How would you like to serve better digital ads to a more qualified audience — and be able to prove they work?

Imagine this: A potential automotive lead is fueling up at Costco. While she waits, she pulls out her phone to check the news and sees an ad from your dealership that offers a better price than the warehouse. Hmm, she thinks as she replaces the pump.

Over the next few days, she sees more digital ads that showcase the benefits of your dealership. Soon, she’s convinced you’re better than Costco. That weekend, she drives over to your service center for an oil change.

As she scrolls through Instagram in the waiting room, her phone sends a notification to your reporting software, letting it know that someone who saw that initial ad at Costco has now visited the dealership — thus helping you actually prove the return on investment (ROI) of your mobile advertising.

This is called geofencing, and it really works. Allow us to introduce you to this new secret weapon for your dealership.

What Is Geofencing for Auto Dealers?

A geofence is a custom virtual fence around any physical location, which you can use to target mobile ads to potential customers.

Once you’ve shown someone a geofenced ad, you can then retarget them with other ads in the days, weeks, and even months that follow.

Geofencing Service

Where Can I Show My Geofenced Ads?

The physical location of your geofence could really be anything:

• A group of dealerships you want to conquest
• A set of zip codes
• An entire state or designated market area (DMA)

Basically, you pick the precise area(s) you want to target, and geofencing marketing can make it happen.

Geofenced ads can be shown on a variety of mobile platforms. Our geofencing solution serves ads on over 10,000 smartphone apps and mobile sites, from CNN to Fox News to ESPN.

Who Will See My Geofenced Ads?

Geotargeting campaigns aren’t limited to geography alone. You can layer on a variety of other targeting options to make sure you’re reaching the most highly qualified audience for your message.

For example, geofencing for auto dealers could include vehicle shopping data sourced from main third-party data providers, like Oracle. That means you could target someone at Costco who is also in market for, say, a new Ford Explorer.

What Happens After I Run a Geofenced Ad?

Once you’ve served someone a geofenced ad, you can then retarget their mobile device with more ads as they go about their daily lives, regardless of where they move around the city.

With our geofencing solution, you’re able to retarget these devices for an indefinite period of time. A majority of dealerships see the most success by retargeting within a 30-day window, but that’s fully configurable depending on your needs.

For example, if your dealership hosts an annual campaign like a summer clearance event, you could use geo-targeting technology to save an audience of anyone visiting the store this year and then re-engage them with new ads next year.

How Do I Know if My Geo-targeting Campaigns Worked?

One of the biggest challenges in automotive marketing is knowing whether or not your efforts were worthwhile.

But, if you have an advanced solution like ours, you can actually prove the ROI of your geo-targeting campaigns by seeing whether the people you targeted actually stepped foot in your showroom or service center.

No more guessing whether your digital ads really worked!

Why Geofencing for Auto Dealers Works

You already know you need to be advertising online.

More than 75% of the automotive buyer’s journey now takes place on digital devices, so running mobile ads is a must.

But when you combine the power of mobile ads with the power of geographical targeting, your chances of engagement skyrocket.

Even with the rise of online sales programs for auto dealers, the fact is that most people still test drive, sign paperwork, and actually buy their vehicles in person.

With geofencing, you have the perfect opportunity to serve ads to leads while they’re at their peak level of consideration — both at your store and others’.

Here are three of our favorite ways to use geofencing for auto dealers.

1. You Can Conquest Shoppers at Other Dealerships

Let’s be real: you want your competitors’ customers.

As our friend Tom Hanks says in You’ve Got Mail, “It’s not personal. It’s business.”

Run a marketing conquest campaign by geofencing other dealerships or auto repair shops in your area, encouraging them to pick yours instead.

You can even continue retargeting them in the days that follow, so you stay top of mind throughout the entire buying process.

2. You Can Target Shoppers at Your Own Dealership

Did you know that 81% of car shoppers use smartphones to do research when purchasing a vehicle — including 63% who use smartphones while at your dealership?

With geofencing, you can “strike while the iron’s hot” by showing ads that nudge leads farther down the sales funnel.

Tease them with a special offer, or feature your easy financing options — anything to get them talking to a salesperson (and not clicking on a competitor’s ad instead).

3. You Can Target Potential New Leads at Other Locations

Remember the Costco scenario above? That’s a perfect example of other places where you can run your automotive geo-targeting campaigns.

(It really works, too. One of our dealership clients is currently targeting local Costco and Sam’s Club locations and has already registered 53 in-store visits from the geofenced ads in a one-month period.)

Get creative with your marketing conquest campaigns. Does your dealership sell luxury brands? Target a high-end jewelry store or shopping mall. Is a car show coming to town? Geofence the area while the event is happening.

Just be careful not to stereotype your audience, and use data to back up all of your decisions.

How Do I Get Started with Geofencing?

Your auto customers crave relevant, contextual marketing. Geofencing is your new secret weapon to reach people where they are digitally as well as where they are physically.

Ready to give it a shot? Learn more about our geofencing solution for auto dealers.

Not only can we help you run custom ads to precisely targeted locations, but we can also help you prove your return on ad spend (ROAS) with our 1:1 attribution tool, so you know your geofencing campaigns actually worked.

Learn About Our Geofencing Service

Contact Our Team for More Geofencing Information!