Is Advertising on Waze Worth Your Money?
Do you have Waze downloaded in your phone?
Chances are, you do, and the same goes for most of us. Therefore, it makes perfect sense for businesses to jump on the bandwagon and advertise on Waze, right?
Wrong.
There has been a massive misconception on the benefits of advertising on Waze, in my opinion. The issue here lies in the users of this app. While the common driver sure does make use of this platform, it is more used by the likes of Grab or Uber drivers.
This is where there is a major lack of understanding. Waze tells us that its advertising platform is a great tool for businesses, as it reaches a large number of users. That’s great. However, who exactly are those users/ target audience?
If we’re talking about people who are driving their own vehicle, that’s fantastic as these drivers can take immediate action when an ad pops up. If a driver were to see an ad that says, ‘turn left in two minutes and enjoy a free beer from Tiki Taka’ when they are close to Tiki Taka in Damansara Heights, they may actually do it.
The ad prompts the driver to take a detour and show up at your restaurant or your local business. However, what happens when the ad shows up on a Grab driver’s phone? At first sight, that seems fine. After all, Grab drivers are perfectly entitled to stop by and enjoy a delicious meal or drink. But deeper analysis shows that these ads appear when these ride hailing drivers are on duty!
What does this mean?
If the Grab driver has a passenger onboard and is supposed to drop the customer somewhere, it doesn't matter how many times the ads pop up to inform the driver on the latest promotion of a business which is close by. The driver is not going to take action on the ad as he has a commitment to fulfil.
This results in a waste of the advertiser’s money because Grab drivers are unable to take a detour while they’re on duty, with a passenger on board. The driver simply ignores this ad and continues with his job.
So if Waze is showing you data that there are a lot of people using their app, then they are right.
But how many users actually take action when they see an ad on Waze is very low, at least from my observation. I always see a Grab driver swiping away the ad when it pops up on their screen while they are driving.
Hence, I do not see the value in advertising on Waze, at least not for now.
Therefore, it's better for brands out there to fully understand the different ad platforms available to take their digital marketing game up a notch. For now though, it’s best to focus your wallet and effort towards Facebook and Instagram ads. People are taking action when they see ads on these social media platforms.
Key Takeaways:
- Advertising on Waze may not give you a great ROI today.
- My observation is that people who see these Waze ads are mostly Grab drivers, on duty.
- Therefore, they’re unable to respond and react to the Waze ads, which leads to a waste of advertising money for businesses.
Digital Marketing Strategist - PPC, SEO, Paid Social, Organic Social, CRO & UX
5 年I definitely prefer Waze over Google Maps but recently i have noticed the ads starting to appear more and more often. I think advertising on Waze would work particularly well for targeting customers 'on arrival' of their destination rather than en-route. As i agree advertising whilst driving is not only a waste of money but potentially also dangerous if the advert is covering your route and you have to close this to proceed.
CEO and Chief Troublemaker at Shoppertise. Changing the way the world thinks "Retail Is Dead" is what I'm all about. Physical Retail Isn't Dead. Boring and Non-Differentiated Retail Is.
5 年Love the perspective.
APAC B2B Demand Generation | CRM | Sales Enablement | Brand Strategy | Ops
5 年Thanks for sharing! My thoughts are: 1) Grab drivers are potential customers too. If I’m a marketer for a large fast food chain for example, I won’t mind my ads shown to Grab drivers. If they’re always driving around the same area, which is usually the case, they’ll most likely remember your store location whenever they’re not rushing to drop off a rider, and hungry for dinner! 2) I think store visits is a bad metric to measure success from advertising on Waze. I think it’s great for general brand awareness and grabbing attention when competition for it is low, but how many times have you made an impulse buying decision while driving? I was once served a Toyota ad on Waze while driving to work - low chance I’ll be visiting the store right after and buy a car, but that’s one way to get me engaging with their brand! (Plus, I still remember being served that ad few weeks on!)