Events are often a core part of local advertising campaigns. They bring foot traffic from residents and visitors, which can be a boost to the economy. There are many ways businesses can take advantage of these. However, event geofencing can often underdeliver.

It can be a sound strategy, but the limited-time nature often works against performance. Let’s review why geofencing an event can stall.

The Campaign Period Is Too Short

Most community events only last one day or a weekend. These short flights don’t have time to build up and serve the expected impressions. A campaign that brief will almost always not perform well.

Making the campaign at least 30 days is always a best practice. Consider the geofenced area. Does it hold events regularly? Is it a busy part of the city in general? Does it already include the advertiser’s location?

If the answer is yes to one or all, you can recommend a run of at least one month or longer. Most third-party digital advertising platforms have creative scheduling features. This offers the ability to schedule specific creative in time frames. As the event and its audience change, swap out more relevant ads. If it’s an area with regular foot traffic, the promotions can be general.

Another reason to extend these campaigns is that attendees are actively participating and may not be browsing the web or apps on their phone. They may simply be using it as a camera or texting with friends. When location-based retargeting is part of the 30-day (or longer) campaign, there’s a longer window to reach those same people at a time when they are more receptive to engaging with ads.

The Radius Is Too Small or Only One Location

Geofencing, in general, underdelivers when the fenced area is too small or limited to a single location. It’s very restrictive, and the audience available to serve ads to could be just a small portion of the event crowd. 

It’s okay to have the geofenced location larger than the actual footprint of the event. Consider that in many situations, people may have to park far away or take public transportation so those greater areas can be part of the fence.

Event Geofencing in a Silo May Underperform

When building promotional or branding campaigns for customers who want to engage consumers at events, suggest more than geofencing. It’s a strong tactic, but all advertising does better with complementary tactics. Those can be digital and traditional.

These are some options for the media buy:

  • Add display (static or video) to target audiences who have an interest in these events as well as by
  • Encourage them to purchase radio spots that highlight the business in terms of events (e.g., Visitors who attend the music festival receive one free drink with their entry ticket).
  • Position social display ads as a programmatic tactic that has the look of social posts.

Geofencing Events Can Work, But You Need a Strategy

Proactively talking about underdelivery to advertisers may seem like something that’s a no-go for sales. However, you’re setting expectations and advising them of a strategic approach. They’ll appreciate that much more than if you just book the campaign and it stumbles. Transparency and honesty build relationships and, in this case, improve performance.

For more geofencing insights, read our post on creative geofencing campaign ideas.