NEW YORK ? Executives at the 2015 Mobile Marketing Association Forum New York revealed that 68 percent of mobile marketers are leveraging location-based targeting and using it as a target parameter in their media buying, although mobile still remains a small component of many digital budgets.

During the ?Audience Evolved: How Location Data Actually Works and Why it Has Become a Focus for Traditional CPG and Brand Advertisers? session, the executives discussed the positive outlook for more brands using location as a top data source to help them market to consumers. They also predicted that brand advertisers will begin being primary users of location-based targeting in the near future.

?Mobile is certainly growing faster than other channels,? said Noah Elkin, chief product officer at Industry Index, New York. ?Marketers in general are upbeat about locations? role as a marketing parameter.?

Positive spend
Mr. Elkin argued that marketers? spend on location is healthy ? resting at an average of 28 percent of mobile media budgets. However, as mobile increases its growing importance, data will reveal what is important to marketers and which directions they are heading in.

However, mobile does still remain a relatively small component of many marketers? digital budgets, with an average of 17 percent. Meanwhile, approximately 44 percent, 24 percent and 15 percent are spent on display, video and social, respectively.

The outlook for location-based targeting is positive, as there is a 22 percent average anticipated increase in location-based media spend over the next year. Vendors that are interested in offering their services to brands should also keep in mind six pieces of criteria to highlight to potential partners: innovation, service, value, collaboration, scalability and return on investment.

Brands crave the ability to drive sales through messaging and spur impulse purchases which then result in great performance. Location-based data also helps pinpoint the audience for a particular brand.

?Historically, brand advertisers have focused on apps and site targeting, but now have better opportunities to leverage data that?s unique to mobile,? said Brett Kohn, vice president of marketing at Thinknear, Culver City, CA.

Importance of location
As location becomes more imperative to providing contextually relevant experiences to consumers, brands should consider which kinds of data work best for their needs. They can tap demographic information, third party information, behavioral targeting or contextual location targeting.

While brands do have great data and point-of-sale solutions, they do not have the best data about where their customers go when they leave the store, a tactic that could help drive more in-store traffic and further brand loyalty.

Beacons will also be valuable for collecting data about users and building profiles that will help companies receive a better sense of where people have been. In turn, they will be even more valuable for brands to leverage in a subsequent interaction with a customer, so that the marketer can serve the user with a better message based on the compiled rich profile.

?Location is the cookie of mobile,? Mr. Kohn said. ?It?s a little cliché, but it?s true.?

Final Take
Alex Samuely is an editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York