How Qujam Is Simplifying Hyper-Targeted Geofence Advertising

1. How do you define the shift toward hyper-targeted advertising and why is it becoming important in today’s AdTech landscape?

It’s estimated that Americans are exposed to around 5,000 branded messages everyday according to studies from University of Southern California. This is up from 500 in the 1970’s.  With so much noise, how is a brand expected to break through? Well, it’s simple…say the right thing to the right people.  Hyper-targeted advertising to specific individuals at specific times leverages this simple truth by identifying the right people, but it also allows us as advertisers to effectively craft the message to the audience based on the campaign’s targeting as well. For example, our Qujam platform uses geofence advertising to target consumers with ads based on where they have hyper-specifically been like a building or public space. If I am a military recruiter, and I’m geofencing high schoolers, then I know the messaging can be geared more towards that specific ad group and demographic, but if I’m recruiting for cyber security and using geofencing to target coding schools, the message would be specific to that audience.

2. What are some of the biggest challenges traditional advertisers face when transitioning to self-serve platforms?

I’m an advertising agency owner and an adtech developer, so I have a unique opportunity to simultaneously see the pros and cons of advertisers using a managed service like my agency, Blink Advertising, or a self-serve platform like Qujam. The challenges when people want to move toward a self-serve platform is 1. There are a lot of platforms and not one person can be great at all of them 2. Some platforms require high minimum spend. 3. Many platforms can be complex, so it takes a lot of time and studying to really learn them. 4. You miss out on leveraging other’s experience. On the flip side, self-serve ad platforms can be less expensive, can be set up quickly, and give the user more control. Both self-served and managed or agency options are useful, but it all depends on what the advertiser values, their capacity, capabilities, and needs.

3. Can you explain how hyper-targeted geofence advertising works in practice? What makes it more effective than broader location-based campaigns? 

What separates hyper-targeted geofence advertising from traditional advertising is its precision. With geofencing, as long as you know what physical locations your audience are, you can cut straight through and reach them directly. The way it works is by creating a virtual boundary, and utilizing GPS technology to collect the device IDs of anyone who enters. As long as someone enters the geofence with their locations settings enabled, we are able to use their device IDs to target them with your highly tailored message for up to 30 days. It’s a powerful tool when used with precision. 

4. What are the most common targeting parameters Qujam users leverage such as radius, behavior, or demographic layers? 

Qujam was built specifically to only leverage hyper-specific location targeting. It uses GPS targets primarily to pinpoint that a device has been at a specific location and then serves display, OTT/CTV, and/or video pre-roll ads to it for 30 days. It also serves ads to other devices connected to the originally captured device, but it all starts with one GPS enabled device being at a specific location. You can draw the fences manually, or use our addressable geofencing feature for large address lists to automatically geofence property lines. For addressable geofencing, we also use additional data points about the property to help pinpoint devices that are in and associated with the properties.

5. How important is creative personalization in hyper-targeted campaigns, and how should brands approach it on a budget?

My favorite analogy when comparing the creative and targeting of advertising is that it’s like going on a first date.  Option one, you say the wrong thing to the wrong date, and it goes poorly. Option two, you say the wrong thing to the right date, and it goes poorly. Option three, you say the right thing to the wrong date, and you could end up with the wrong person. The final option is obviously that you say the right thing to the right person and things go well.  That’s the importance of having good, compelling, and relevant creative in front of the right target audience.

6. How are you working to educate the next generation of marketers and advertisers in AdTech and creative innovation?

I personally love to do guest lectures at universities and panels, but I also try to share my thoughts in multiple mediums as well including writing an ebook, article writing, interviews, I created a few college level courses for my team members, as a company we produce detailed SOPs and training videos, and more.  I don’t love the lime light, but I love to help others and share what I know if it can be valuable.