Temporary Ground Decal

So, I’m not actually sure if this is a decal or not. In many games, when you can place items on the ground, it usually gives you an indicator in green or red that is painted on the ground at the cursor position to let you know if the object can be placed. Usually it is something simple like a circle or something. The key point being though that it conforms to the ground mesh, so if it is at a slant, the ring is too.

Is the best way to handle this through the use of decals or is there a better way to handle it?

Decal is the best way. You can do it with particle effects too if the ground is always flat though.