On Monday, Pearl Technology Holdings announced the launch of Proximity, its new geo-fencing program, which allows its auto dealers to target their competitors’ customers by delivering real-time offers to the customer’s mobile device.

“Nothing is better or more precisely targeted than delivering a compelling marketing campaign while the customer is at a competitor and in the buying process,” said Pearl chief executive officer Bruce Thompson.

The way Proximity works is, dealers purchase exclusive targets which no other dealer on the network can target. Additionally, the network does not allow fellow Proximity dealers to target each other.

“Today, the majority of marketing platforms can only track click through rates, but there is no way to really measure their effectiveness. We tell our auto dealers that it is all about in-store visits,” said Thompson. “Proximity not only circumvents the competitor’s selling area, it delivers the customer to our dealer’s lot at an average cost of $30-40 per in-store visit. There is nothing on the market today that comes close to this type of marketing efficiency.”

Thompson added: “What’s so unique about the tool is that we can track a mobile device when it enters one of our dealer’s target locations and when it leaves. We deliver a minimum of 20-30 of our dealers’ ads to each device over the course of two to three weeks. Proximity delivers to 95 percent of all mobile websites and is integrated with virtually all ad exchanges.”

Target devices and their browsing activity is followed in real time and tracks all impressions and clicks developed from dealers' ad campaigns. The platform even records if the customer ever visits the dealer’s lot.

Proximity is sold on an exclusive first-come-first-served model. So far more than 300 targets have been sold.