Geo-Targeting
Cannabis Geofencing Advertising
Geofencing draws an invisible line around a physical location and serves ads to the phones that cross it. For dispensaries, that line goes right around your competitors. This is one of the few advertising tactics built specifically around real-world foot traffic instead of search intent or social behavior, and it's especially effective in cannabis retail because buyers tend to shop around between a handful of nearby stores before settling on a regular.
Geofence builder
3 fences41,208
Devices seen
17,440
Households
1,932
In-store visits
Illustrative data
Competitor conquesting for dispensary and weed shop traffic
We fence competitor storefronts in your market and serve ads to devices that visit them, putting your brand in front of people who've already proven they buy cannabis nearby. This is one of the highest-intent audiences available in local advertising, because they're not a cold lead, they're an active shopper.
Fences run continuously, with creative and offers rotated so the same competitor audience doesn't see a stale ad on the tenth pass.
We typically fence every competitor within a reasonable drive time of your store, not just the closest one or two, since customer loyalty in this category is often thinner than brands assume and a shopper visiting three different competitors in a month is common.
Dwell time data that separates real visits from drive-bys
Not every device that crosses a fence line actually walked inside. We filter by dwell time, how long a device stays inside the fence, to separate genuine visits from cars passing on the street outside. That keeps the audience clean and the retargeting spend focused on people who were actually in the building.
We tune dwell-time thresholds per location, since a strip mall with adjacent stores needs a tighter radius and longer minimum dwell time than a standalone building set back from the road, or the fence picks up neighboring foot traffic that has nothing to do with cannabis. We revisit these thresholds monthly as new competitor locations open or close in your market.
- Dwell-time thresholds to confirm real visits
- Competitor storefront and dispensary fences
- Frequency capping so the same device isn't over-served
Event fences around cannabis culture in your market
Concerts, festivals, expos and local events pull in exactly the demographic most dispensaries want. We build temporary fences around relevant local events so devices that show up get retargeted with your brand for weeks after, well past the day of the event itself.
This works especially well timed around cannabis industry events, music festivals, and 4/20-adjacent gatherings in your market, where the audience is already self-selected as interested in the category.
Where geofencing sits inside compliant paid media
Geofencing runs through location-data networks and mobile ad exchanges outside the Google/Meta policy restrictions, which means THC product creative has more room here than on mainstream platforms. We still keep every creative asset within the ad network's own content policy and the applicable state's advertising rules.
That distinction matters, because more creative freedom isn't the same as no rules. We treat every geofencing creative asset with the same compliance review we'd apply anywhere else, just against a different, more permissive rulebook.
FAQ
cannabis geofencing: questions, answered.
Is it legal to geofence a competitor's dispensary?
Yes, geofencing public storefronts based on anonymized device location data is a standard, legal advertising practice used across many retail categories, not just cannabis. We follow the ad network's policy and applicable state advertising rules on every fence we run.
How quickly does geofencing show results?
Fences start collecting device data and serving retargeting ads immediately after launch, but building a meaningful audience pool and seeing traffic impact typically takes a few weeks of continuous running. We report early signal so you're not flying blind while it builds.
Can geofencing show actual THC product creative?
Often yes, since geofencing runs through location-data ad networks outside Google and Meta's restrictions. Every creative asset still has to clear that specific network's content policy and the advertising rules of the state being targeted.
What's dwell time and why does it matter?
Dwell time is how long a device stays inside a fenced location. We use it to filter out devices that just drove past a competitor's store from ones that actually walked in and shopped, keeping your retargeting audience made of real customers.
How does geofencing work with our other paid channels?
It pairs naturally with programmatic and SMS. Geofenced visitors get retargeted with display and CTV through programmatic, and where they've opted in, follow-up SMS offers reinforce the same message across channels.
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