4 Steps to Successfully Use Facebook Geo-Targeting

You’re scrolling through Facebook and you wonder, how do I see ads for businesses near me? How do they know? If you’re in New York, it wouldn’t make sense to receive advertisements for stores and restaurants in Phoenix, and vice versa. Location-specific targeting on Facebook is due to a marketing tactic known as geo-targeting. Geo-targeting allows you to target potential customers in a specific area based on country, region, or city. Facebook has always been a great platform for advertising, but its targeting functionalities are elevated to the next level by allowing businesses to display their ads exactly where people are. Kinda creepy right? Not if you’re a marketer or a business! It’s great!

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Here are a few tips to help you successfully use Facebook geo-targeting to help ensure that your advertisements are seen by the right people.

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Step 1: Visit the Facebook Business Page

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Visit this page to help you set up your advertisement. It has a plethora of information on how to set up an ad that is based on location. In the past, Facebook allowed you to choose who sees your ads based on certain criteria such as country, state, and ZIP code, but it now has even more features that allow you to refine your audience and maximize your spend.

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Step 2: Refine Your Audience

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Start by narrowing down your audience to target your buyer personas - the people who will be most interested in viewing your advertisements. Don’t waste time or money targeting those who will see your advertisement and scroll quickly past. The choices for audiences within a location are:

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Everyone in this location (default):

This option allows you to target people who are currently in a specific city or area. This includes people who updated their current city in their Facebook profile, as well as anyone determined to be in that location. We all have that one Facebook friend who has to tag every single place they go as part of their daily play-by-play. Businesses love these kinds of people. This option is great for companies who want to advertise when there are large events such as high-profile sporting events or concerts happening in the area; in other words, when a large amount of people will be in a given area at a given time.

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People who live in this location:

This includes people who live in an area within the location you choose. This is determined by the city they have displayed on their Facebook profile and is also validated based on device and connection information. This option is the best for businesses such as local hospitals, gyms, or recreation centers.

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People recently in this location:

With this option, you are targeting people whose most recent location is within the selected area, as determined by the device and connection information that Facebook collects from them. This includes people who live there or who may be traveling there. This type of targeting is great to advertise during time sensitive sales, to people recently in the location you choose, such as a restaurant or movie theater.

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People traveling in this location:

This includes people traveling in the selected area as determined by the device and connection information that Facebook can collect when people are more than 125 miles from their home location. This option is the best for businesses such as rental car companies or restaurants; those businesses looking to target people who are on the go.

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Step 3: Select Your Location

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As previously stated, Facebook now has more ways for you to better focus your marketing efforts by targeting your ads to people within a certain location. In addition to country, state, and ZIP code, you are now able to choose between these other locations:

• City

• DMA (Designated Market Area)

• Business address

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In addition to selecting a target area, you will also be able to choose a radius around your target area. For example, once you have chosen your city, you can then choose if you want people who live 10 miles, 20 miles, or even 50 miles, away from the target area to be able to view your ad.

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Step 4: Business Locations Targeting

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Business Locations Targeting allows you to target ads to people near your business's physical location(s). This type of targeting is only available for businesses who have physical locations and want people to visit at any given time, such as a restaurant or retail store.

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As you can see, Facebook has a very easy system set in place to help you target a specific geographic area. Using Facebook geo-targeting you will be able to ensure that the people who are viewing your ad are more likely to find the content relevant to them, and entice them to visit your site to see what else you have to offer. If you would like any help with how to set up geo-targeting that will best impact your business, or would like help with an overall Facebook strategy, please contact us!