Geotargeting
Geotargeting is targeting a campaign by the audience’s location: a country, a region, a city, a postcode or a radius around a point.
It is one of the oldest and most widely used forms of targeting in digital advertising. Location is inferred from the IP address, which is usually enough to get the country and city right, or from the phone’s GPS when the user allows it, which is accurate to street level. The smaller the area, the more the source matters: targeting a region by IP works well; a 500-metre radius around a shop does not.
It differs from geofencing in scale and intent. Geotargeting defines where a campaign runs, usually based on where people live or where they are at the time; geofencing draws a specific perimeter to act on whoever enters it or has been there. Chains with physical shops often combine the two: geotargeting to keep spend within each store’s catchment area and geofencing for the places with the strongest purchase intent.
