Contextual Geotargeting

Geofencing

Geofencing is a location-based service. Businesses use it to engage their customers. The fact that end users always carry their smartphones with them, has made this way of targeting even more present.

According to some definitions, geofencing is defined as a virtual perimeter for a real-world geographic area. By creating a virtual boundary around a business location, geofencing can notify users about any special offers.

Creating a location of interest means specifying latitude, longitude, and radius for proximity. Those three parameters define the circular area or the fence. Once customers enter this defined geoarea, they will receive a push notification.

Available features

Active time window	Each geocommunication can have an active time window during which the area will be monitored on a device. This is especially useful for preventing sending push messages at ungodly hours, for example at 3 AM.   Two parameters can be set: Time of the day: start time - end time (e.g. 8 AM – 8 PM) Days of the week: (e.g. Monday - Friday)
Recurring options	Two possible options regarding notification repetition, in case users enter the specified area more than once during campaign: Single-entry – push notification will be sent only once Multi-entry – push notification will be sent every time the user enters the specified area. For the multi-entry option, you need to define the additional parameter – minimum interval. This is a period minutes/hours/days) during which the user won’t be notified even if they enter the area multiple times.
Multiple areas	Each communication can be targeted for multiple areas. Our platform automatically checks area for overlapping. This means only one entry event will be triggered.

Currently geocommunication is available over the Flow module in our web interface only. Once you create the push notification content, navigate to Advanced options and set up your geographic area.

Technical setup guides

The Mobile SDK library has disabled the geofencing service by default. To enable it, you need to define additional dependencies within the application file.

Not all clients need geofencing. Sometimes these features can reflect a poor customer experience, for example when an app asks for permissions and the user isn’t expecting these features. This is the reason geofencing is not included by default. Instead, the client can add it and enable it later on.

Find about more about steps required to enable geofencing services in following links:

• Geo component for Android (opens in a new tab)
• Geo component for iOS (opens in a new tab)
• Geo component for Cordova (opens in a new tab)
• Geo component for React Native (opens in a new tab)

Once the geofencing service is enabled, you can set up geocommunication in Flow. Information about user’s location is provided by the mobile operation system (iOS/Android).

All geo data is processed based on Mobile SDK and is directly processed on the device.