Data drives everything in adtech, from ad space acquisition in real time, to campaign performance metrics. But are we properly using the immense data sources at our disposal? Mobile differs from desktop advertising in the lack of tracking cookies to facilitate ad placement and targeting, and mobile marketers are faced with the difficult challenge of reconciling various user accounts across devices to create a homogeneous targetable user.
Applying cross-level data allows us to better extrapolate mobile insights, create profile audiences, and target receptive users. Useful user data goes beyond simple demographics, to dig deeper into each target’s preferences, habits, likes, and dislikes.
Data sources
Where does this data come from? Marketing automation platforms aggregate data from multiple complementary sources in order to have maximum segmentation ability. Cross-level data is aggregated into a machine learning funnel, as algorithms are able to marry each data source to reconcile devices and accounts to identify user behavior patterns.
- First-party data is the first data source collected from a brand’s properties and recorded in the CRM: actions on site, app, store, email, push campaigns etc. The marrying of such metrics derived from the properties of both advertisers and publishers serves as a starting ground on which to base future overall campaign strategies for optimal results.
- Second-party data: campaign interactions as recorded by the brand’s media partners. This includes campaign metrics such as impressions, clicks, videos watched, installs, and in-app account creation and purchases. Such information available in real time becomes extremely useful in extracting information and applying campaign optimizations.
- Third-party data from DMPs include information acquired from external sources and applied to existing data sets to extract further insights. Notably, third-party information often focuses on mobile user demographic details in order to better paint distinct user profiles.
- Empirical data on user behavior gathered by automation platforms through observation and experimentation. Consistent experience optimizing campaigns at scale sheds light on geo-specific tendencies, campaign scaling best-practices, and other strategic approaches specific to mobile.
Mobile profiles
Once we have demographic data it seems tempting to take a spray-and-pray approach, blasting campaigns across barely-segmented mobile audiences in hope of maximizing ad impressions. While this approach may even be initially effective with a high conversion rate, it does not consider the long-term relationship app developers want to create with their audience. This approach inevitably leads to poor retention rates, and uninstall rates can climb up to 90% within the first 7 crucial days post-install.
Let’s take a concrete example: a discount shopping app is seeking new users in urban areas. While demographic data alone will allow you to target females in their 20s living in a given state or region, is this enough to drive conversions and ROI?
What if you could target your app’s specific user profile in an exact local: females living or frequently visiting a major shopping district of NYC who have already downloaded one or more other shopping apps. Add that to the user’s track record of making online purchases with a smartphone on Saturday mornings, and you have now identified the exact target and exact moment in which your audience is most receptive to your ad.
Getting to really know your users’ mobile persona allows more effective targeting, with adapted ad creatives. While conversion rate remains a key metric in measuring mobile campaign effectiveness, conversions alone are not the ultimate goal of a successful campaign.
Proper application of insights generated from mobile data points enables increased granularity in ad targeting approaches, proving most effective in establishing valuable long-term user bases with high monetization potential. By creating granular segmented audiences, mobile marketers are able to pinpoint groups and individuals with high promise to not only download their app, but to continually engage and develop their relationship.