Imagine casually strolling into an athletic shoe store. Your phone dings. It’s a notification from a different shoe store at the other end of the mall. The message?
“This is a countdown discount. It will stop when you enter [store name].”
A countdown timer appears. Every second you lose one percent of the discount.
“99%…98%…97%…”
This exact promotion had hundreds of shoppers sprinting out of Nike, Adidas, and Reebok outlets and into a boutique sneaker store in a Guatemalan shopping center.
Geofencing made this marketing marvel possible. And it’s just one of the ways businesses, both big and small, can use it to deliver hyper-relevant promotions to motivated buyers right when they’d be most effective.
In this guide, you’ll see seven brilliant geofencing examples and learn how to use this technology to attract and keep customers for your own business.
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What is geofencing?
Geofencing, or geofence marketing, is a type of location-based marketing that uses WiFi, GPS, or cellular data to set virtual perimeters—called geofences—around a location. With a geofence in place, you can send highly personalized promotions to people in a specific location.
Here’s a simple geofencing example. Say you run a doggie daycare. You set up geofences around nearby pet food stores and dog parks—wherever your target audience is likely to spend time. People who visit those physical locations either see display ads for your services on their favorite websites and apps or get a text message directly from your business.
How can geofencing help your business?
The most effective marketing messages are hyper-relevant to the person you’re trying to reach and delivered when they’re most likely to buy. Geofence marketing does that and more.
Here are a few specific ways geofencing can help grow your business:
- Present perfectly timed promotions: Offer discount codes and other messages that convert customers as they approach your location.
- Attract customers from your competitors: Geofencing lets you send messages to shoppers as they get close to your competitors, giving you a chance to win them over.
- Learn about your customers’ behavior: Geofencing allows you to collect valuable first-party data about your customers’ buying habits to improve your marketing and service.
- Reduce the cost of ads: Geofencing can help you better target display ads, social media ads, and Google Ads, reducing wasted ad spending.
💡 Free guide >> How to Find Your Target Audience
7 clever geofencing examples
Geofencing is a versatile marketing strategy with several applications. These brands got really creative and used it to improve their product, win new customers, and even troll their biggest competitors.
1. Burger King flame-broiled McDonald’s
If there were a hall of fame for trolling your competitors, Burger King would be inducted immediately for its “Whopper Detour” promotion. This amazing geofencing example turned more than 14,000 McDonald’s restaurants into Burger King ordering kiosks.
Here’s how it worked. When someone with the BK app installed on their mobile device got within 600 feet of most McDonald’s locations, they saw a promotion to order a Whopper for a penny. Once they placed the order, the app directed them to the nearest Burger King location for pickup.
The clever campaign generated over 1.5 million downloads of the BK app, a spike in sales, and untold brand awareness on social media.
How you can use this geofencing strategy
The Whopper Detour promotion is an example of geo-conquesting, where you place geofences around your competitors to try and lure them to your business.
Burger King’s geo-conquesting strategy worked because its one-cent Whopper offer was very compelling to people hungry for burgers. To get similar results, make sure your promotion is exciting enough to entice people away from your competitor.
Try offering a buy-one-get-one-free deal or a deep discount. Make it a limited-time offer to motivate people to act now.
🕵️ Want to know what your customers are up to? Get the free guide, How to Spy on Your Competitors, to find out.
2. Greek’s Pizzeria played the long game
When a local pizza joint saw new competitors slicing into its business, the family-owned restaurant used geo-conquesting to deliver hundreds of new customers. But there was a twist. Instead of trying to pull people right away, the Pizzeria delayed their ads to catch patrons when they were likely to be hungry for pizza again.
Geofencing perfectly paired with Greek’s Pizzeria’s other strategies like social media marketing and discount codes.
This version of geofencing starts the same way as the BK example. Greek’s Pizzeria placed a geofence around a dozen competitors within a three-mile radius of its shop. The ads were delayed by two weeks, though. The plan was to catch people the next time they craved a hand-crafted pie.
The plan worked. In just the first month, 269 people visited Greek’s after being served one of the ads. On average, those visits happened within five days of seeing the ad.
How you can use this geofencing strategy
The Greek’s Pizzeria example shows that businesses of any size can use geofencing. The key is knowing your customers.
If you offer something people spend on repeatedly, like food, yoga classes, or doggie daycare, you can use a delayed geo-conquest tactic. Say you’re a local masseuse, and you know most people get massages every month. Set up geofences around your competitors and show ads three weeks after people visit them.
3. HotelTonight elevated last-minute lodging
The HotelTonight app helps hotels fill un-booked rooms by matching them up to travelers needing beds. Of course, if you’re looking for a hotel room tonight, you probably don’t care about hotel deals hundreds of miles away.
