Mobile Marketing – Relax its Geofencing

Geofencing is a must-have tool for mobile marketers. The ability to target by latitude/longitude in 254 countries is impressive, but sometimes the client gets a little “greedy” and asks us to drill down to .00001 miles from a location. While the mindset is to eliminate waste, this thinking can cause wasted impressions and missed opportunities.

Sometimes buyers have a split personality regarding mobile. On one hand, they see the possibilities of geotargeting smartphones, running video ads, downloading IDs of tagged users that received an impression and a retargeting folder for devices that engaged with the creative. It is exciting and makes billboard, TV, and radio advertising look inefficient-which is true, they are.

On the other hand, buyers have an issue with perceived waste. They want to build a geofence around a store with no leeway, but there are a couple of problems with this. First, people enter and exit the store to go their cars, bus or walk to their next destination. This is an overflow that should be captured. Second, when we drill down to lat/long we are hitting a small target on the planet earth; rather, we would be more comfortable to drill down to .2 miles out. This gives the system room to breathe.

We can set up a campaign for each location and monitor to see if the click rate is within goal projections. If the ID pool was polluted, this would be the first line of defense to indicate there is a problem. As we use our optimization the program (app placement, operating system, etc.), we’re making the campaign efficient; this acts as a filter to weed out any underperforming impressions.

We capture impression IDs and the IDs that have engaged with the creative. The impression ideas will then be filtered by additional mobile campaigns: retargeting IDs will come in between 2x and 16x and have already passed the first test by engaging with the creative.

When Copley Advertising reviews the program, clients ask how many locations they can geofence. One… three? 40. I like to start with 40 because I need data. The more data we have, the quicker we can optimize and build ID folders. This way, when during the first week, we find four or five locations getting lower than a .2%, we pull those locations and stop delivering impressions and ask for five more locations to take their place. Over time, we like to get down to about 15 locations that are doing very well, fully optimized, with a large impression ID pool and a retargeting campaign ready-to-go.  Now that is fun.

“Copley Advertising is first and foremost a resource. I want every company or agency to know that they can call Copley Advertising and we will break down exactly how we create and implement a mobile marketing program. If they become a client, that is secondary.” says John Flynn, CEO of Copley Advertising.

So, remember what I said: go with a geofence with a radius of .2 miles and rest assured that when it comes to data, less is more because its geofencing, not geo-strangulation!

 

Mobile Marketing – Mobile Transit Domination

Wikipedia reports over 1.5 million people ride Boston’s MBTA transit system each weekday. Boston is one of the five largest transit systems in the country. The other cities being Philadelphia, Chicago, New York and Washington, DC. Copley Advertising has announced a new mobile marketing program that allows clients to geofence any one, or part, of the top five transit systems in the country.

“The transit marketing has always been one of our targets. The same advertising model has been in use for 100 years. We thought it was time for a major shift and a better way to serve the users of the systems.” Stated John Flynn, CEO of Copley Advertising.

Copley Advertising begins geofencing the platforms at 7 a.m. and ends at 10 a.m. Then, for the afternoon rush, we geofence the platforms from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. We tag smartphones at their location and place ads on tagged smartphones. Once the tagged user sees the video ad, their ID is placed in an impression folder. If they engage with the ad, their ID will be placed in a retargeting folder.

When there is a critical mass of retargeting IDs, Copley Advertising will begin a retargeting program. The click rate for our retargeting program is 2X to 16X.

The IDs from the impressions can be loaded week to week as the new IDs come in. Past tracking has shown a 20% increase in click rate compared to regular campaigns.

The client can buy multiple cities, one market, or chose locations in one of the systems. This gives the client the freedom to drill down to the geo-target. The client can select an area during the a.m. rush where the demo lives, as well as the platform where they work in the afternoon.

While waiting for the train everyone is on their phone. The posters at each station are old, outdated and dirty. Out-of-home sellers are resorting to selling “geofencing” with their products because they are out of touch with the demo.

Beware! There is a big difference between buying a diamond from a jewelry store and getting a deal at a supermarket.

The Copley Advertising Mobile Transit Domination program is ground breaking as it brings together all our capabilities, giving clients the ability to reach the top five transit systems at a fraction of the cost of OOH. Or you can just by a billboard. When someone gets off their phone, they might look up.

Mobile Marketing – Facebook 2Q 2017

TechCrunch reported:

Facebook’s hot streak continued with a strong Q2 2017 earnings report. It earned $9.32 billion. Revenue growth was 44.7 percent year-over-year.

Mobile now accounts for 87 percent of ad revenue, or $8 billion, compared to 85 percent last quarter and 84 percent a year ago. Total ad revenue was $9.16 billion.

