Location-based targeting has always been big in out of home advertising but somewhat overlooked in other digital channels – until now. In this episode of Life in Programmatic DOOH, Matt Hamill, UK Sales Director, TapTap Digital delves into the location-based strategy behind several of the predictive advertising platform’s recent cross-channel campaigns. Hosted by Philippa Evans, Associate Director – Programmatic at JCDecaux UK, this episode is packed with advice for marketers looking to more effectively reach and engage audiences by harnessing the power of multiple data sources unified by a single point of truth – location.
What measurement techniques or metrics are currently in use to evaluate how much location impacts performance and how effective do you think they are?
“The most obvious measurement technique to evaluate the impact location has on performance is post-impression footfall attribution which calculates the number of store visits using only the data generated by a given campaign. This model uses two events: the impression, and the location of the user after seeing an ad. The methodology is pretty simple; user location is cross referenced with the coordinates of the point of sale to determine if after seeing the impression the user visited the point of sale, and if so, a store visit is attributed to this user and the impression they saw.
“However, this model is somewhat unstable as it uses a relatively small sample of data. At TapTap we use an enriched footfall attribution model with aggregated data. In addition to the post-impression data (the behaviour of users who saw our ads) we also analyse aggregated data collected around the point of sale or other areas included in the campaign such as mobility and organic traffic including users not exposed to the campaign. Incorporating these variables, all of which affect store visits, helps us to correct the post-impression model by reducing the effects of large fluctuations or inconsistencies in the data.”
What are the current challenges preventing better location-based targeting and activation and how can they be overcome?
“The biggest challenges are education and market perception of location-based tactics. In my experience, planners and buyers view location data as either a local area marketing play and/or haven't considered how location tactics can be used further up the funnel to influence behaviour. Basically, location has an image problem.
“For us, location-based targeting is more than just activating campaigns based on location behaviour, it’s about looking at how location is used when multiple channels interplay with each other. For example, pDOOH and mobile - at a very basic level we can use the channels in tandem to even out coverage i.e. in areas of areas underserved by out of home panels, mobile can be updated to provide greater coverage.
“There are more sophisticated applications too that really highlight how effective location can be at addressing real business objectives. We recently ran a national campaign to support a political party in local and general elections and having post code level data really made a difference. We mapped historical election results, polling data, and first-party data by post code, essentially identifying areas of strengths and weaknesses, allowing us to focus programmatic spend accordingly. As a result, we delivered a national campaign with regional variances in budget weighting, timing, messaging, and channel combinations with the added benefit of real time optimisation based on live polling and campaign engagement metrics.”
What developments are taking place to improve location-based targeting and how will these comply with tightening privacy laws?
“At TapTap, we believe predictive modelling is the future of audience targeting and that location is a key signal but shouldn’t be used in isolation. It's the amalgamation of behavioural, demographic, contextual, and business data that allows for more effective modelling of your target audience. I’ve witnessed several important developments in predictive modelling, targeting, and planning in DOOH over the past 15 years including the removal of manual processes and the ability to target more niche audiences faster, with richer data sets.
“At TapTap we layer multiple sources of data by location. For example, for a global streaming platform client we identified their ideal customer profile through demographic and behavioural signals and mapped this against where their competition had greater market penetration. We then used previous campaign performance insights, overlaid on top of the audience, which enabled us to focus spend in areas that delivered high levels of attention and performance.
“By combining these data sources, we are able to buy and optimise more channels programmatically and measure their combined impact using a single source of truth. The beauty of using an amalgamation of data sources is that you're not relying on user-level data.
“Today, we have more clients than ever that share their first-party data with us than I've ever seen before. Whether that's underperforming retail locations or customer penetration by area location, it enables us to create bespoke campaigns that address their business needs without having to share any customer PII data.”
What further industry standards or education is needed to help the market leverage location-based targeting in omnichannel strategies?
“Location-based planning has taken huge strides forward, however, the activation phase, or location-based targeting, is still in its infancy. The big demand-side platforms (DSPs) can now buy channels like DOOH programmatically, yet often the sophisticated planning is done outside their ecosystem by another platform.
“We're having lots of conversations with planners and buyers who are getting frustrated with taking sophisticated planning, using location intelligence, extracting it via CSV file, uploading it to traditional digital DSP that quickly turns something intelligent into something dumb. On the other hand, when sophisticated planning is connected to a DSP in a single ecosystem, it provides a rich level of measurement and reporting that can't be achieved by stitching two platforms together.”
What advice would you give to someone who is looking to get started in pDOOH?
“Spend time focusing on understanding the role of pDOOH in your media mix. That's got nothing to do with learning the how the DSPs or the SSPs work it’s about understanding the capabilities of the channel and how it works with other, with other channels. Once you understand the role of the channel your activation will be much stronger, your measurement will be much stronger, and the satisfaction of delivering a really joined up campaign will mean that you will keep investing in pDOOH and you’ll keep learning.”
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