What is a POI?

POI stands for “Point of Interest.” POIs are specific point locations that are available for exploration and analysis within Placer. 

Placer creates POIs for any specific point location, including standalone brick-and-mortar locations (e.g., a store, a dentist office, or a gym) and complexes (e.g., shopping centers).  Millions of indexed POIs are available, additional POIs are added regularly, and specific POI may be requested at any time.

Visit the quick start guide to learn how to request a POI

How are POIs defined?

Locations are geofenced across the entire U.S. to provide analytics for any POI.

A geofence is a virtual perimeter that can be drawn around any real-world geographic area using a series of points on a map. These points are defined by latitude and longitude coordinates.  POIs can be as large as 200 square miles with no lower size limit; however, small POIs may result in insufficient data, since the panel coverage is too small to generate accurate results.

POI verification

Placer.ai employs various processes and safeguards to ensure the quality and accuracy of its POI database. POIs are verified in the system by a QA process that takes into account many factors that affect accuracy. Once the boundaries of a POI have been analyzed, cleaned, and attributed to the correct retail chain at the correct address, the POI is labeled as a Verified POI.  Verified POIs provide full visitation insights and reports. 

In addition to Verified POIs, there are three other types of POIs that can be analyzed to a lesser degree: 

• Flagged POIs – These POIs are typically located within dense areas, multistory buildings, or other such locations where foot traffic data is limited or partial and therefore not fully processed. For such POIs, Placer supports Nearby Activity reports.
• Custom POI – The Custom POI tool allows users to add/geofence new locations on-demand.  POIs that have been geofenced by the user through the Custom POI tool have not been fully processed or verified, so reporting is limited. 
• Closed POI – For POIs that have been verified as closed, report data is only presented until the last open date.

How are visits to POIs measured?

Once a POI is verified, Placer captures visits, both inside and outside the geofence, using our proprietary venue detection logic. There are three types of POIs, each with tailored visitation measurement:

• Property – most POIs fall under the "Property" category -a store, shopping center, building, city block, event space - almost any single-location entity falls under Property.
• Regions/Markets – larger areas, like submarkets, small towns, and entire neighborhoods will usually fall under the Region/Makrket POI type.
• Traffic Pins – Traffic Pins are POIs that are not "visited", but rather "passed by", and can be used for either single or multiple road segments. Traffic Pins are generally used for gathering data around billboards and they measure all vehicles or pedestrians passing by a road, regardless of how much time the person spends next to the pin. Traffic Pins can also be used for dense urban areas, as well as vacant land. 

Sensitive POIs and Placer's privacy protocols

Placer does not make data accessible for locations defined as “sensitive places”, including military facilities, schools or facilities for minors, places of worship, rehabilitation centers, women’s health facilities, and some types of medical and government facilities. We are committed to transparency in our treatment of, and updates to, sensitive locations. Visit the Placer Trust Center for more information.

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