Mobile-based ad targeting using modeled personas
We live in a mobile age. Look around while riding the subway, in a Starbucks, walking to work: chances are those around you are reading the news on their phones, tweeting, or some other mindless act. For advertisers, addressing that users exist in the mobile world now more than ever is crucial to running more successful campaigns. The organizations that refuse to adapt and instead continue to purchase TV spots and online targeted ads will lag behind the innovators.
Mobile targeted advertising means reaching users where they are. It requires new technology, yes, but consumers are now spending more time scrolling through the New York Times app for their news than picking up a print copy on their walk to work. In-app targeting closes the chain from cross-device ad campaigns — from what used to be TV/computer/tablet with now one more link to reach consumers.
One of the first companies to perfect mobile audience targeting is PushSpring, a relatively new company created by former professionals in traditional ad targeting. Basically, they provide device-level targeting data for verified Apple and Android app audiences — over 200M unique mobile IDs.
While they serve various types of customers, PushSpring’s services are directly applicable to the intersection of technology, politics and advocacy. It’s a given that data-driven campaigns are the most successful in the digital age. Without solidified insight on voters, campaigns are left guessing and pushing out irrelevant advertisements to non-supporters. PushSpring reaches specific voters through deterministic mobile data to reach advocates and supporters in favor of a campaign or cause.
Specifically, data is recorded on various characteristics of individuals through the apps on their phones, their geographic location and other mobile cookie-based information. As an example, say a client wanted to build an audience of upper-middle class, married, home and automobile owners who are looking to buy a house. They have the capabilities of finding and reaching those people on their phones through, what they call, “Life Stage Personas.”
Further, while PushSpring does not have their own CRM or database management platform, their data is easily exported to various platforms such as LiveRamp, SalesForce, DoubleClick and over a dozen more. Another example of promoting simplicity, the comprehensive platform also allows customers to import their own preexisting data and match it against their dataset to compare.
With PushSpring as an example, conclusions can be made about the future of mobile-based targeting. Voters have already experienced campaign outreach through various SMS-messaging platforms for mass-outreach. However, as more companies begin to fill the space of mobile ad-targeting, the ability to reach consumers on all devices becomes even more realistic.
Article originally published on September 4, 2017.
