There has been a lot of discussion about proximity marketing and location data. If you haven’t been following the emergence of location intelligence platforms, they are data platforms that ingest location signals collected from GPS, WiFi and sometimes beacons, and combine those signals with other data sources to do a variety of things, including:
Create location-based audience segments/targets. Signals collected can be used to create location-based audience segments such as moviegoers, retail shoppers and others. These audiences are created when the signal, such as lat/long, is collected and combined with other sources, such as a point of interest (POI) database. Additional attributes and insights may be added to the data, such as frequency and demographics, to create highly targeted audiences based on the individual’s offline behaviors — e.g., frequent (three or more times per month) department store shoppers. These segments can typically be found on various marketplaces, including DMPs and DSPs (data management platforms and demand side platforms).
Optimize in-flight campaigns. The ability to track and measure the impact of an ad impression served to a given location-based audience segment/target and its ability to drive the walk-to rate or visit. These real-time campaign optimization tools are typically used by agencies and allow the users to drive incremental results by monitoring the impact of multiple creatives and/or geographical regions. A/B testing and the corresponding “lift” reporting allows campaigns to be adjusted in-flight to further drive marketing ROI.
Inform future audience and campaign efforts. Post-visit reports, typically managed by the agency and location intelligence platform, allow brands to not only track lift associated around footfall traffic, but also to better understand audiences and visitors to specific locations, including their activities, journey paths and brand affinities.
But not all location data is equal. So whether you’re an agency or a brand interested in utilizing location data, it is important that you do your homework and ask the right questions before investing in location data, buying audiences or looking at offline attribution. Here are some key questions to ask:
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