Waze Launches Ads in Three Formats

The navigation app is targeting small and midsized businesses.

April 02, 2018

TEL AVIV, Israel – Last week, Waze, the navigation app, launched Waze Local, an ad format for small and midsized businesses (SMB), Ad Week reports. Waze Local allows retailers, including gas stations and convenience stores, to target travelers close to their brick-and-mortar locations.

“A traffic delay could be the perfect opportunity to entice somebody to take a break, go to the nearest convenience store and get something to eat and recharge, rather than sitting in traffic,” said Jeff Lenard, NACS vice president of strategic industry initiatives. “If the competition is a traffic jam, you have some leeway to delight a customer.”

The ads integrate directly into the map within Waze, and advertisers receive analytics after the campaign to gauge effectiveness. “Going back 30 years ago, you stopped at a gas station [to get] directions,” Lenard said. “Today, the directions bring you to the gas station.”

Waze claims more than 100 million active users generating more than 50 million reports monthly on the app. In 2017, more than 3.3 million Waze users stopped by businesses advertising on Waze. Waze Local testers said they had a little over 20% bump in monthly visits.

“We spoke with SMBs and learned that what they care about most is using simple, affordable tools to drive in-store traffic, while having the analytics to understand what worked in real-time,” said Matt Phillips, who leads Waze Local.

“If Waze has the analytics heft to know when somebody might want something—when they’re hungry, when they’re thirsty, when they need a fill-up—that’s a real powerful combination,” added Lenard.

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