The marketing landscape is constantly changing and evolving, with multiple mediums allowing multiple touch points. Measuring effect and attribution of marketing campaigns, executed across various media channels can be difficult and, at times, unachievable. Due to the streams of mobile technology and applications being developed, and more than a billion smartphone users worldwide, mobile has become an indispensable medium for consumer understanding and outreach.
Understanding technology’s role in marketing and analytics is paramount for business-owners, CEOs, marketers, clients and agencies. Existing tools, which include but are not limited to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), social media, QR codes and mobile payments, are easily recognisable and utilised by marketers. Over time, and with the introduction of relevant tools, marketers have found it easier to connect the analytical dots between online user activities and sales. Yet, measuring the impact of offline marketing efforts remains difficult. However, new players in the market are redefining the space by making it far more achievable to point out the value and success of a marketing strategy.
With huge amounts of mobile data being generated as we speak, mobile has become the source of consumer understanding at a granular level. Adding location footprint to mobile data can obtain unparalleled consumer insights, enabling attribution for the first time. Location is the key lever between the digital user and the real world. The ability to measure footfalls through mobile is the first step to measure effectiveness. The next step is attribution to different mediums, including mobile, digital and out-of-home (OOH) media.
Today, a significant number of consumers’ purchase decisions are likely to be influenced by multiple touch points. For example, a consumer might have come across a product on his mobile and a billboard before making the decision to walk into the store. In this case, it is difficult to pinpoint the media that drove the footfall. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of this complementary marketing strategy can be measured by the overall increase in foot traffic. Various combinations of media can be trialed and tested for selected audiences to optimise media planning.
Besides attribution, location intelligence can also be effectively used to understand and build a customised set of audience for brands. Marketers can leverage location data to collect valuable insights, which aid in better understanding consumer behaviour – a pivotal foundation to determine mobile market effectiveness and impact. These insights enable marketers to make informed decisions when defining their offline and online marketing strategies.
To plan ahead, brands can aggregate the data gathered by mobile devices during a campaign. This would enable them to identify and analyse emerging trends as well as recurring patterns from their campaign. A useful data analysis tip would be to look out for the number of visits made by audiences in the same location.
Mobile data is constantly refined and updated. The increasing widespread deployments of mobile payments and in-store promotions, driving mobile marketing budgets, have led to the high demand for mobile attribution. Therefore, it is necessary for brands to be up to date with the latest technologies to stay ahead of the game and, at the same time, measure the success of their marketing efforts.
Measuring mobile attribution is an evolving science. The current attribution measurement may not be one hundred per cent accurate, as it is difficult to pinpoint the trigger that drives consumer footfall. However, the ability to measure the indicative efficiency of a medium is a huge leap forward in the blackhole of offline campaign measurement. Till we solve this mystery, technologists and marketers should work together to search for the perfect formula for definitive results.
By Shobhit Shukla, Chief Revenue Officer, AdNear
