Waze Ads

Leading in-navigation advertising platform with a unique captive driver audience and real-time route-based targeting capabilities

Waze Ads is the advertising arm of Waze, the community-driven navigation application, offering brands a unique channel to reach drivers at the moment they are most likely to make location-based decisions. The platform leverages Waze's massive user base of hundreds of millions of active drivers globally, delivering ad formats specifically designed for the in-car, on-route experience — including Branded Pins, Zero-Speed Takeovers, and Promoted Search — all without distracting drivers from navigation. The platform's core strength lies in its real-time location intelligence and route data, enabling advertisers to target consumers based on proximity to a store, current route, time of day, and behavioral patterns. This makes Waze Ads particularly powerful for businesses with physical locations, such as quick-service restaurants, fuel stations, retail chains, and automotive brands, who want to drive foot traffic and in-store visits rather than purely digital conversions. Waze Ads occupies a distinctive niche in the location-based advertising ecosystem, competing with broader platforms like Google Maps advertising and out-of-home digital solutions. Its integration directly into the navigation experience — rather than as an overlay on a general-purpose app — gives it a contextual relevance advantage. The platform offers self-serve tools for SMBs as well as managed solutions for enterprise advertisers, making it accessible across market segments.