Inner Circle

Digital Marketing  

Location, Location, Location

by Jacquelyn Wells

A phrase once monopolized by the real estate industry is becoming the new mantra for marketing professionals worldwide. And it’s all thanks to that little smart device in your pocket. We take it with us wherever we go, and many of us gladly share our location data through the various apps we use—data that marketers can use to serve relevant messages to prospective attendees in real time.

Imagine being able to target and serve ads to prospective attendees at an industry trade show in China or Brazil. Or reach a new market segment at an ancillary event. Or increase the number of same-company attendees by targeting their headquarters or large operating plants. It’s all possible through geotargeting. While there are several types of geotargeting—from Bluetooth and beacon technology to geofencing—mdg has recently launched several campaigns for clients using geotagging and retargeting.

HOW IT WORKS
When a user opens an app on their smartphone to view ads, their device is geotagged through the ad network. (Users have to have GPS enabled within the app to comply with privacy laws.) Technology providers can then pull the data and use the same ad network to serve ads. The bidding is done in real time and allows you to customize your message leveraging the location, device, app and carrier data. Predictive modeling is also utilized to determine unknowns such as gender, language, income level, etc. Approximately 60 percent of mobile traffic is also tagged with accurate GPS location data, and technology providers claim that the tagging is precise up to 100 meters.

THE STRATEGY
mdg recently launched a campaign for a client targeting attendees at a large competitor show in Europe to drive more international attendance. Using device tagging, the campaign was tightly focused around the convention center to ensure we reached our target audience. Knowing that the customer journey would require more than a mobile banner ad to register, the objective was to first generate recognition and awareness. The plan: to serve ads to these attendee prospects both during the show and 12 weeks after, as attendees return to their place of residence. The mobile ads directed users to a responsive landing page designed specifically for the campaign with targeting messaging and a form to sign up for show updates. This allowed the leads to be nurtured through other media, continuing the conversation.

THE RESULTS
This particular campaign served 377,887 impressions, 1,653 clicks and 69 total form submissions for a modest investment of about $700. A booth, sponsorship or similar placement in industry media would have cost significantly more. Phase 2 of the campaign will continue to retarget the devices over the next several months to drive additional form submissions and, ultimately, registrations. The ability to pinpoint and deliver information based on location behavior allows marketers like us to make more meaningful connections and reach audiences that we may not have been able to reach in any other way.

Campaigns can also run using the same technology at your own event to deliver ads about show features and networking events, or simply protect your brand from other savvy marketers who might be targeting your event.

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