Brands are shifting their holiday advertising budgets to mobile – with predictions showing mobile growing to 25% of digital ad spend.* Why such a focus on mobile for driving holiday sales? Because location based targeting is the best way to drive retail foot traffic and it is unique to mobile.
Drive Traffic Into Your Store – And Away From Competitors
According to the Mobile Marketing Association, today nearly 70% of smartphone access is spent out of the home or on-the-go, that means that mobile provides the best opportunity to reach your target audience as they are actively holiday shopping. You can use hyper local targeting to engage prospects that are near your retail location or geo-conquesting to intercept them when they are in or near your competitor’s store.
Target Prospects Regardless of Proximity
But while geo-fencing is a great way to drive impulse or lower funnel purchases, the fact remains that 70% of purchases are planned, so marketers that rely only on geo-fencing may be missing out on a significant holiday sales opportunity. Since shopping decisions can be better impacted by reaching consumers in advance of going to a store (while they are still in their research or consideration phase), so it is important that marketers target people, not just places. Location based audience personas enable mobile marketers, to target custom audiences based on their activity in the physical world. For example, if a user is identified frequently departing from and returning to a specific airport on weekdays they could be identified as a frequent business traveler. While a female who visits a playground several times a week would be classified as a mom. Based on historical campaign data from the InMobi network, location-powered audience profiles deliver a 3-5x lift over simple geo-fencing for retail brands.
Reach Shoppers Expressing Category Interest
Another great way to identify prospects that are most likely to be interested in your holiday offering is to target people who frequent your competitors’ retail locations. Through Brand Affinity Targeting, retail mobile marketers can target customers who have recently visited a competitive location. For example, Target can look to find holiday prospects who have visited a Kohls or Kmart in the last 30 days. And don’t forget to retarget customers who have recently visited your retail location. Offering a follow-up mobile coupon is a great way to drive repeat purchases.
Measure the Impact on Store Visits and ROI
Many marketers still see mobile as the Wild West, but there are more ways then ever to quantify the impact of your mobile efforts, including the impact on holiday store traffic. Through attribution partners that combine location measurement with opt-in location panels, marketers can see how every dollar spent on their mobile campaign directly correlates to lift in store visits and ROI.
Start Planning Now
So if you are looking to make a sales impact this holiday season, consider making InMobi a big part your plan. We can help you maximize your mobile investment this holiday season by leveraging the latest location based targeting techniques to reach your prospects at scale.
Contact James at james.riess@inmobi.com
*EMarketer - Global Ad Spending Growth to Double This Year, July 9, 2014
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