Localisation technology: Shaping the future of sales
In the early days of the web, exposure mattered. No matter what people said, the amount of “eyeballs” that a website could attract would mean that the company behind the site could IPO in a matter of months, and with an impossibly high valuation at the time.
Since those early days we’ve since learned that “eyeballs” don’t matter. In fact, overexposure of a brand can be to its own detriment, as consumers find themselves increasingly likely to ignore ads, even going so far as to employ ad blockers as a means of preventing “visual spam”. The challenge for marketers is simply, how do they still deliver their message without overexposing the brand, and ensure an effective conversion?
The answer to this is localisation technology. Smartphones have been able to revolutionise marketing’s understanding of where people are in the world, and by extension, what their intensions are when they get there.
Why does localisation matter?
Localisation technology is simply defined as using a persons location as a means to target a specific audience. In billboards, localisation can be an advertisement that acknowledges its own location. In digital marketing, localisation is a bit more complex. Localised advertising on Youtube for example, needs to take into account the trends that Google’s advertising algorithms have used to determine whether an ad is suitable for an audience.
On Facebook, should you find an audience within a local radius of your business can see advertisements for it. Though the conversion on this may not be particularly effective as a one off, but on a long enough timeline localised advertising can provide a better filter than many other types of audiences, such as intention (which is very common in search).
How can you capitolise on localisation?
While there are many ways to use localisation technology in advertising, the best place to start is to look at demographics in a given location. Once you’ve obtained the target demographic within a location, you’ll be able to form an audience.
Localisation isn’t everything, but it’s important to understand the power of being able to appeal to a local audience.
