Popularity
Waze is well regarded as the world’s largest community-based navigation app, with over 100 million downloads in over 150 countries. While it is only second to Google Maps as the most downloaded navigation app, what makes it stands out is the community that it fosters that makes it more sociable and enjoyable than a regular GPS app.
With millions of users every day, it is the perfect opportunity for businesses and brands to advertise themselves in the platform. Be it to your local area or around the country, your ads will be directed to many drivers, thus increasing the chances of your business getting customers.
Local Boost
Waze is also quite effective in giving local businesses more recognition among users in the app. This is useful for local restaurants, coffee shops, retail stores and entertainment venues to make a name for themselves by marking their presence to drivers passing by and residents near the area.
While the target audience is niche as the app only serves drivers and certain businesses only have one fixed location, it does make a difference for these local shops to gain a rise in sales and customers. Even if they don’t reach the same height as other brands, they only needed the traction from around them rather than from further away.
Awareness
The great thing about the ads in Waze is that it creates awareness of the marketed brands to users everyday. A good ad doesn’t just make you feel attracted to what it's selling, but it also makes the brand memorable and recognizable so it doesn’t escape the viewer’s mind.
Through features like Arrows, Branded Pins and Zero-Speed Takeovers, the ads would pop-up to users, reminding them of it whenever they’re in the area. While this type of strategy does not bring in customers immediately, it does make sure that your business would not be forgotten and pays off in the long-term.
Top Search
Before we reach our destination, we need to search for it. Like any other navigation apps or devices, you can search for your intended location so it will guide you to it. And with the Promoted Search feature, businesses can display their ads at the top searches for users to see.
It's common for the 'top searched' to be clicked on, so by displaying an ad as such increases the chance for it to be seen and be chosen as the next destination. Being part of the search results also increase awareness of the business whenever users are searching for something that’s familiar yet different.
Less Competition
The Waze community is not as large as most users are older drivers. It does mean that certain businesses and brands may not see Waze as a good marketing tool as they can’t target non-drivers and younger customers. But being a niche community does have its advantages.
With not many businesses applying for Waze Ads, the competitive nature of the app is not as fierce as other platforms. With that in their favor, small brands and businesses can freely display their ads without the fear of being dominated by other rival companies.