Unified customer profile

Geo-targeting and geozones

Draw a geofence around a real-world location and send a message the moment a customer's device enters it: a standalone push, or a live trigger inside a journey.

Control Panel map view showing a circular geozone drawn around a shopping mall, with the radius handle visible

Timing a message to where someone actually is

You already know when a message lands best: the moment someone walks into the store, the hour before boarding, the third time this month they pass the same coffee shop. None of that fits a campaign calendar. Send on a schedule and you miss the moment. Send to everyone, all the time, and the location stops meaning anything. Geo-targeting lets the location decide when the message goes, instead of a clock.

What it does

A geozone is a circle: a center point and a radius, drawn on the map in the Control Panel. The moment a device carrying the SDK enters it, two things can happen. A standalone Geo-based push fires once, tied to that single zone. Or, if the geozone sits inside a cluster, it fires User enters geozone cluster, a real event inside Customer Journey Builder that can branch, wait, and send like any other entry point.

ModeScopeWhere it lives
Standalone Geo-based pushOne geozoneCampaigns
Geozone clusterSeveral geozones grouped togetherCustomer Journey (event: User enters geozone cluster)
Mode
1 / 2
Standalone Geo-based push
Scope
One geozone
Where it lives
Campaigns
Mode
2 / 2
Geozone cluster
Scope
Several geozones grouped together
Where it lives
Customer Journey (event: User enters geozone cluster)

Cooldown keeps a repeat visit from re-triggering the same send: 1 minute to 41 days per geozone, or one shared value across the whole cluster. Unlike a location field checked once when someone signs up, a geozone reacts live, from where the device actually is right now.

One zone, or a whole cluster

Draw a single geozone for one location, or group several into a cluster (a mall, every branch of a chain, a string of airport gates), and the cluster fires as one trigger no matter which zone inside it gets crossed.

What it adds to a unified customer profile

Tags and events tell you what’s true about someone and what they just did. Neither tells you whether they’re standing in your store right now. A geozone cluster adds that as a live fact to the same unified customer profile that segments and journeys already read, so “walked into the mall” sits next to “opened the app” and “tagged high-value” instead of living in a separate system. Without it, location is a field you check after checkout, not a signal you can act on while it’s still true.

How it works

  1. Draw the geozone

    In Geozones, draw a circle on the map and set the radius to match the place: a doorway, a terminal, a whole retail park.

  2. Group it into a cluster, or leave it standalone

    A single geozone stays a standalone Geo-based push. Grouping several into a cluster turns them into one Customer Journey entry point.

  3. Set the cooldown

    Choose how long before the same person can re-trigger the same zone, from 1 minute up to 41 days.

All three steps are no-code, in the Control Panel. The device needs to be sending location through the SDK first: nothing here works without that.

Built to sit next to triggered entry and segmentation

A geozone cluster gets someone into the journey. What happens next comes from its neighbors. Triggered entry is the mechanism that lets a location event open a journey the same way an app event or a scheduled date would. Advanced segmentation narrows who the cluster can trigger for in the first place: loyalty members walking into the mall, not every device that passes the door.

The pieces were built to sit together

A shopper carrying the loyalty tag walks into the mall cluster. Triggered entry opens the journey. The send that follows is the one segmentation already decided they should get.

A few places this fits

WhereWhat the zone does
Retail store or mallFires as a shopper crosses the doorway, scoped to a loyalty segment
Airport or terminalA cluster around the gates opens a journey timed to the boarding window
Coffee shop or QSRA single geozone pings a nearby offer, and the cooldown blocks repeat pings on the same visit
Where
1 / 3
Retail store or mall
What the zone does
Fires as a shopper crosses the doorway, scoped to a loyalty segment
Where
2 / 3
Airport or terminal
What the zone does
A cluster around the gates opens a journey timed to the boarding window
Where
3 / 3
Coffee shop or QSR
What the zone does
A single geozone pings a nearby offer, and the cooldown blocks repeat pings on the same visit

What to keep in mind

A few things worth checking before you build on a geozone.

  • Fires on entry only. There’s no exit trigger yet.
  • Cooldown tops out at 41 days per geozone, or one shared value for the whole cluster.
  • Zones are circular. Size the radius to the place, and confirm the current minimum and maximum with docs before you build around a specific number: the product guide and the API reference don’t fully agree on it.
  • No published cap on zones per cluster or clusters per app. Confirm current limits before planning a large rollout.
  • Geofencing runs on GPS and network location, not iBeacon: there’s no beacon detection despite the name showing up in older material.
  • Needs location permission and background access on the device. No permission, no entry event.

Reach people where they already are

A geozone doesn’t wait for a campaign calendar. It fires the moment someone’s actually there.