Competitor Geo-Fencing for Missouri Dispensaries
How to reach adults who already shop at nearby dispensaries, and how to tell whether they walk into yours.
6 min read
Missouri's cannabis market has grown up. Most adults who plan to buy cannabis already do, and most of them already have a store they go to.
That changes the job. Growth now means winning customers who already shop somewhere else. Competitor geo-fencing is the most direct way to do that.
How it works
We draw a digital boundary, a geo-fence, around the location of a competing dispensary. When a phone enters that boundary, the device is added to an audience. Later, when that person is browsing a news site or a weather app, they can see your ad.
We can look back up to 12 months. So the audience isn't only people who visit next week. It includes people who have been shopping at that store all year.
Who you're reaching
- Adults who have already bought cannabis, so you're not paying to educate anyone
- People who live or drive within reach of your store
- Customers of a specific competitor, so you can speak to why they should switch
What the ad should say
A competitor's customer doesn't need to hear that cannabis exists. They need a reason to try a different store. That usually comes down to one of four things: a better first-visit offer, a shorter drive, a product they can't get where they are, or better service.
Pick one, say it plainly, and keep the ad clean. Creative still has to follow the cannabis rules: no product photos, no consumption imagery, your business name and logo included.
How you know it worked
Foot traffic attribution closes the loop. Once someone has seen your ad, we can tell when their device later shows up inside your store's fence. That turns "we ran some ads" into a store-visit count you can compare to what you spent.
The reporting is available 24/7. You can see impressions, clicks, and visits by location, not just a monthly PDF.
Where it fits
Geo-fencing isn't a replacement for local SEO or email. SEO catches people already searching. Email reaches people who already gave you an address. Geo-fencing reaches people who have never thought about your store, and that's the gap in most dispensary marketing plans.