Why Your Food Truck Advertising Needs To Be Hyperlocal

If you listen to conventional wisdom, food truck vendors should be getting on national cooking shows or being spotlighted on national food programs to attract new customers. But when it comes to these hyperlocal mobile food businesses, these nationwide options simply aren’t as effective as turning to hyperlocal marketing. It’s time to consider tapping into local TV, radio and community newspaper ads.

Because food trucks generally have limited budgets, they must invest their advertising dollars strategically. Vendors should focus solely on the most effective options. For many food truck vendors, this means investing in hyperlocal media to get immediately in front of a local, relevant audience.

To build a loyal local customer base, it’s important to be accepted as part of the community. Hyperlocal advertising is an efficient way to accomplish this goal. Hyperlocal means an area close to where you park your truck. The people you want to attract are those within walking or driving distance to particular destinations.

Additional Hyperlocal Advertising Options

Out-of-home advertising (OOH). Print and digital posters at bus stops, train stations, local malls; short video ads at storefronts and digital screens at the gas pump are all very powerful hyperlocal marketing channels.
Facebook Ads. Facebook allows you to target people based on location, and you can combine these geographic parameters with other targeting methods to reach only the people who are truly most likely to find your food truck.
Google’s Map Ads. Google allows businesses to advertise in map search results, promote your parking locations with map pins, and connect those map pins with in-truck promotions. If you’re using promoted pins, you can customize your local business page to highlight current menu items with the end goal of getting more traffic to your food truck.

Hyperlocal Advertising Best Practices

Selecting a narrow radius won’t guarantee that your hyperlocal advertising will be successful. You need to make sure you use creative and effective ad copy, engaging calls to action, and optimization to get the most out of your campaigns. Here are a few best practices we suggest.

Make it feel local. Make use of local idiosyncrasies, such as weather, geography and demographics. When used in your campaigns you can help personalize your brand.
Test various target areas. You can also use geo-fencing to expand or contract your targeting area to reach the most consumers.
A/B Testing. Try different ads and copy to drive consumer into sales, not just clicks.
Vary your message. Entice consumers who see your ads with compelling offers and calls to action that encourage them to click, view you on a map, or visit your truck in person.
Follow up. It’s not the end of the campaign once your ad is published. Follow up with new leads who contact you from your ads.

Nearby and local searches have nearly doubled since last year. Because of this, focusing your food truck advertising efforts to a hyperlocal audience is important.

The Bottom Line

For food trucks, it all comes down to finding and engaging the local customer base. You must do it in a way that enhances their everyday experience in the community. Your hyperlocal advertising will provide them to motivation to track down your truck. Using local insights along with local reach is the fuel behind hyperlocal media like local publications, events, and targeted ads.

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