Competitive strategy by Bowen Luo and Bhoomija RanjanMarch 31, 2026Bogdan Kurylo/Getty ImagesPostBuy CopiesSummary. Leer en españolLer em portuguêsPostBuy CopiesNearly 90% of consumers say they prefer personalized ads to non-personalized ones—and location is becoming one of the most powerful personalization signals available. In 2025, advertisers spent at least $57 billion on location-targeted campaigns, a figure growing well above the broader ad market. The technology has kept pace: Connected TV and IP-based targeting can now deliver different ads to different households on the same block. Retailers like Kroger and Albertsons have partnered with media companies—Disney Advertising and Omnicom Media Group, respectively—to share first-party customer data for sharper targeting. Even non-advertising platforms like Uber are entering the space, seeking to monetize their granular rider location data. The plumbing for precision is in place.PostBuy CopiesRead more on Competitive strategy or related topics Customer strategy, Customer-centricity, Technology and analytics, Data management, Market segmentation, Consumer behavior, Market research and Advertising
A Better Strategy for Location-Based Advertising
Location-based advertising has become a huge marketplace, but its dominant strategy is blunt: Most advertisers still draw a simple radius around each store and target everyone inside it. But a new study—which analyzed millions of store visits and ad exposure across the U.S.—found that this approach is systematically misallocating spend. The key predictor of ad effectiveness is not absolute distance, but a customer’s relative proximity to you versus your rivals. Customers who are closer to your store than to a competitor—especially those at moderate distances—are far more responsive to advertising, even when they fall outside conventional targeting circles. Additional factors matter as well: the “billboard effect” near the store, the nature of the product assortment, campaign type (promotion vs. brand), and where consumers work. To reach the right customers, marketers should redesign geotargeting around competitor locations, distance bands, and campaign objectives.
