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IAB offers insight on how to maximize benefits from location data

In a reflection of the ongoing challenges marketers face with leveraging mobile location data, the Interactive Advertising Bureau has released a primer that focuses on using this data to analyze cross-platform actions and media exposure.

The primer, ?Marketing ROI and Location Data: A look at current and emerging practices in leveraging Mobile Location Data for marketing attribution and ROI,? aims to educate digital buyers, sellers, and other interested parties on how mobile location data can be used to show campaign effectiveness and cross-platform campaign attribution. The primer?s release points to how as location data availability skyrockets, the industry is experimenting with new applications and uses of this data, raising buyers? and sellers? interest in using location data to understand return on investment.

?Many marketers approach the IAB and IAB members with a strong interest in attaining better mobile measurement but lack a clear understanding of the options currently available to them,? said Anna Bager, senior vice president and general manager for mobile and video with IAB, New York. ?They look to the IAB to help them understand what?s working in the market and what can help them move their businesses forward.?

Campaign tactics
The primer is written for anyone with a general understanding of, and interest in, the different types of digital campaign effectiveness solutions available and how they may be used tactically for specific campaign goals. The primer is also useful for those interested in mobile advertising measurement or looking for innovative solutions to help understand mobile and cross-platform advertising campaign effectiveness. 

The usefulness of location data is nothing new to mobile publishers and advertisers. Using mobile location data for more precise campaign targeting has been a popular tactic since at least 2012. 

Data collection is booming.

In fact, mobile advertising campaigns which use mobile location data for targeting have grown from $1.2 billion in 2012 to an estimated $3.9 billion in 2014.

In response to increasing demand, the supply of available mobile location data has also increased. In 2012 approximately 10 percent of programmatic ad requests provided lat/long data with a minimum of 3 digits; a percentage which grew to a stunning 68 percent in 2014.

In addition to its usefulness for mobile campaign targeting, location data can be used for better measurement and also to evaluate cross-platform campaigns?including out of home, connected TV and other media. As will be explored throughout this primer, location data has been critical in helping marketers understand people, places, and users? digital and physical interactions?.

The study comes from the Mobile Location Data Working Group of IAB, an advertising business organization that develops industry standards, conducts research, and provides legal support for the online advertising industry.

As location data availability skyrockets, the industry is experimenting with new applications and uses of this data. Using location data to understand ROI has become of heightened interest for both buyers and sellers. 

?As with any emerging practice it is useful for an organization such as the IAB ? the trade organization home for digital media ? to help the market understand emerging approaches and reduce possible confusion in regards to what?s currently possible and educate around emerging opportunities,? Ms. Bager said.
 
Many marketers approach the IAB and IAB members with a strong interest in attaining better mobile measurement but lack a clear understanding of the options currently available to them. 

?They look to the IAB to help them understand what?s working in the market and what can help them move their businesses forward,? Ms. Bager said.
 
The most pressing issue in producing the primer was highlighting the wide array of ways location data can show ROI. 

?Many have the perception that this is limited to showing in-store traffic lift,? Ms. Bager said. ?But there are many other, very useful, applications we highlight such as linking actions across screens, understanding sales and consumer sentiment and using location data as a metric for marketing efforts that are not strictly tied to digital media.?
 
Tackling privacy
The primer tackles privacy, a major mobile marketing issue, by outlining 
the current privacy landscape, including government regulation and self-regulation, to help buyers and sellers understand how to use these technologies in a privacy-friendly way, creating notice and choice for the consumer at all points.
 
?Mobile location data is useful far beyond creating targeting for a digital ad campaign,? Ms. Bager said. ?Mobile offers many sophisticated measurement solutions that empower marketers to understand the full consumer journey and make business-impacting decisions based on that information.?

Final Take
Michael Barris is staff reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York