As a business owner, you know the importance of targeting customers. Though your business thrives off of newly-interested customers and a growing customer base, it’s also imperative to market to a specifically targeted group of customers. This is because rather than trying to make new customers from people who are unfamiliar with your brand, it’s often easier (and more effective) to market to individuals who are already interested in your products and services.
In this case, we’re talking specifically about those who are close to your location at any given time. How can you target this specific group of customers on Facebook, though? It’s now extremely easy thanks to geofencing Facebook ads.
Facebook is a fantastic advertising platform for a geofencing campaign
If you’re still on the fence (no pun intended) about Facebook advertising to begin with, you can feel reassured to know that it’s a great place to advertise your business and its products. At the second quarter of 2018, Facebook as a platform had 2.23 billion monthly users. That statistic alone demonstrates the popularity of Facebook and shows how beneficial ads on the platform can be.
The point of advertisements is to promote your products and services. When you do so, you want to serve those advertisements to as many interested customers as possible. 
Facebook has such a following, that even a campaign as targeted as geofencing can have astronomical results for your company — simply due to the outrageous number of users on the platform.
The basics of geofencing Facebook ads
There are a lot of different elements when it comes to geofencing Facebook ads. We’ll go over a few of them below! Let’s first talk about the basics of each element of geofencing Facebook ads.
Let’s talk geofencing
In short, geofencing allows you to target a specific audience based on where they’re located. It’s probably a lot more detailed than what you’re used to in terms of location targeting, though. Many ad platforms including Google Ads and Facebook Ads allow you to target based on things like demographics and location, but geofencing brings a new kind of targeting to the table.
It allows you to draw a virtual polygon around areas where there’s a high chance that customers will visit your physical location. When you draw that virtual polygon via the ad platform, people that step inside that boundary see ads for your products or services. You’ll more than likely draw that polygon around your location, but you can also target competitors’ locations, events, and conferences.
Let’s talk Facebook ads
When you utilize geofencing Facebook ads, it’s important to keep in mind that not much changes in terms of how your Facebook ad campaign works — geofencing simply offers a more detailed way to target customers. That being said, your ads still run on a bidding system where you’ll compete for ad space. Since you only pay Facebook when an ad is clicked, it’s still one of the most efficient and cost-effective way to market your products and services.
When you start out with a Facebook geofencing ad campaign, you’ll start by selecting the keywords you want to target with your ads, and how much you’re willing to pay every time someone clicks the ad. The only difference? You’ll target those customers with geofences rather than location settings.
How virtual geofencing boundaries affect who you target
There are many options for where you draw your so-called “virtual boundaries,” and each can have different benefits. Let’s talk about some of the potential locations you could choose to draw your virtual targeting boundaries.
Polygon around your location
When you draw that polygon around your location, everyone that steps over your virtual geofence ideally sees an ad for your business. Keep in mind, though, these ads still work on a bidding system — meaning you’re still competing for ad space. If you have a competitor with a similar or overlapping geofence that is targeting the same keyword, let’s say “coffee in Manhattan,” the cost per click for the ad will increase, since more than one business is fighting it out for the ad space.
Polygon around your competition’s location
Let’s say you own a shoe store in the city and your biggest competition is two blocks away. You know that customers that enter your competition’s storefront is interested in the same things you have to offer at your storefront, so why not target them? With geofencing, you can draw your virtual fence around your competition’s storefront so that Facebook ads for your company show up when a customer is in their store.
This is a great way to let users know that your competition’s location isn’t the only one close by that offers what they’re looking for.
Polygon around an event or conference
Let’s say there’s a concert at a popular venue in your city. It’s a country concert and everyone is sporting their best leather cowboy boots. You just happen to sell leather cowboy boots at your shoe store, and you want to target everyone that’s attending that concert with Facebook ads for your store.
To do so, you could draw a geofence around the concert venue so that those in attendance scrolling through Facebook will see an ad for your leather cowboy boots.
Wait, doesn’t Facebook already allow you to target by location?
Yes, it does! However, previous location targeting only allowed you to target by country, state, and city.
Even though that kind of targeting is beneficial, it’s not quite specific enough to do the best possible job at targeting customers. That’s why geofencing is a much better option. With this new kind of Facebook ad, you’re able to target customers within a one-mile circumference, which is pretty darn specific — and super beneficial to your business.
With more specific targeting comes a new pool of hyper-targeted potential customers that are the most likely to visit your storefront. Why are they so likely to visit? Because they see ads for your business only when they step inside your dictated geofence.
But does that mean that they’ll never see an ad outside your set geofence? Nope! If you run a typical Facebook Ads campaign, your ad can show up to anyone at any time, regardless of their location, when their interests match the product offered in your ads.
However, in the case of geofencing, your ad will show up to users that step inside your virtual fence when they’re interested in the products you offer with your ads.
Do you currently have a geofencing Facebook ad campaign?
If you’re one of the many businesses that have adopted geofencing for your Facebook ads, congratulations! If you want to learn more about how to better your Facebook ads, or if you’re having a hard time deciding on Facebook ads vs Google ads, WebFX can help!
Give us a ring at 888-601-5359 or contact us online!
