Cross-device is the new currency
Sponsor content: Ahead of the Connected Consumer Conference, Tapad’s Chris Feo outlines three steps marketers should take to better understand their customers in a fragmented world
There was a time when display ads ruled supreme in the marketing kingdom. Back in 2010, a marketer could hit their digital KPIs by simply targeting the right type of content with display ads to reach their audience.
Alas, things have changed.
Our industry has evolved at pace and today marketers face a plethora of channels, creative formats and devices they need to harness to even have a shot at capturing customers’ attention.
However, one factor has remained the same despite this drastic evolution: a marketer must still be able to understand their audiences, irrespective of channel or the size of the screen being used.
This is why cross-device identification is quickly becoming the new currency for marketers. Though seemingly complex, cross-device engagement unlocks the ability both to understand who each customer is and what their journey looks like across multiple channels, creative formats, browsers and devices.
This is borne out by a recent report from Yahoo and Enders Analysis which estimates that cross-device strategies will be used in 58% of online ad spend in the UK in 2020 compared with just 28% last year. But if your audiences are already there, why wait another three years to solve the problem?
There are three clear steps marketers should take to help harness the full power of cross-device, garnering a greater understanding of their customers in today’s fragmented world.
Step 1: Centralise your digital and offline data
Start by deploying tags, API and server-to-server integrations to compile first-party data from a range of offline and online touchpoints with your customers. From here, you can layer on third-party data, enriching the database with additional behaviour, demographic and geographic location data, and more.
This provides a starting point for engaging customers, using the combined data sources to connect the dots and, over time, create a set of segments to identify high value customers, power customers, recent purchasers, and any other key marketing criteria.
Depending on the business type and the volume of first-party data, it may be preferable to store the data either in a DMP or within your own data warehouse/data lake. In many cases, a marketer will end up using both.
Step 2: Unify and expand your audience view with a cross-device solution
Unifying audiences starts with the deployment of a device graph, with which marketers can sync their DMP data/warehouse data. A device graphs links audiences to devices that they use – their work laptop, home laptop, mobile phone, tablet, connected TV, wearables, etc.
A deterministic device graph is generally established using media platforms that require consumer self-authentication, the primary ones being Facebook, Google, Amazon and alike. These platforms each have a number of their users logged in on at least one device. This type of device graph provides universal data, however it can lack scale.
A probabilistic device graph is an algorithmic (modeled) graph that takes a high volume of digital signals to resolute back to a single user, cross-browser and device. These profiles are then tested against any available deterministic data sources.
This type of device graph affords marketers greater scale, both in the number of users and number of devices or IDs per user, not to mention improved accessibility to and flexibility with the data.
Step 3: Get ready to measure
Gone are the days when a customer is chased around the web by a chest of drawers that they bought two weeks earlier. A device graph allows marketers to re-connect with a customer with a tailored message across selected devices, making the advertising more relevant and personal, while preventing wasted ad spend. These device graphs can be used to ensure the customer experience isn’t disruptive and invasive.
Frequency capping is another tactic that prevents over-exposure of an ad to a consumer and allows you to control the number of times a consumer will see your ad across all of their devices over 24 hours.
Marketers want to be able to understand each customer’s journey and browsing habits. Do they browse content on their mobile and then convert on desktop? Do they interact and start their journey on a tablet on their morning commute and then convert on a different device?
Using a device graph, a marketer can understand each consumer journey, identifying the appropriate channels and devices to reach their consumer at the right time with the right message across the relevant device.
Chris Feo is SVP global partnerships at Tapad. He will be speaking at the Connected Consumer Conference breakfast on 7 June.