Map Advertisements: Should Your Retail Business Invest in Them?

As petrol prices rise and people tend to stay closer to home, the hospitality industry has noticed a shift: there’s less time between booking decisions and travel. Hotels, restaurants, and other hospitality businesses are now trying to attract last-minute walk-ins and travelers. While traditional billboard signage was once the go-to solution, today’s businesses are turning to a modern alternative: map advertisements.

What Are Map Ads?

Map ads are digital advertisements that appear on mapping apps like Waze or Google Maps. They help businesses become more visible to users who are nearby or traveling through the area. These ads use geofencing, meaning they target devices within a specific radius of your business. So, if someone is looking for a business like yours while driving through your area or browsing from a nearby home, your ad will show up on their map feed.

How Are Map Ads Useful?

The power of map ads comes from the massive number of users on these platforms. For example, Waze has over 140 million active users per month, and Google Maps boasts over 154 million monthly users. Advertising on these platforms allows you to directly reach people who are already searching for businesses like yours, such as restaurants or hotels.

Both Waze and Google Maps offer various ad formats. Google Maps features "local search ads" that show up in-app on mobile, tablet, or desktop versions, as well as on Google.com’s extended map results. Soon, Google will launch “promoted pins” that will highlight your location in a different color to draw more attention. On Waze, ad options include "pin ads," "search ads," "takeover ads," and "arrow ads."

These ads can be tailored to fit your pay-per-click budget, allowing you to test and measure the return on investment (ROI). Plus, you can track the performance of your ads, seeing how many unique users viewed your ad and whether it led to actual business.

The Bottom Line

Map ads are an effective way to increase visibility for your business, especially in the hospitality industry. By targeting drivers and local customers, map ads put your business in a prime position to attract attention, make sales, or increase bookings. With their user-friendly nature and cost-effectiveness, they are becoming a smart alternative to traditional billboard and street signage.

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