On Friday, Snap Inc quietly upgraded its location-based targeting capabilities.

A new page titled "Location Targeting" in the Snap Business Center points to precision targeting based on radius and location category.

Radius targeting

Similar to the beacons used by Niantic for Pokemon Go, radius targeting allows advertisers and agencies to push targeted ads and filters to users in manually specified locations.

With radius options ranging from 0.62 to 0.63 miles, advertisers can only target groups when they exceed 1,000 unique users.

A spokesperson for Snap told Campaign Asia-Pacific that the tool is perfect for SME food businesses that want to attract footfall from a concert, a sports event, a rally, a marathon or a similar event.

Thus far, only the Hopper travel app has identified itself as an early adopter, with a success story boasting a 50% drop in costs per impression and a 37% greater likelihood to follow a wishlist flight via Snapchat acquisition than alternative social channels.

”This perfect match of radius targeting and relevant creative has cut our CPIs in half and bumped our booking rate on Snapchat to four times what it is on other paid social platforms," said Qasim Mian, user acquisition manager at Hopper. "With this consistently strong performance, we’ve confidently scaled our investment in Snapchat to make it one of our primary acquisition channels.“

Location categories

Similar to Facebook's Local Awareness Ads, advertisers can now utilize data from third-party map tools to target locations based on how they are categorised.

For advertisers that want to acquire a larger chunk of Snapchat's userbase, the location category option covers 150 variables including education institutions, stadiums and theatres.

The Snap spokesperson said the tool will allow an advertiser to identify many locations based on context and predicted activity, targeting specific groups based on their next journey.

For instance, the tool can be used to target a cluster of primary schools at the point a child is dropped off and the time they are picked up, targeting parents or guardians accordingly with limited-time offers and deals that incentivise footfall.

Similar to Google Analytics, Snap will be offering participating advertisers access to a dashboard that represents footfall insights, which includes information on total visits driven by targeted ads and filters, the frequency of visits, and the demographics of the visitor.