How Much Does it Cost to Advertise on Waze?

Last Updated on February 6, 2023
Written by CPA Alec Pow | Content Reviewed by CFA Alexander Popinker

Month after month, an average of 438 minutes is spent on Waze by each driver that uses the app. There are quite a few companies, including Casey’s General Store, Children’s Hospital, Starbucks, and Men’s Warehouse, that are already using the app to advertise. Waze enables its advertisers to drive offline, local conversions through online, on-the-go, mobile advertising. If you’re a smaller advertiser, then Waze might prove to be pretty daunting. So How much does Waze advertising cost?

Its actual cost of entry will be as low as $2 per day and it has thousands of drivers that are potential clients for your business, so some might say that the pros will actually outweigh the cons, Waze being a great value even for local businesses.

About Waze and its Systems

Waze is a Google subsidiary. It is known as the world’s biggest navigation app that is crowd-sourced. It tries to direct its active users to routes that are the most efficient using real-time community input. Users can submit a multitude of types of information including road hazards, gas prices, accidents, lane closures, construction locations, and so on. The app asks users to actively engage with it while driving, either as passengers or at stop signs. And businesses will have an opportunity to advertise in the moments where this will be the most effective and will make the most sense.

Waze Local Advertising

Local advertisers on Waze ads have two plans to pick between.

The Local Starter plan is made to allow businesses that have between 1 and 10 locations to create a couple of different types of ads: Promoted Search Ads and Pin Ads.

Waze Local Ads Plus is a more complex plan, made for companies that have over 10 locations. It has premium tracking features and a premium support system. Local Plus advertisers will have access to Pin Ads and Search Ads, but they’ll also be able to use Zero Speed Ads.

The Cost to Advertise on Waze

Starter

• Starting at $2 per day
• Suitable for 1-10 locations
• Geographic targeting
• Pins and Search
• Self-service signup
• Credit card billing only
• Email support

Plus

• Starting at $100 per day
• Suitable for 1-50 locations
• Geo & Time Scheduling
• Zero-Speed Takeover
• Credit card & invoice billing
• Email & phone support
• Dedicated account manager

As a Waze Local advertiser, you will get your own dashboard where you can check your metrics. Among the things that you will be able to check are how many users see your ads, how many of them actually click, and how many will ultimately navigate to your business.

You might also like our articles about the cost of Mall advertising, billboard advertising, or Mall kiosk rental.

If you’re under the Local Starter plan, then you can use Geographic targeting as a way of limiting the ads you serve to a specific region. Local Plus advertisers will also be able to set Time of Day targeting, on top of Geographic limiting.

Pin Ads are another type of ad, that will mark your business location on the Waze map with a pin to alert drivers that you are nearby. Users will receive info like your exact business address, ongoing deals you have, your phone number, and open hours. These ads are used to increase the location awareness of businesses in their specific areas. They are also meant to be shown to passersby that are passing close to you.

Your business will thus have a lot of opportunities to have customers directed to their doorstep, while also increasing the number of people that have heard about your brand. These information pins can also be packed with deals that offer drivers an incentive to come to you.

Search Ads are used by businesses that want to stand out on more crowded routes, showing businesses that are really close to a user’s route. And the good part is that they can prioritize businesses based on what the users are looking for, showing the business name, its logo, as well as its complete address.

Furthermore, for users that are just looking for gas, a place to eat, or another general service, then having your name show on top of the search query might be the thing to convince them to use your services. Businesses that already have pin ads use this as a value-add service because Waze will promote you in search for free.

Zero-Speed Takeover Ads are location-based. They are used to increase navigations to your locations and help you get to even more users. With the help of Takeover ads, you can reach users that are three times farther from the location of your business than a standard Pin can.

You might have seen these ads. They pop up when your car comes to a complete stop and would include all kinds of information about your business and relevant offers. These ads show up right when users are looking at the app, while they’re checking the drive time left either at stop signs or while stuck in traffic. So while the drivers are waiting, the app offers them a deal that would drive them to your store.

Waze For Brands

When you use Waze for Brands, you will get everything from the Waze Local Advertising services, as well as innovative partnership offers, dedicated campaign support, custom insights, and advanced targeting capabilities.

As a Waze for Brand user, you will also get access to Nearby Arrow Ads. These arrows are a sort of signpost, that notifies users when your business is close by, showing within a few moments of opening the Waze app. If a user will tap on that arrow, the map will move to the closest Pin. This will be used like a digital billboard and should help your business convince more people to navigate to its locations.

Advertisers that go for Waze for Brands will get access to other services, like a lot of detailed targeting options including the user’s language, the time of day when they’re driving, the weather while they are driving, whether they are going to work or home, the type of location where they’re driving, whether they are a local or a tourist, and their operating system.

This is a great way for your business to know exactly what users are most likely to need and use your services so that your targeting is on point. So grocery stores can target customers that are looking for a place to get their food on their way home and car washes can start advertising while it’s sunny outside.

With Waze for Brands. you will also have advanced reporting capabilities. Among the most important data will be the number of website visits and navigations, average distance driven from ads, bench-marking numbers per category, how many users were reached by your ads, search impressions, and how often would a driver return to your location after clicking on an ad.

This data is meant to help companies determine whether a certain campaign is getting to the right audience as well as modify campaigns to get the highest ROI.

Offline Results from Online Ads

Waze is one of the most used tools by commuters and that is very useful for both drivers and companies that advertise on it. They continuously add more features and are a great way of branching out your PPC budget. They just recently released Waze Carpool for eco-conscious users.

For brick-and-mortar businesses, advertising on Waze has actually shown a 20% increase in navigations to their location. They seem to be very successful for brands in niches like casual dining restaurants, finance, retail, hospitality, entertainment, automotive, and so on. You can start with just $2 per day to see the power of Waze advertising and start new campaigns.

Waze Ads Competitors

When we consider the fact that Waze is primarily used for getting directions and general navigation, among its biggest rivals, are strong teams like Bing Maps, Google Maps, and Apple. But out of those three, just two have similar advertising types as Waze. These are Google Map promoted pins and Bing advertised pins.