Businesses Expected To Spend $1.8 Billion on Location-Based Marketing

Though location-based marketing is still a relatively young platform, a recent report from ABI Research predicts advertisers will spend $1.8 billion on the channel in 2015.

With geo-social networks continually offering marketers new advertising opportunitites, the platform’s flexibility will become an asset to campaigns. Brands can leverage social services such as foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt to encourage check ins, or they could incent consumers with reward programs offered through apps like Shopkick.

“It’s still (the) early days (of geo-social networks) and there’s no single ‘right’ approach to location-based advertising,” says ABI Research practice director Neil Strother. “This remains a very fragmented market that is full of experimentation.”

Strother also suggested consumers would be willing to check in via location-based tools in spite of privacy concerns if the value propositions were high enough.

Strother may prove right, but internet security provider Webroots recently found that some geo-social network users have issues with the services. Fifty-five percent of respondents were concerned about their privacy being violated, while 45 percent were worried burglars could use the platform to plan home invasions.