Data & identity · also called Geographic targeting, location targeting, geofencing
Geotargeting
Geotargeting is showing ads to people based on their geographic location, from country and city down to postcode or a small radius around a store, using IP addresses, GPS or declared location.
Location is one of the most basic targeting signals. A pizza chain wants people within delivery range; a national election campaign cannot advertise across borders; a retailer wants people near its stores. Geotargeting makes that possible.
Location comes from several sources of varying precision: the IP address (roughly accurate at country and city level), a device's GPS (precise, but only with permission in apps), Wi-Fi, user-declared location such as a postcode in a profile, or the context itself (a local news page). Geofencing targets a defined area, like a radius around a stadium; "geoconquesting" targets competitors' locations.
Precise location is sensitive. Apps must request permission; laws such as CCPA / CPRA treat precise geolocation as sensitive personal information; and the FTC has taken action against companies selling location data that revealed visits to sensitive places. Location is also manipulated in fraud: falsified location data is listed as SIVT by the MRC, and proxies can make traffic appear local when it is not.
Think of it like this
Geotargeting is like handing out flyers only on the street where your shop is, rather than across the whole city.
An example
A coffee chain in Mexico City targets mobile users within 500 metres of its 40 cafés between 7 and 10 a.m. with a breakfast offer, using GPS data from apps with location permission.
Related terms
IP address (in advertising)
In advertising, an IP address is the network address a device uses online, used for rough geolocation, household matching, frequency capping and fraud detection, and treated as personal data in many laws.
Targeting
Targeting is choosing which people, contexts, places, devices or times should see an ad, so that the budget is spent on the audiences most likely to respond.
CCPA / CPRA
The CCPA, as amended by the CPRA, is California's consumer privacy law giving residents rights to know, delete, correct and opt out of the sale or sharing of their personal information.
DOOH (digital out-of-home)
DOOH (digital out-of-home) is advertising on digital screens in public places, such as billboards, transit stations, airports, malls, lifts and taxis, often bought programmatically.
Residential proxy
A residential proxy routes internet traffic through real home or mobile IP addresses, making automated or fraudulent traffic look as if it comes from ordinary households instead of servers.
Sources: California Attorney General: CCPA, MRC Invalid Traffic Detection and Filtration Guidelines Addendum (2020 update)