If you’re running social ads for a business that only serves certain areas, like specific neighborhoods, you already know the frustrating part: most of your impressions are basically thrown away. You’re paying for people to see your content who will literally never step foot in your store or book your service. Why? Because they live three towns over.

That’s the whole point of geotargeting. It filters out all that wasted reach and puts your content in front of people who actually live, work, or hang out near your business. Not random people scrolling nationwide. Not just “whoever’s online right now.” Just the people who could realistically become customers.

It’s the difference between:

• Yelling your message across an entire city

• vs. talking directly to people within a 5-10 minute walk (or drive) of your spot

For local coffee shops, clinics, gyms, real estate agents, franchise locations, and regional brands, this kind of precision isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s literally how you avoid lighting money on fire.

This guide will walk you through the whole thing: how geotargeting actually works, when to use it, the different levels you can target, how each platform handles it, best practices, and how to set it all up in your tool so everything runs smoothly, fast, and stays geographically on point.

What Geotargeting Really Means

Geotargeting is just showing your content to people based on where they actually are. That’s it. No fancy tricks, just making sure the right people in the right places see your stuff.

Social platforms figure out someone’s location through a bunch of signals:

• GPS on the phone

• IP address

• Check-ins or tagged locations

• Nearby Wi-Fi and cell towers

• Recent travel patterns

Put together, these signals help platforms decide who should see your content at a given moment, whether they live in the area, are just passing through, or have recently visited.

Geotargeting, Geofencing, and Local Lookalikes

Source: MNTN

A lot of people use these terms interchangeably, but they’re actually different things. Let’s break it down real quick:

Why Geotargeting Matters

Geotargeting isn’t just about saving a few bucks. It literally changes how your whole strategy works.

1. You stop wasting money on people who’ll never buy from you

Showing your ad to someone 40km away? That’s just burning cash. Way better to reach the right 500 people than the wrong 50,000.

2. People actually engage because it feels relevant to them

Higher relevance = more engagement. When your content mentions their city, their weather, their neighborhood—people pay attention. It stops feeling like some random brand yelling into the void.

3. Local campaigns convert way faster

With geotargeting, you get way better conversion rates for anything local, like store visits, service bookings, or neighborhood promos. If someone’s nearby, they’re way more likely to actually:

• Walk into your store

• Place an order

• Book an appointment

• Show up to your event

• Slide into your DMs

Being close = way more likely to take action. It’s that simple.

4. Your messaging gets personal without trying too hard

A post that says “Happy rainy Monday, Brooklyn!” just hits different than some generic “Happy Monday everyone!” It feels like you’re actually talking to them, not at them.

5. It’s a lifesaver for brands with multiple locations

Each branch can talk to its actual local crowd with content that makes sense for that area, while you still keep the brand voice consistent across the board.

6. Agencies can work way smarter, not harder

Instead of making bland one-size-fits-all posts, you can duplicate something once and tweak it for different cities using your management tool. Done in minutes.

When You Should Use Geotargeting

Source: Freepik

Some businesses only pull out geotargeting for big sales or special promos, but honestly? If you’re a local brand, you should probably be using it pretty much all the time. Here's when it really shines:

• Store openings and re-openings

• Local events

• Delivery-area promotions

• Services tied to specific areas

• Real estate

• Tourism and hospitality

• Weather-based campaigns

• Competitor-area targeting

• Multi-branch campaigns

The Different Types of Geotargeting (And When to Use Each)

Let’s break down the different ways you can geotarget without overcomplicating it:

1. Radius Targeting

This is your “draw a circle around my shop” move. You pick a spot on the map and target everyone within 1 to 50 miles of it.

Perfect for:

• Getting people through your door today

• Hitting up office workers during their lunch break

• Any business where customers usually come from nearby

Example: A bakery advertises “fresh croissants out of the oven right now” to everyone within a 3-mile radius. It’s simple yet effective.

2. City-Level Targeting

You’re going broader here: the whole city or metro area. City-level targeting works well when:

• Your service covers the entire city

• You’re running a bigger seasonal campaign

• You want local relevance but need decent reach

For example, a sporting goods store is promoting a spring hiking sale across the whole metro. It’s still local enough to feel relevant, but you’re casting a wider net.

3. Region-Level Targeting

If you’re running something bigger, go broader. Geotargeting works for multi-state or multi-city campaigns, too. It’s great for brands operating in multiple cities that still want a geographic edge without going nationwide.

4. ZIP/Postal Code Targeting

This is a must-have for service businesses. If you only deliver to certain ZIP codes, this stops you from burning money reaching people you can’t even serve.

It’s perfect for food delivery, home services, and real estate.

And here’s the cool part: you can craft messaging that calls out those exact communities. When people see you talking about their neighborhood specifically, they notice.

5. Neighborhood Targeting

Now we’re getting hyperlocal. You’re targeting specific neighborhoods within a city.

This is where it gets fun because you can actually talk to the vibe and culture of that specific little pocket. Like, a yoga studio in Brooklyn isn’t gonna talk the same way to the Williamsburg crowd as they would to Park Slope. Those are totally different vibes, different people, and different energy.

6. Custom Location Lists

If you’ve got multiple branches or you’re an agency managing a bunch of client locations, this is a lifesaver.

You create a saved list of all your spots and target around each one at the same time. No rebuilding the same targeting over and over.

Custom location lists are best for:

• Franchise brands with 10, 20, or 50+ locations

• Agencies juggling multiple clients with different branches

• Any brand with a cluster of stores

Your social media management tool, like Sparkum, should let you save these lists so you can just click and apply them instantly next time.

How Each Platform Handles Geotargeting

How Your Social Media Management Tool Makes All of This Easier

Source: Freepik

This is the part people sleep on. Running geotargeting on one platform? Sure, no problem. But trying to do it across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and manage like 15 different branches? That’s when things turn into a hot mess real fast.

This is where a good management tool actually saves your time and effort:

1. Manage all your locations in one place

No more logging into 47 different accounts, switching between pages, or maintaining some nightmare spreadsheet to keep track of everything. It’s all right there.

2. Create one post and auto-localize it

You make one solid master post, and the tool can spin out versions for each location. Each one with its own tweaked caption, proper targeting, custom images if you want, and its own schedule. You’re not starting from scratch every single time.

3. Actually compare how different locations are doing

You can see which branches are:

• Getting the most engagement

• Converting the best

• Struggling and need help

• In desperate need of fresh creative

This lets you double down on what’s working and fix what’s broken before you waste more budget on it.

4. Track engagement and conversions by location

No more guessing games or pulling reports from six different places. Your tool breaks it all down:

• Engagement by city

• Reach within each radius

• Comments from each branch’s local crowd

• Link clicks per location

• Actual results tied to specific branches

If you’re ready to run smarter, location-aware campaigns across multiple platforms, that’s exactly what Sparkum helps you do. From planning to scheduling to optimizing per location, you get one dashboard built for modern, hyperlocal marketing.