In marketing, geo-targeting (also known as geolocation) refers to the location-based display of online advertising or other services. For this purpose, GPS data (when used on smartphones) or the IP address of a user’s device are used to determine the user’s location.
In addition to the location-based adaptation of websites (e.g. the automatic setting of a specific language), the user’s location is used to display location-based advertising and location-based services:
Location-based advertising
Here, advertising media are only delivered to users in a certain region.
Location-based servicesÂ
If the user uses a certain service (e.g. an app), only companies or restaurants within a certain radius of the user’s current location are displayed. This type of geo-targeting is becoming increasingly important, especially due to the increased use of smartphones.
The exact region in which a campaign is displayed can be determined by the marketer or advertising company itself. Campaigns can be tailored to a specific country, a region (e.g. state), a city or a specific radius within a city (e.g. via postcodes).
Example:
A customer is surfing the webshop of a furniture dealer who is currently conducting a sale in certain local areas. As soon as the customer is in the same city as the location of one of the local stores, a banner appears in the webshop to draw their attention to the local sale.
It should be noted that it is not always possible to identify the user’s location correctly. Through IP-obscuration, proxy- or VPN-servers, users can still move anonymously through the internet.