Geofencing Marketing Services

Geofencing marketing means drawing a virtual boundary (a geofence) around a real place, such as a store, venue or event, and showing ads to phones that enter it. It only works with phones whose owners have agreed to share location with an app. People usually see the ads later, in apps or on websites, not as a message the moment they arrive. With Softscotch, it includes planning, privacy checks, ads, landing pages and honest reporting.

Geotargeting shows ads to people in a wider area, such as a city, zip code or a radius around an address. Geofencing draws a tighter boundary around a specific place and targets phones that enter it. Geoframing usually means drawing a shape around a specific building or event and targeting phones that were there during set past dates, such as last month's trade show. Providers sometimes use these words differently, so we explain exactly what we'd do.

Tight geofences are usually run through a programmatic platform (DSP, software that buys ad space across many apps and websites) that uses location data from apps where users agreed to share it. Meta and Google also let you target a radius around an address, but with minimum sizes that suit neighborhoods more than single buildings. We choose the route that fits each goal and show you every fee.

It depends on the data. Phone GPS is usually accurate to a few meters outdoors, but much less inside large buildings or among tall city buildings. Location estimated from Wi-Fi or internet connections (IP addresses) can be much rougher, sometimes off by miles. That's why we draw fences with some care around the edges, ask providers where their data comes from and never promise pinpoint accuracy.

There are two parts. Your ad budget is paid to the ad platforms. Our management fee depends on the number of places and fences, the number of ad channels, how many ads and landing pages we create, reporting and whether store-visit measurement or sales matching is included. Some data and measurement tools have their own costs. Request a quote and we'll send a scoped proposal.

Geofencing ads are legal when the location data is collected with proper consent and used within the law. This is information, not legal advice: several state privacy laws, including California's, treat precise location as sensitive personal information, and many require opt-in consent or give people the right to limit its use. The FTC has acted against companies selling sensitive location data. We work with your legal team.

No. We don't fence health care facilities, places of worship, shelters, schools for children or similar sensitive places. As information only, laws in states such as Washington and Nevada restrict geofences around health care facilities, and ad platforms restrict ads based on health and other sensitive traits. Housing, job and credit ads also have extra targeting limits on Meta and Google.

Common uses include targeting people who visited rival stores or dealerships, reaching attendees at events, trade shows or venues during and after the event, bringing past visitors back to your own store, and promoting openings or offers near your locations. It works best when a visit to a place is a strong sign that someone could become your customer.

Where enough visitors exist, a second fence around your location counts visits by phones that saw your ads. On its own, that overstates results, because some people would have come anyway. So we compare them with a similar group who didn't see ads to estimate lift, and match to sales you share where possible. These numbers are estimates, and we explain their limits.

No. No honest company can guarantee visits, leads or sales from geofencing. Results depend on your offer, your locations, your competition, how many people share location data and how quickly you follow up. We agree what success looks like, run a test first and report honestly, including when the campaign isn't working.

It's often a poor fit if your budget is very small, your customers aren't tied to any particular places, your target places get few visitors, your industry restricts location targeting, or you need exact proof of which ad caused each sale. In those cases, search ads, social ads with wider area targeting or SEO usually work better, and we'll tell you so.

You can run radius targeting yourself on Meta and Google, and that suits many local businesses. Tight geofences, look-back targeting and visit measurement usually need a programmatic platform, careful fence drawing, privacy checks and data quality checks, which is where most do-it-yourself campaigns go wrong. We're happy to tell you which parts you could run in-house.

Only in limited cases. A business with its own app can send alerts to users who turned on location and notifications. Sending texts requires the person's prior consent under the TCPA (the US law on calls and texts). Most geofencing campaigns show ads in apps and on websites instead of sending messages, and we're clear about which one you're getting.

Ask where the location data comes from, which platform buys the ads, how accurate they say it is, how they avoid sensitive places, how they measure store visits and whether they use a comparison group. Ask to see a sample report and every fee listed separately. Be careful with anyone who promises pinpoint accuracy or guaranteed sales.