How do I Advertise on Waze?
Waze is a community-based wayfinding app that seeks to provide a better driving experience for all. It allows users to relay information on everything from traffic patterns to the locations of accidents, cops, and even potholes. With more than 100 million active users daily, Waze has become the newest way to reach your target audience where they spend a majority of their time – commuting!
Owned by Google, Waze is leveraging their audience with the ability to advertise within the app. Why would you use Waze Local for your business? To build brand awareness or to drive action to your location. You can stay in front of your target customer, depending on their location and the route that they’re taking. Similarly, you’re able to make new customers aware of your locations, helping to increase foot traffic in-store.
Waze Local allows you to connect with customers through three ad types: Branded Pins, Zero-Speed Takeover, and Promoted Search.
- Branded Pins. Your location is made known to drivers as they pass by with a branded pin on the map.
- Zero-Speed Takeover. A digital billboard covers the top portion of the navigation screen when a vehicle comes to a complete stop, informing the driver of your location and any specials or promotions that you might be offering.
- Promoted Search. Your business and brand logo will be promoted to the top of the search results.
In the case of Branded Pin Ads, the cost is fairly low at $2 per thousand impressions (CPM). You don’t get a call-to-action or banner, so it’s more for awareness.
The Zero-Speed Takeover Ad gives you more ability to promote your business with a call-to-action, promotion, etc., but it comes at a higher cost – about $30 per CPM. The goal is to drive action to your location – you’ll be able to track people who clicked on “Drive There.” One thing to note: since people may click on “Drive There” by accident, there is a second screen you have to click on again to confirm the trip. The second click (which is more actionable) is tracked as the true action.
The Search Results Ad is also based on a $30 CPM and the action here is the “Drive Here” as well. In this case, you show when people are searching for a destination.
Getting started with Branded Pins is not too costly, with a minimum $60 per month spend. As you can see, the minimum cost for the other ads is at least $3,000 per month. For large brands who want all ads and full support, there is a threshold of $25,000 minimum per month. For companies with budgets large and small, there is a dashboard to control your ads, copy, data, and reporting.
So is Waze advertising for you? You’re going to love this answer – it depends 😊 We were just made aware of the program, so we have no data yet, but we will be testing it out and will update this post once we have some numbers.
If you’re not a brick and mortar, then this may not be the best platform for you. If you do have a physical location where people come to you, it depends. Any business is eligible to advertise on Waze, but the top sectors utilizing this form of advertising so far are:
- Restaurants
- Retail
- Car Services
- Healthcare
- Furniture/Home Goods
- Real Estate
- Grocery
Impulse buys – food, entertainment, etc. – would be a good fit to test these ads. According to some of the conversations we’ve had with Waze, emergency care has done well, along with some larger retailers like mattress and furniture stores. They have their own case studies, but we still want to see our own data.
If you’re interested in learning more about Waze digital marketing, feel free to reach out to us and discuss potential strategies that fit your business.
May 23, 2018