Start with the real catchment
We pull drive-time and historical visit patterns before we draw a circle. A 5 km radius in a dense metro is not the same as 5 km in a suburban ring. Wrong radius means wasted impressions on people who will never walk in.
What we layer on top
- Store-specific offers tied to inventory and open hours.
- Dayparting around peak footfall windows.
- Creative that names the locality — landmarks beat generic "near you" copy.
- Reporting on visits and direction requests, not clicks alone.
Bid like a store manager
Closer rings get stronger bids when capacity is free. Outer rings get softer bids or awareness-only flights. When a store is slammed, we throttle — ads should not create queues the floor cannot serve.
Proof that matters
The campaigns that stuck were the ones where store managers felt the difference on busy days. If the team on the floor cannot feel it, the dashboard number is not enough.