The Guide to Advertising on Waze for Businesses and Professionals

 

Used by nearly 12.5 million users each week in France, Google’s free GPS application is one of the most downloaded in France. With such a potential audience, the advertising possibilities are numerous. Find out how this advertising format works like no other.

What is Waze?

Created in 2004 and acquired by Google in 2013, the Waze GPS navigation application has the largest motorist community in the world.

It allows the “Wazers” (name of the users of the application) to report to each other what is happening on their journey (accidents, slowed down traffic, car on the side, police check …).

Highly interactive, it interacts live with users to display user reports in real-time and offers alternative routes, always with the aim of reducing travel time to its destination.

Aware of the advertising potential of the application, Google launches Waze Ads upon its acquisition of the application, an innovative and hyper-localized advertising format.

The Waze app has over a million daily users

Waze Ads: Advertising on Waze

Waze Ads allow you to promote goods, services, but also promotions in an extremely localized way.

It is, therefore, a local advertising solution, which is particularly suitable for local physical stores.

Designed as a digital complement to the display advertising that can be found on the roadside, advertising campaigns on Waze are particularly effective in a “Web to Store” strategy, that is to say, to generate visits to your premises of people who have seen your ad on the internet.

It allows you to target drivers who are near your business with a personalized ad.

Which businesses can show their ads on Waze?

Any business that wishes can run their ads on the Waze advertising platform.

However, this solution is mainly intended for convenience stores, restaurant owners, retail chains, or even automotive service companies whose goal is to maximize traffic on their premises.

The different Waze Ads formats

The navigation app offers three ad formats that can meet the marketing needs of many businesses.

The Pins format

Pins (or pins in French), are displayed on the map and allow you to signal the presence of your company to users who are nearby. By clicking on them, they allow you to display information such as your timetables or any special offers.

This is the most complete format since it allows you to obtain information, but also to generate navigation to the chosen place.

It is of course possible to adjust the display of pins to the opening hours of the company.

The Pins format on WazeThis format aims to reference your business on the map and thus make you more visible. It helps to develop the notoriety of your company on a local scale.

Search format

The Search format of Waze ads is a free complement to Pins and makes it easier to find your business by positioning it in the top search results.

By clicking on it, the user instantly gets the fastest route to get there.

Search format on WazeThese has sponsored links that appear after searching for the name of your company or a generic query (stores, food, etc.) in the search bar of the app.

Takeover format

Takeover ads are banners that appear when the user has been stationary for at least 5 seconds when their attention is highest. They then disappear when the motorist restarts.

Takeover format on WazeThey are comparable in appearance to Pins ads and allow you to display detailed information about your business, such as a description, a visual, or your logo.

Targeting of Waze Ads campaigns

Thanks to its large number of users and its knowledge of driver habits, the Waze Ads platform allows fairly precise targeting for the distribution of ads.

This targeting is structured around 3 main categories:

• The driver’s profile (tourist or living in the area, their language, the operating system of their smartphone)
• The destination (a type of place, place of residence, and work)
• The trip context (weather conditions, traffic conditions, time of day, length of the trip)

How much does advertising on Waze cost?

With a minimum daily budget system of $ 2, advertising on Waze fits any budget.

Of course, not all formats have the same price. For example, the CPM (cost per thousand impressions) is around € 2 for Pins and Search ads, but can go up to € 15 for TakeOver format.

When the daily budget is reached, the ad will stop and resume the next day, keeping the same daily budget.

Why use Waze advertising for your business?

There are many benefits to advertising on Waze.

Ads help develop the notoriety of your business in a specific area, but also increase the average number of visits to your business by + 27% on average thanks to hyper-localized advertising. 

In addition, it adapts to your budget thanks to expenditure control. 

In addition, the implementation of an advertising campaign on Waze allows you to stand out against your few competitors on this innovative medium and to differentiate you in the eyes of your future customers.

You are a VSE / SME, a trader, or a craftsman and want to increase your notoriety at the local level and develop your sales by setting up a “web to store” strategy (generations of visits from the Internet). Then advertising on Waze is for you!