Big things from Google i/o: Game changing improvements for beacons and location-based marketing
We’re only a day and a half into Google’s annual developer conference — Google i/o, and have seen some significant, game changing updates as to how brands and app owners will be able to connect with users and deliver more relevant mobile experiences.
Having been in the trenches working with app publishers and beacons for the last few years, we’ve witnessed a few hurdles that have made scaled and engaging beacon use cases challenging. Yesterday afternoon these challenges were addressed head on and the implications of these updates for the beacon ecosystem are massive.
While there have been a number of successful beacon deployments and use cases in the last few years, true scale and reach hasn’t come as fast as many predicted. This is no surprise because beacon deployment requires the physical challenge of hardware installation and maintenance. Beyond that, true global reach requires millions of deployed beacons accessible across all types of venues and locations.
The reality is, installing and managing hundreds of thousands of beacons is out of the scope of many retailers and app publishers. Add to the fact that in most cases beacon deployments serve the somewhat limited audience of one, or maybe a handful of apps, further fragmenting and limiting reach.
Despite these barriers, the true power that beacons can have on improved mobile user experiences and new sources of location data has meant that many have made the investment to install hardware across their physical properties for their purposes.
With yesterday’s sessions on Eddystone and the Google Beacon Platform as well as the Nearby API, Google has introduced a number of updates to make the sharing of beacon installations and emerging beacon networks massively accessible and scalable. Brands will not only be able to ‘lease’ and potentially monetize their own beacon installation to other apps (further justifying the investment), they will also be able to lease other installed beacons, thus expanding their reach exponentially.
While the concept of beacon sharing is not new, it takes a player the size of Google to create the standard and appropriate cloud infrastructure to make this concept of beacon networks and sharing a reality at scale.
This game changing move will rapidly accelerate the deployment and accessibility of beacons, driven by more compelling ROI and the critical mass that will provide the reach necessary to have meaningful impact.
Another common challenge marketers and app owners face when looking to make an investment in location and proximity is the question of how big their app audience is. While some publishers have sizeable install bases, many find it difficult to justify a location-driven mobile strategy without the install base to result in meaningful reach.
Requiring an app with reach in order to capitalize on the power of location has meant many have had to go back to growing their user base before considering beacons and location. Until now.
Without the need for an installed app, brands will have the ability to connect with customers using beacons in a number of ways, either driving them to web content, or using beacons to direct customers to install the app with content that pertains to the beacon they are in range of.
We knew this was coming when Eddystone was announced, but we now have much more detail on how the promise of the ‘app-less’ beacon experience will come to life.
These are just a few of the location related highlights from i/o thus far and with two days left, there is much more to come. Google is clearly looking at beacons the right way and making the required product decisions that address some of the shortfalls of Apple’s approach from a few years ago. I’ll be taking a deeper dive into these and other updates in my next posts, so stay tuned.
