Place-Based Advertising | AdQuick (2024)

What Does Place-Based Advertising Mean?

In short, place-based advertising means that your ad is placed in a specific location. Like billboards, place-based advertising can be specialized to target specific groups of people based on the location. Many forms of out-of-home advertising (otherwise known as OOH) incorporate digital content that can be interactive.

Regardless of the format, place-based advertising gives you an unparalleled opportunity to reach certain demographics that frequent specific locations, like urban gyms or suburban shopping malls. Although OOH media is an established form of advertising, traditional OOH methods don’t typically offer the ability to target your content. By narrowing down your target audience, you can expand your brand awareness among the people who are most likely to become future customers.

Types of Place-Based Advertising

How Does Place-Based Advertising Work?

Place-based advertising involves large format signage that can either be static or digital. Typically placed in high-traffic areas, like shopping malls, place based ads capture people’s attention at a point in time when they are already expecting to make a purchase. Digital screens at gas stations, for example, might advertise a snack that customers can purchase inside. A local bar might have an ad for a specific brand of beer. By connecting with customers at a specific location, place-based media is an especially effective form of advertising.

When you develop a place-based advertising campaign, you’ll need to think about who your target audience is. Digital out-of-home advertising (DOOH) is a great option for getting involved in a digital place, and offers unique opportunities to collect information about your customers. Your ad campaign could encourage customers to interact with your brand on social media, or offer them great deals on products if they download an app. By effectively utilizing DOOH you can collect information about your customers and their interests in real time.

What Are The Benefits Of Place-Based Advertising?

When you use OOH advertising you know that your content will achieve maximum visual exposure. Large-scale outdoor advertising ads, like billboards and transit ads, are seen by hundreds of thousands of potential customers, instantly boosting your brand awareness.

However, the downside of OOH is that you often aren’t able to target niche audiences. But when you use place-based advertising you get the best of both worlds. Place-based ads receive maximum exposure, due to the fact that ads are placed in high-traffic public spaces, and you have the added ability to gain access to your target audience by meeting them where they already go.

Some place-based ads, particularly digital ads, can be interactive or respond to audiences in real-time. This gives you an added degree of flexibility and creativity, allowing you to design campaigns that increase engagement with your customers.

What Makes Place-Based Advertising Important?

Place-based advertising deserves a spot in your marketing campaign if you are hoping to reach a high volume of people in a designated area. If you’re hoping to reach sports fans, for example, consider utilizing a place-based advertising approach that takes advantage of digital screens at sports stadiums and arenas. If your company sells a snack commonly sold in gas stations, consider a place-based approach that shares content on digital screens at gas stations. DOOH is rapidly growing in popularity as more venues offer digital ad space, and it is a great way to increase brand awareness for a relatively low cost.

Because digital out-of-home advertising is more targeted, it provides an effective ad strategy for smaller companies that are trying to keep their ad spend low. Instead of paying for an ad campaign that targets an entire region, you can get a higher return on your investment by targeting a smaller subset of the population.

Successful Use Cases for Place-Based Advertising

Consider the example of a digital place-based ad in a gym. Because you know that gym-goers are interested in fitness, you can tailor your advertising content to best suit your target audience. Your place-based ad might relate to nutrition or health, capturing your audience’s attention in a place where they’ll have a significant amount of dwell time.

Another example might be a drink company that utilized place-based ads near a bar or a neighborhood with a high concentration of nightlife establishments. The key is to determine where your target demographics are, and then tailor your ad content to that specific group. The benefit of place-based media is that you are better able to target your marketing campaign and ensure that it gets in front of the people who are most likely to become paying customers.