How GasBuddy is Changing the Consumer Data Game
March 8, 2018Every Tuesday Catalyst invites the best-of-the-best in digital marketing to participate in our Trailblazer Tuesday lunch and learn series. From search engines to social platforms, to industry-leading tools and partners, we open our doors to innovators, experts, and trailblazers and learn about their cutting-edge capabilities.
On Tuesday, February 27th the team from GasBuddy joined us for a very exciting and insightful session. Here’s what we learned.
What is GasBuddy?
GasBuddy is an innovative tech company that operates apps and websites based on finding the most accurate, real-time fuel prices at more than 140,000 gas stations in the U.S., Canada and Australia.
The GasBuddy app is a GPS-based application program for smartphones and tablets which provides prices of nearby gas stations from user-submitted data, as well as through partnerships with other companies and directly from station operators.
GasBuddy is extremely popular among consumers. They report about 14 million active users each month. In fact, the only travel-related apps that have more users are Yelp and Uber.
GasBuddy has data. LOTS of data.
Most location-based apps often only ping your location while you are actively using the app. GasBuddy is different in that they ping their users’ smartphones over 100 times each day. This means they are receiving more than 1 billion location data points per day. These data points provide a very deep level of consumer insights. From driving habits to shopping behavior to car make and model, GasBuddy has an immense amount of consumer data.
What GasBuddy’s Data Means for Advertisers & Agencies
GasBuddy’s robust consumer data is a gold mine for advertisers and agencies alike. GasBuddy’s ability to track consumers’ locations at all times helps them identify what products are meaningful to consumers at given times, and where they go, above and beyond just gas stations. For example, GasBuddy can help advertisers create specific profiles around individuals to determine if they are a Starbucks customer vs. a Dunkin Donuts customer. Or a McDonalds customer vs. Burger King customer. Beyond helping brands and advertisers better understand their consumers, this data can also help measure the effectiveness of campaigns. For example, using GasBuddy data advertisers and agencies can understand if a promotion or campaign increased foot traffic to certain locations.
GasBuddy’s impact and disruption also extends far past advertising. For example, in 2017 GasBuddy leveraged its massive amount of data to provide assistance during Hurricanes Irma and Harvey. During the devastating storms and their aftermath, GasBuddy monitored fuel outages by region and customer wait times. With access to this live data visualization federal, state and local governments were more easily able to assess situations and route supplies and support to affected areas. GasBuddy became #2 most downloaded app across all categories during that period.
GasBuddy & Search
Catalyst is particularly excited about the opportunities that GasBuddy presents for more effective search marketing. From better targeting, to deeper understanding of consumers, to measuring impact of campaigns, GasBuddy’s data can be leveraged to maximize business results through search marketing. Want to learn how you can partner with Catalyst and GasBuddy to take your search marketing to the next level? Drop us a line at info@catalystdigital.com
