The second part of this series on Mobile Device ID advertising focused on the basis of this advertising technology. This third article explains where your advertising runs using Mobile IDs.
So, We’ve Identified a Group of Mobile IDs…
That’s the first step – finding cell phones based on where they have physically visited, categorizing them, finding where they are located now, and hopefully building lists of these IDs for future campaigns. We know the phones we want to target, now how do we get ads to those phones, and through what channels do we advertise?
Where Do Mobile ID Ads Run?
The first and easiest place to run ads on these phones is within the App environment, as that’s where we identified the phones in the first place. Because we know the phone ID we want to reach, we can programmatically purchase display ads within apps – games, sports, lifestyle, tools – wherever ads are found. Ads could run on the app through which a phone was identified, or thousands of additional apps. We mostly run display ads in apps, as there are many more opportunities with display. However, in-app video can also run, especially if you have a broad target audience or large geographic target area.
Ads can be targeted to a specific geography, say a DMA, or by zip code. So even if we’ve pulled the Mobile IDs from across the country, we only run ads to the phones that are within our specified advertising target area for each campaign. The larger the geographic area, the more phones we are likely to reach. Ads can run by day, by hour or daypart.
Note that you won’t reach every ID you gather, because everyone doesn’t use apps all the time. They also might not currently be within that geographic area, or not using apps that allow advertising. But this in-app environment is typically our first target because it’s the place we identify the most phones.
Cross-Platform Mobile ID Advertising
Cross-platform advertising is the process of taking the list of Mobile IDs we’ve identified and cross-referencing this list to other platforms, including social outlets. This allows us to run ads where people spend the majority of their time – on Facebook and Instagram. We can also use a Mobile ID list in programmatic advertising. Cross-platform usage is extremely important for several reasons:
It gets us out of the app environment. People spend more time on social platforms, they are more engaged with the advertising and more likely to see your message. It also allows us to run larger ads including more text and content (i.e. a carousel ad with multiple images, and multiple link points). It just works better than in-app ads.
It allows us to successfully introduce video, which works great on Facebook and Instagram. In the programmatic world, OTT Video is becoming extremely important. In fact, we feel by 2021 it will officially be the “new TV.” Mobile ID targets can be successfully reached using video by cross-referencing these phones to social identities, but also by utilizing OTT video. It’s like running a TV campaign only to a very specific audience of first-party participants you choose…amazing.
Challenges
When you run a campaign to a Mobile ID target list you won’t reach everyone. Every phone is not identified. The smaller the geographic area you advertise to, the fewer people you’ll reach. Everyone doesn’t use apps every day. And every social profile won’t be identified. The list also degrades in value over time. So, our warning is, although it sounds like this is the “Holy Grail” of advertising, it is really just part of a successful advertising campaign. You will find a premium target audience through Mobile ID targeting, but it’s far from everyone you need to target. A multi-faceted campaign always works best.
Keep in touch with Digital Record to read Part 4 of this 4-part series, “Real Life Mobile Device ID Examples,” coming soon. Follow Digital Record now.