Have you ever seen an advertisement on your social media page of a specific product from the coffee shop you are currently in? Did you end up ordering it? If the answer to both of these questions is yes, that means that your coffee shop recommended that particular product to you without your knowledge. That is the simple concept of GeoFraming.

GeoFraming is a tool that companies use to track you through the venues you’ve visited and can go back as far as six months. It will then geolocate your home IP address. It is a unique advertising device that doesn’t require your opt-in.

GeoFraming

GeoFraming was introduced in 2017. It is a marketing tool used by companies to advertise themselves. GeoFraming uses longitude-latitude data using mobile device location. It then builds a polygon around specific areas and collects information on users and the timeframe of their visit to the site. (Source: Olive and Company)

Once data is gathered, GeoFraming can also map users’ mobile IP addresses to the places they visit and, ultimately, their home addresses. Furthermore, it can collect information as far back as six months.

From the data available, marketers can target the home network with digital banner ads that all of those in the network would see. GeoFraming offers advertisers the ability to build out segments of users based on geolocation interest and activity. (Source: GeoFraming)

Difference to GeoFencing

GeoFraming is an improved version of GeoFencing. To understand why GeoFraming is better, let’s first try to understand GeoFencing.

GeoFencing is a location-based service wherein an app or any software utilizes GPS, RFID, wi-fi, or cellular data to trigger a programmed action, such as collecting data, when the app or software enters or exits a virtual boundary around a geographical space. (Source: CIO)

Geofences can be configured to trigger any number of actions such as prompting mobile push notifications, sending SMS, sending targeted advertisements in social media, tracking vehicles, delivering location-based ads, and even disabling particular technology.

To make this work, an administrator or developer would establish a virtual boundary around a specified location. Once this is done, the next step is to show what actions must be completed when an authorized device enters or exits the virtual boundary.

GeoFraming also works similarly but is overall improved. Below are some of the differences between the two.

• GeoFencing requires users to opt-in, while GeoFraming does not. The only action users need to do is to search the internet and receive an advertising placement in a specific virtual boundary.
• GeoFencing uses cell towers to correlate locations, while GeoFraming uses latitude-longitude data to determine a more precise location of the user.
• GeoFences can send digital ads to opted-in users if the users are within the specified area. GeoFraming follows the users to their home network or IP address. Once it has the home IP address, it can deliver digital ads to those connected to the network, not just the user.
• GeoFence advertising only works in real-time when the user is within the fence. GeoFrame advertising can work after the fact the user is within the boundary. It can also look back as far as six months. That means that GeoFrame marketing can send an ad for a place you visited six months ago.

(Source: GeoFraming)