultation.