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How to Build a Geofencing Campaign in Propensity

Updated

Geofencing campaigns let you target users inside a specific geographic radius. This is ideal for events, travel hubs, corporate campuses, and other points of interest where high intent audiences gather.

You can use geofencing as a standalone strategy or pair it with ABM and contextual targeting to uncover stronger intent signals and accelerate pipeline.

💡Before You Get Started:

Installing the Contact Website Tracker unlocks the full value of geofencing. It identifies which contacts visit your site after seeing your ads so sales can act on verified intent. We strongly recommend setting this up before launching your first campaign.

Follow these steps to create and launch a geofencing campaign.

Create a New Campaign

  1. Go to the Campaigns tab
  2. Click New Campaign +
  3. Choose Geofencing Campaign as your campaign type
  4. Name your campaign and complete the standard details

Once saved, you’ll move into the familiar campaign setup flow.

Choose Your Plays

On the Plays step, choose the ad formats you want to run as part of your geofencing campaign. These channels are available for contextual:

  • Propensity Display Network Contextual Ad
  • Propensity Display Network Contextual HTML5 Ad
  • Propensity Display Network Contextual Video Ad

These ad formats behave like normal Propensity Display Network plays. The major difference is how the audience is targeted, which you will set next.

Configure Your Geofencing Targeting (Play Set Up)

Inside the playbook, you will upload the locations you want to target and define your radius settings.

Add Geofencing Locations

You can add locations using full street addresses and define a radius around each one.

How It Works

  1. Enter a full street address
    Example: 19 Hampton Road, Exeter, NH, 03833
  2. Choose whether to measure distance in miles or kilometers
  3. Select a radius around that location
  4. To add more locations, click + Add another address and radius
  5. Click Save to apply your geofencing locations

You can add multiple locations in a single campaign, each with its own radius.

Radius Requirements

  • Radius can be set in  miles or kilometers
  • There is no maximum radius, but we recommend 15 miles or less for the best performance
  • The platform can detect location accuracy up to 50 feet in in-app environments
    • However, very small radius targets (<1.5 miles) may significantly limit scale
    • Desktop and mobile web may be less precise at extremely small radii

Add Your Creative Assets

Upload your creative files based on the channel you selected:

  • Display ads (standard sizes)
  • HTML5 creative
  • Video assets

Each placement supports previews so you can confirm your ads render correctly.

Launch Your Campaign

  1. Review your geofencing locations and radius settings
  2. Confirm your creative assets
  3. Set your budget and schedule
  4. Click Launch Campaign

Budget Notes

  • The default campaign budget is $500
  • The minimum budget is $100, but performance may be limited at that level
  • You can adjust your budget at any time based on scale and performance goals

Propensity will begin serving ads to users inside your defined geofencing radius.

Important: These campaigns do not use contact audiences

Geofencing campaigns target users based on where they are, not who they are. You will not upload contact lists or see leads inside the campaign.

  • Anyone inside your defined radius may see your ads
  • Leads only appear if those contacts visit your website and the Contact Website Tracker identifies them

To identify real visitors and unlock sales activation, install the Contact Website Tracker before launching.

Monitor Performance and Identify Visitors

Once your campaign is live, you can:

View Performance in Real Time

Track impressions, clicks, and location-based engagement.

Identify Who Visited Your Website

If your contact website tracker is installed:

  • Propensity will de-anonymize visitors from your geofencing ads
  • You will see contact-level details, including domain, device, page views, and timeline
  • Sales can take immediate action on verified intent signals

This makes geofencing not just a top-of-funnel tactic but a true ABM activation channel.

Best practices

Radius selection

  • Use smaller radii for events and campuses to ensure more precise targeting  
  • Use wider radii for travelers and regional awareness campaigns  
  • Limit the maximum radius to 15 miles or less for best results  
  • Avoid overly small radii on desktop or mobile web, as this can restrict delivery  

Creative strategy

  • Prioritize mobile ad sizes, as most conference attendees are on their phones  
  • Include multiple mobile sizes and creative variations whenever possible  

Campaign setup

  • Avoid running multiple ad sets with different CPMs targeting the same audience within a single campaign, as this can cause internal competition where one ad set captures most of the impressions  

Budget and delivery considerations

  • Be aware of $100 play minimums when targeting smaller events with limited audience pools  
  • Short campaign durations (common in geofencing) may make it harder to meet these minimums and impact delivery  

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