Waze is one of the most used apps across the board and is leading Out oh House Marketing (also known as OOH Marketing), one of the largest and fastest-growing marketing segments today.
In case you are unaware, Waze is a GPS app that helps you navigate to your intended destination by providing the fastest route possible. Waze, who was acquired by Google in 2013, uses data crumbs from user’s cell phones to determine congestion and how you can get to your route the fastest by keeping you off saturated routes.
We are living in a fast-paced digital age, where we are relying on tech to do things faster and more efficiently. We are also living in a time where we are inundated with messaging and are desensitized to advertisements. So if you are an SMB, how do you get your message out there? One way to do this is to invest in innovative outlets—and you guessed it, Waze is just that!
Waze has a highly engaged, loyal audience of over 130 million drivers worldwide (and growing). The best part is, you are paying for ad sets when a user is staring at their phone—wanting to know how to get to their destination with a route they might not be familiar with. You are also advertising on an under-utilized platform where your competitors are most likely not even thinking about advertising. It is for these reasons that Waze is a great platform to invest in; disruptive marketing is all the rage as it has strong brand recall as users are less exposed to adds during these vital moments of pure concentration.
SO WHAT IS WAZE ADVERTISING?
In simplified terms, you are paying to have your brand/service/product featured within the Waze platform. Waze has three different types of advertising to choose from (Branded Pin, Promoted Search, Zero Speed Takeovers)– which I will explain further on.
Waze has minimum spend that you have to pay for to advertise on the platform—they are based on the specific inventory they have for your brand, location and target radius. An official Waze partner agency (such as Third Eye Insights) or a Waze representative will help determine the minimum spending for a campaign.
WHAT ARE WAZE AD FORMATS?
Waze offers three different ad types that you can choose to use exclusively, all together or a mix of two. You can also choose to use different formats for various campaigns (if, for example, you had multiple locations). Waze advertising can be broken down into the following three formats:
Branded Pins:
These are like a store sign; they pop up as a pin with your brand image to remind users that your business is on or near their route.
Promoted Search
Your locations will be promoted to the top of the search results page when a user goes to “search” or type in their desired destination—the promoted search includes your brand logo.
Zero Speed Takeovers
When a user’s car is stopped for 4 seconds a billboard-style ad will drop down on the top 1/5th of their screen. This ad will have a CTA (Call to Action) on the bottom of the ad, which allows users to save the promotion for later.
How Do I Track the Success of My Campaign?
Once you sign up for Waze, you will get access to a dashboard. You can either track the data yourself in Waze or hire a professional marketing team to design your ad creatives and track your data.
Why Should I Hire an Agency to Set Up Waze?
Working with a Waze partnered agency offers a lot of perks for you as a client. Waze partnered agencies get access to more competitive rates and negotiate additional value-add on’s so that you get more out of your campaigns.
If you have more questions about Waze or want to know if your business could benefit from such services, reach out to Third Eye Insights today to book a free consult where we will do an audit of your business and help determine if Waze advertising is right for you!