That’s where HotelTonight’s GPS data and geofencing magic come in. The app sends its users information based on their current location. When they get close to a property with rooms to spare, the user will get an extra-special deal, increasing the chance that they’ll book through the app.
How you can use this geofencing strategy
The secret sauce of HotelTonight’s success is the perfect timing of its promotions. Travelers need lodging when they arrive at a new location, so the app serves that need when it’s at its highest.
As you contemplate your own geofence strategy, think about where your customers are when they most need what you sell. For example, a healthy juice bar could geofence local fitness classes and offer a discount on recovery drinks.
4. Sephora built a foundation of brand loyalty
Sephora knows a thing or two about fostering customer loyalty. The beauty brand has built huge online communities, and millions of people follow its social media accounts. So, of course, it used geofencing to deepen its relationship with its most loyal customers.
How’d they do it? By creating a “store companion” that activates when someone with the Sephora app walks near the store.
The companion reminds shoppers of products they’ve bought in the past or left abandoned in their virtual shopping cart. It also connects to the brand’s customer loyalty program, sends invitations to in-store events, and shows shoppers sales items they may like based on prior purchases.
How you can use this geofencing strategy
Sephora’s in-store app is like a personal shopper that already knows what each customer likes. It helps visitors make decisions and discover products and discounts. In short, Sephora used geofencing to personalize the in-store shopping experience.
How can you personalize your customers’ visits? A grocery store could send shoppers personalized recipes when they enter based on what’s on sale. A clothing store could share outfits with shoppers using in-stock inventory.
5. Dunkin sweetened Snaps for World Donut Day
Dunkin’ Donuts celebrated World Donut Day in an unexpected way—by letting people transform their mugs with a frosting-face filter on Snapchat. The catch? It only worked when they were near a Dunkin’ location.
Dunkin coupled the Snapchat feature—called a Geofilter—with a free donut promotion. The one-two combo of silly fun and a valuable offer drew people in who may have otherwise driven by (or worse, got their fill from another donut shop).
How you can use this geofencing strategy
Dunkin’s outside-the-box geofence promotion stood out against a dozen other Donut Day deals. The lesson is to get creative with how you use your geofence to create unique experiences no one else has.
For example, a gym’s geofence promotion could trigger a link to an uplifting workout playlist when fitness enthusiasts pull into the parking lot.
6. Walmart rolled back product pickup times
The buy-online-pickup-in-store (BOPIS) phenomenon really took off during the pandemic. But shoppers still love the convenience of a quick curbside pickup. Walmart used geofencing to make the process even smoother.
Let’s say you order several items on the Walmart app. As you pull into the parking lot, the store’s geofence tells employees you’ve arrived, so there’s no need to contact them. Before you know it, your products are loaded, and you’re on your way.
How you can use this geofencing strategy
Geofencing is a powerful marketing tool, but Walmart showed that it can also make shopping more convenient. Any time you remove friction from the buying process, your conversion rate will increase.
How can you make your customers’ lives easier? How about a store map that pops up on a customer’s phone when they come in? Or maybe a click-to-call ad for your landscape business that gets triggered when people visit a local plant nursery.
7. Starbucks swung for the geofences
Last but far from least on our list of geofencing examples is Starbucks. The coffee chain uses its geofence-powered app in several ways to get more people in the door.
For starters, customers who drive near a Starbucks location may get a piping hot deal on a drink.
Then, there’s the brand’s Happy Hour promotion. On select Thursdays each month, participating Starbucks locations offer buy-one-get-one-free deals on specific menu items. App users get a push notification of the event, which leads to a description and directions to the nearest store.
How you can use this geofencing strategy
Starbucks’s strategy is one of the most common in the geofence marketing playbook. It works a lot like a physical sign you’d put in front of your shop to promote daily deals. Only when you use a geofence, you can reach people a mile away, personalize the message for different customers, and track how many people see and use the promotion.
This is a great place to start your geofencing journey if you have a location-based business. Set a perimeter around your shop and trigger ads with a compelling offer. Try discounts, BOGOs, and even promoting your referral program—whatever brings in the most foot traffic.
Let these geofencing examples inspire your next campaign
Like all geotargeting ad techniques, geofencing helps you serve more relevant ads to the people most likely to buy. That means less wasted ad budget, higher conversion rates, and happier customers.
The geofencing examples we’ve shared show various ways to use the technology to increase foot traffic and improve the customer experience. Each can be scaled and adapted to most businesses, regardless of size.
Ready to refine your ad and audience targeting for better results? Contact us, and we’ll show you how we help businesses get more from every marketing campaign.