What is Geofencing and How Does it Work?
Location Based Software
A geofence is essentially a virtual boundary that defines a specified physical area, either as a fixed perimeter around buildings or commercial facilities or dynamically, as a radius around a location. This boundary is exploited through the utilization of location-aware devices and geofencing technologies, such as RFID, to monitor movement, tailor marketing efforts, and notify when anyone crosses the boundary in or out of an area. Some of the most prominent uses of location-based services (LBS) include marketing and advertising, fleet management, employee tracking, and security. Geofencing accurately targets users, cuts out the operational inefficiencies, and churns out rich insights into the behavior of users interacting with the geofenced area. Its adaptability brings relevance to any given industry; there’s retail, law enforcement, enhancing both customer engagement and operational efficiency.
What Does Geofencing Specifically Mean?
A virtual border erected around a particular geographic area is entered or exited by an RFID tag or mobile device using the location-based technology service known as “geofencing.” Any software, whether it be desktop, mobile, cloud-based, RFID, or otherwise, leverages cellular, Wi-Fi, or GPS data to initiate a pre-programmed action. Static ads, programmatic video, and CTV OTT advertising are some more geofencing systems that offer a variety of creatives. Or it may encompass a structure or house, zip code, or even a mile. But what would enable geofencing is the establishment of that clear boundary.
Geofencing has various uses and a variety of triggers, such as:
1) Cell phone push messages
2) Send alert messages or SMSs
3) Serve contextual ads across various digital media which could include but is not limited to programmatic display
4) Track vehicle fleet
5) Spy on your spouses and pets.
6) Track mobile phones
7) Block selected devices
8) Offer location-based marketing intelligence for research.
How Does Real Geofencing Work?
Geofencing involves a multi-stepped process to establish. First, it uses software that supports RFID or GPS to draw the virtual border. It mainly makes use of tools called polygonal geofencing to mark points on a map in marking the points. Such a boundary defines the area where the mobile user or device is going to be captured. For mobile apps, a particular geofencing software may create a circular boundary using platforms like Google Maps through APIs and could be as small as 100 feet. For instance, after setting up a geofence, it will send an event whenever a device enters or leaves the region.
But to activate this functionality of geofence, users should have location services allowed for their devices. A geofence is created within the code of the application using GPS, cellular or Wi-Fi networks to trace down mobile device IDs. For example, an app of a concert may send reminders to all attendees whenever they cross over the virtual boundary; an app for a retailer may send alerts when a customer enters a geofenced area. However, a user can opt out from sharing the location, but the geofence is controlled by the administrator or developer of the app.
Advantages of Geofencing
- Precision & Accuracy: It targets specific locations like buildings, not just large areas like neighborhoods or zip codes.
- Effective Marketing: Reaches in-market customers, limits wasted ad spend, and targets hyper-local locations.
- Omnichannel Strategy: Results become better when combined with other channels such as Google Ads, Facebook, TV, etc.
- Efficiency: Tends to enhance operational efficiency by measuring productivity and other assets working in an organization and reducing waste and saving costs
- Audience Data: Enables the insight of audience behavior, demographics, and psychographics
- Mobile-Centric: Compatible with 92% of the smartphones makes it highly effective for any sort of application.
- People & Employee Tracking: Improve tracking for fleet management, HR, security, and law enforcement.