Neighborhood social network Nextdoor rolled out its Neighborhood Sponsorships tool nationwide Thursday, giving local businesses on its platform a way to advertise to potential customers on a ZIP code level.
Businesses must create their free business page to use Neighborhood Sponsorships, at which point they provide information including the business name, location and contact information, as well as up to 10 categories that describe the business or the services it provides.
ZIP codes can be selected through the Sponsorships/Manage Plan tab, where businesses can check availability and pricing. The people behind the business account are not required to live in a ZIP code in order to sponsor it.
Two ad formats are available via Neighborhood Sponsorships:
- Tips & Advice Ads: Businesses can demonstrate their expertise and how it can help nearby neighbors. When this type of ad is selected, businesses can choose from a list of conversation options, select the prompts they wish to run and add their responses. Custom prompts can be included, as well. Nextdoor recommended responses of 30 to 100 characters and the enabling of four to five prompts so that neighbors see a variety of ads.
- Conversation Starters Ads: This ad unit also involves choosing from a variety of prompts to answer questions that neighbors might have about the business, and businesses can create their own prompts, as well. Neighbors will see up to three prompts at a time when campaigns are running and, once they select a prompt, Nextdoor’s chat window will open and the conversation can begin. Nextdoor suggested customizing these prompts so that they are relevant to the business, and it reminded businesses to ensure that the information in their profiles is complete.
Nextdoor said in an email, “Whether a business is in the process of reopening due to Covid or just looking to get more exposure in specific neighborhoods, Neighborhood Sponsorships can help small businesses build big brand awareness and rapport with local customers. Additionally, as more people pack up and move neighborhoods during the pandemic (we found that mentions of movers on Nextdoor are up 84% since March), it’s crucial that business owners have the tools they need to directly reach these new customers in order to offer their services. For example, when looking at Nextdoor data, we found that top topics for new movers include: lawn service, house cleaning service, mover, handyman and landscape contractor.”
