Advertising on Waze: Everything You Need to Know

Advertising on Waze has quickly become one of the most innovative ways for local businesses to reach potential customers while they’re on the move. Unlike traditional automotive PPC ads, Waze puts your brand directly on the road—literally—helping drivers discover your business when it matters most. Whether you’re a café looking to attract morning commuters or a retailer promoting weekend deals, understanding how Waze advertising works can give you a strategic edge in capturing ready-to-act audiences. In this guide, we’ll break down the essentials, share practical tips, and explain how to make the most of this unique location-based marketing channel.

What is Waze?

Waze is a GPS navigation app that helps drivers find the fastest routes while providing real-time traffic updates, road hazards, and alerts from other users. Unlike traditional mapping tools, Waze integrates social features, allowing drivers to report incidents, share ETAs, and discover nearby businesses.

For marketers, Waze offers a unique opportunity: location-based advertising that reaches users while they are actively driving and making decisions about where to stop or visit. Its combination of navigation, community data, and precise targeting makes it a powerful platform for local businesses looking to capture ready-to-act customers.
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Types of Waze Advertising

Waze for business is an effective marketing tool with several types of Waze ad formats. The application offers three Waze ad formats of integration: pins, navigational search, and outreach tools (advertising messages).

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‍Pins on the map are branded company marks on the application map. When driving past the location, the user will see not just a road network, but also an icon with the logo of the location, which is Waze location based advertising.

Search Ads is an opportunity to highlight your location in the recommendations during a search in Waze. In such a way, depending on the user’s location, a relevant Google Waze ads message will appear when searching for a certain point of interest. Waze app advertising will be the only one and will be located at the top with an indication of the route.

Takeovers and Arrow. Takeovers are advertising messages that appear at the top of the screen when the user drives within a certain radius of the point of sale. Most often, this is an announcement with certain special offers or company news. Arrow allows for making an impression on the user at the first moment of opening the app. In such a case, an advertising icon with an arrow pointing in the direction of the location appears based on the user’s geolocation.

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Written by

Vlad Kiselyov

Media Technical Lead at Promodo

Written by

Olesia Holovko

Team Lead of Content for promodo.com

I’m a content marketing manager with over 9 years of experience in business writing. Currently, I lead the content team at promodo.com, where I focus on creating useful, well-researched content that supports marketing goals and helps businesses grow.

I enjoy working with data, expert opinions, and real insights to craft content that’s both relevant and easy to understand. I also have a solid background in SEO — I completed the Search Engine Optimization Course at Promodo Academy, which gave me hands-on skills in keyword research, content optimization, and improving visibility in search engines.

Whether it’s an article, blog post, or case study, I aim to make sure the content is clear, helpful, and aligned with both user needs and business objectives.

Published:

August 17, 2025

Updated: