In an increasingly connected world, where nearly every device can signal its location, businesses are sitting on a goldmine of geographic data.
To simplify that, think about how your phone knows exactly where you are—when you search for a coffee shop, get directions, or receive an ad for a store nearby. That’s location data at work. Now scale that across millions of devices, vehicles, transactions, and signals, and you start to see the scale of what businesses are working with today.
Location data is that goldmine—only it’s refined. Location Intelligence transforms all that location data into something meaningful and useful.
In this guide, we will delve into the intricacies of Location Intelligence and everything that comes with it.
Now that you are here, let’s get into it.
What is Location Intelligence? Where to open a store. Where your customers spend their time. Where demand is growing—or where it’s already saturated. where things happen—and why .
Location Intelligence is what brings all of that together.
The objective is to understand how location impacts business outcomes. It can be used to assess performance by region, identify areas of opportunity, monitor physical assets, or refine marketing strategies based on behavioral patterns tied to specific locations.
Rather than relying on intuition or surface-level trends, location intelligence enables organizations to make data-backed decisions with geographic context built in.
Who uses Location Intelligence? Small and large businesses, as well as government agencies, use location technology to meet a wide range of needs.
Retailers use it to study store performance and customer movement. Logistics teams rely on it for tracking and route optimization. Marketing teams use it for location-based targeting, and political organizations use it to understand voter distribution or campaign reach.
In short, anyone who needs to plan, allocate, or measure something in physical space can benefit from location intelligence.
Commonly used data types in building Location Intelligence platforms The Data Behind Location Intelligence Location intelligence is powered by multiple data layers of geospatial information and real data collected from the physical world and processed through systems designed to make sense of it.
This includes:
Points of Interest (POIs): These include commercial locations like stores, restaurants, fuel stations, hospitals, and ATMs. POI data helps businesses understand what exists around a target location—essential for site selection, competitor benchmarking, or proximity-based targeting. When combined with other datasets, POIs offer insight into commercial density, neighborhood activity, and customer intent.
Geocoding Data: This refers to converting addresses into geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude), which can then be mapped and analyzed. Businesses use geocoding to locate customers, validate delivery points, or tag campaign sites with spatial accuracy. It plays a critical role in any location-based advertising and other services where physical addresses are part of the workflow.
Traffic Data: This includes both live and historical vehicle movement data, collected from road sensors, mobile apps, and navigation systems. Logistics and delivery companies use it to optimize routing, avoid recurring bottlenecks, and estimate delivery windows more accurately. In retail, it helps analyze the movement and footfall potential of target customers near a site.
Real-time Mobility Data: Pulled from mobile devices, GPS signals, and app usage patterns, this data shows how people move through physical space. It reveals movement trends, crowd density, dwell time, and peak activity windows. Marketers, city planners, and retailers use it for everything from location-based advertising to crowd control and capacity planning.
Demographic Data: This includes variables like population density, age distribution, household income, education levels, and lifestyle attributes. It’s used to build user persona, profile local markets, forecast demand, and prioritize regions for product rollouts or store expansion. When combined with POI data and GIS data management systems, it helps businesses identify underserved areas and untapped market potential.
Weather Data: Sourced from meteorological agencies and sensors, weather data plays a critical role in industries like agriculture, supply chain, and event management. Rainfall, temperature, and extreme weather patterns can all affect mobility, purchasing behavior, delivery routes, and service availability.
Advancements in geospatial software solutions and geoinformatics technology have made it possible to make better use of this data and automate how it’s processed—running in the background, integrated into dashboards, marketing platforms, or ERP systems.
This is the foundation. The next section looks at how it's applied across industries in more depth.
Location Intelligence Use Cases Industry Application of Location Intelligence Location data is used across industries, but how it’s applied depends entirely on what a business is trying to achieve. There’s no single formula—it’s adapted to the use case, and those use cases keep evolving.
Companies keep finding new ways to work with location data. It’s not static. As tools get better and data becomes more accessible, the ways people use it keep expanding.
Having said that, here are some of the most common industry applications that show how location intelligence is used in practice:
Retail and Consumer Brands
Retailers use retail location data to study store performance, identify high-potential trade areas, and optimize strategies. By combining demographic data with consumer behavior insights and Points of Interest (POIs), brands can improve site selection, run hyperlocal campaigns, and adjust inventory based on local demand.
Logistics and Transportation
Logistics providers rely on location intelligence software for real-time tracking, route optimization, and zone-based delivery planning. Historical traffic patterns, mobility data, and weather inputs help minimize delays and improve fleet efficiency.
Marketing and Advertising
Brands run location-based advertising campaigns and use location data to target users based on movement patterns, proximity, and dwell time. It helps increase ad relevance, reduce wasted spend, and measure attribution.
Infrastructure and Asset Management
Utilities, telecom, and energy companies use geospatial data to plan network rollouts, manage remote assets, and schedule field service operations. Environmental data and satellite imagery are often layered for terrain analysis and risk assessments.
Government and Public Services
Urban planners and government bodies apply geospatial solutions to manage infrastructure projects, monitor traffic systems, and improve emergency response. Election planning, zoning enforcement, and disaster response all rely on spatial data infrastructure.
Political and Nonprofit Campaigning
Location data helps political organizations understand voter distribution, mobilize teams, and plan outreach. It also supports identifying underserved communities for NGOs and nonprofits during program deployment or relief efforts.
Audience Segmentation & Consumer Insights
Retailers and marketers analyze footfall, travel patterns, and neighborhood demographics to fine-tune promotions, launch new stores, or expand services.
These are just a few examples, and the list keeps growing. As location data becomes more precise and easier to work with, businesses across sectors continue to find new ways to apply it—some operational, some strategic, and many somewhere in between.
Advantages of Location Intelligence Key Outcomes of Location Intelligence A Clearer Understanding of Markets and Audiences
Location intelligence combines demographic, mobility, and behavioral data to give businesses a more accurate picture of the people they’re trying to reach. It helps identify underserved areas, reveal hidden demand, and build strategies that reflect what’s actually happening on the ground.
Faster, Smarter Decisions
Whether it’s adjusting delivery routes, placing new ads, or selecting store locations, decisions can be made based on real data—live traffic, crowd density, proximity to key POIs, or environmental conditions. That speed and accuracy adds up.
Smarter Targeting
Campaigns become more precise—not just who to reach, but where and when. Businesses making use of location data & analytics deliver ads near high-intent zones, tailor promotions by region, and push offers based on real-world consumer behavior.
Loss Mitigation
With the right location intelligence software in place, businesses can actively monitor operations in real time and respond before small issues become costly ones. Whether it’s identifying underperforming locations, spotting gaps in audience engagement, or catching early signs of campaign inefficiency —location intelligence helps reduce waste, missed opportunities, and operational blind spots.
Better Allocation of Resources
From team management to inventory stocking and campaign targeting, location intelligence helps allocate resources where they’re most likely to make an impact—reducing risk and improving ROI in the process.
Location Intelligence Software & Tools Location Intelligence Software & Tools To make sense of location data at scale, businesses rely on platforms built for collecting, analyzing, and visualizing geospatial information. Each platform serves different use cases—from advanced spatial analysis to real-time tracking—and the right choice depends on the specific demands of the business.
Here are a few widely used location intelligence platforms:
Esri (ArcGIS)
A leading name in the GIS space, Esri offers advanced GIS data management system and spatial analysis capabilities. It’s used heavily by governments, infrastructure teams, and large enterprises for complex mapping and geospatial modeling.
CARTO
Focused on location data analytics and visualization, CARTO helps businesses identify spatial patterns and make data-driven decisions. It's commonly used in real estate, urban development, and retail for mapping customer behavior and site selection.
Placer.ai
A platform centered around foot traffic data and consumer movement analytics. It’s widely used in retail, commercial real estate, and hospitality to understand how people interact with physical spaces over time.
Meridian.API
A purpose-built location intelligence software designed for advertising, branding, and physical asset management. It combines mapping, spatial analytics, geotagging tools, and lightweight GIS capabilities to support campaign planning, and asset tracking. Whether it's for managing outdoor media, monitoring brand presence, or making sense of activity across locations, Meridian.API brings the essential location data into one accessible platform.
Each of these tools supports different goals, but the objective is the same: to make location data more useful, more visible, and more actionable.
A Brief Case Study from the world of Location Intelligence Quick Look: A Brief Case Study from the Field In one of our projects, a brand running an extensive OOH (Out-of-Home) campaign needed better visibility into where and how their ads were being displayed across multiple locations. The challenge was ensuring that all physical assets were live, correctly placed, and consistent with campaign guidelines.
Using a custom-built system powered by GIS technology and location data, we enabled real-time tracking, mapped site performance, and helped the team carry out a full ground audit. It streamlined their process, reduced manual effort, and provided clear insight into campaign execution on the ground.
It’s a practical example of how structured location intelligence can be applied to solve everyday business problems.
You can read the full case study here .
Getting Started with Location Intelligence For businesses looking to make better use of location data, the first step is clarity—knowing what you’re trying to solve. That could be improving targeting, selecting better locations, managing assets, or tracking campaign performance across regions.
Once the goal is defined, it’s about pulling in the right data—Points of Interest, demographics, mobility patterns, or traffic—and finding a tool that can make that information usable.
You don’t need a full GIS setup or in-house mapping team to get started. With the right platform, teams can integrate location data into their workflows without adding complexity.
Meridian.API is built with this in mind: a focused, geospatial analytics platform that connects the key datasets needed for planning, execution, and visibility—whether it’s for advertising, branding, or physical asset management.
Get in touch with us to learn more about our Location Intelligence software.
Epilogue Location intelligence is made possible by geospatial data, GIS technology, and the tools built around them. With the right setup, businesses can map assets, monitor regions, analyze audience behavior, and plan more effectively across locations.
Location intelligence software—including mapping platforms, geotagging tools, and spatial analytics dashboards—supports a range of use cases such as campaign management, retail location analytics, and physical asset tracking.
As the use of spatial data continues to grow, the focus is shifting toward practical applications—tools that help teams work with location data directly, without added complexity. With purpose-built platforms and better data integration, location intelligence is becoming a standard part of how modern businesses operate.
If you're eager to learn more about location intelligence and how it will help your organization, we’re happy to help you get started. Schedule an appointment with our team to learn more.
FAQs What is location intelligence?
Location intelligence is the process of gathering, analyzing, and applying location data—like POIs, traffic, demographics, and mobility trends—to support better business decisions.
What kind of data is used in location intelligence?
Location intelligence combines multiple data layers, including geospatial information, demographic data, real-time mobility patterns, environmental factors, and Points of Interest (POIs). These layers provide spatial context that helps interpret what’s happening in a specific area.
What are some common use cases for location intelligence?
Common applications include retail location data & analytics, delivery route optimization, location-based advertising, asset tracking, and campaign performance monitoring.
What is geocoding in location intelligence?
Geocoding is the process of converting addresses into geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude), so they can be mapped and analyzed spatially.
Where does location data come from?
Location data can be collected from mobile devices, GPS systems, transactions, satellite feeds, public records, and sensors. Platforms often layer this with POI data, traffic history, and demographic profiles for analysis.