The Facebook numbers are crushing it; they hit all the projections and their main issue is that they are running out of space to advertise (a preview of my blog next year blog “It was the Instagram, stupid”). But the main takeaway for mobile marketers is that 87% of Facebook’s revenue is mobile. 87%! So, less than 13% of revenue is severed digital. Is Facebook’s reporting for the last three years a behavior limited to Facebook or is it a system shift in the way we are using the Internet?

Search Engine Land reported late in 2016 that, “It’s Official: Google Says More Searches Now on Mobile Than on Desktop.” Google said that.

So here we are again: another milestone. Another indicator the mobile has and will continue to rule the world! With mobile-only apps like Instagram and Snapchat not hitting stride, there is a lot of room for revenue. Mobile marketing companies such as Copley Advertising have tapped into supply-side app platforms like MoPub, Rubicon, Smatto and others, providing an endless sea of impressions available through their network. In 2017, mobile marketing will continue to move at breakneck speed. If medium and large companies have not allocated enough of their marketing budget, they will find themselves playing catch up.

Everything is a learning curve and for companies just getting into mobile (or yet to do so, in the future), they’re going to pay a much higher price than early explorers. As with any advertising and marketing system, it takes time to understand which aspects of mobile marketing make the most sense. Maybe a DSP that delivers impressions at a high rate of speed? Or a platform with granular reporting? Low CPM with high frequency? App placement by 1,200 impressions and no clicks? Android or iOS? There are just so many questions that can only be answered by taking the program out for a drive.

Plus, client’s goal projections need to be aligned as mobile is not (for the most part) a CPA-driven media outlet. Things like email collection are short-sighted. “Email is fine, but the goal is to engage the target to such an extent that we will have a major influence on both their long-term and short-term decisions.” states John Flynn, CEO of Copley Advertising.

While spending on mobile advertising is taking a larger chunk of companies’ advertising budgets, many are not yet adopting the right tactics. When starting to run mobile advertising campaigns, a company should consider working with a proven mobile marketing agency; this will help you find your targeted demographic and help your company become an important influencer in that target’s decision-making process. Once that formula is found, a funnel of prospective customers can be sent to a landing page to capture their mobile ID and retarget it with offers and quality content. This will increase short-term action and longer-term influencers and will do so by not only 2X, but 10X!

Or… you can buy a newspaper ad.

Copley Advertising is a mobile marketing company that uses the tools of mobile targeting and their worldwide relationships to help clients reach and influence their demographic. Call (617) 651-2249 or email [email protected].

Geofencing – Millennial Moms

Marketers are going to have to rethink how to reach millennials especially millennials who are mothers. The game has changed and previous norms are no more: some of these households don’t have landlines or cable TV. And if you are thinking about using newspapers or radio campaigns to capture this audience, you might want to rethink your position.

USA Today reports, “Millennials… have been shaped by a variety of influences, including the fact that they grew up with technology. An ethnically and racially diverse group and one that is highly educated but also under-employed, Millennials are generally optimistic and resilient but also stressed…”

Given the new reality, what are the options? Enter geofencing.

Millennial women’s smartphone is their number one screen. By geofencing an area, you can drill down to identify and target advertising to mothers’ smartphones. Then, running a video ad is an effective, efficient way to reach your target demo.

But where should you geofence?

Copley Advertising has found that parks with playgrounds (day-parted Monday to Friday, 8 am to 5 pm) is an excellent geo-target. It’s hard to pinpoint moms in a large group, but parks are great. We have a list of hundreds of parks with playgrounds in cities across the country with a large population of mothers. Copley Advertising geofences your geotarget—in this case millennial mothers—and places video ads in the tagged smartphones.

How does it work? Well, when the demo clicks on the ad, their device ID is placed in a retargeting folder. Once we have a critical mass of IDs, Copley Advertising can start a separate retargeting campaign. We have seen the click rate for retargeting campaigns run from 2X to 16X versus regular campaigns. Mothers today have so many ways of getting information—they’re really bombarded; tracking data can be a key tool for effective future campaigns.

But here is the real magic: moms network! When a mom clicks a video ad they are brought to a landing page that plays a 15-second commercial from the advertiser. It shows how the advertiser is supporting an environmentally cause or product. Moms are highly sensitive to environmentally-friendly products and Millenial. So, if they sign up for the newsletter updating how the advertiser’s campaign is going the advertiser will donate $1 to the campaign. This is so worth it for the client. In the upcoming newsletter, it will instruct moms to create moms for “xxx” groups to help the cause. Before you know it, you will be engaging your demographic for months. And moms will help you add other moms because of the tight-knit networking nature.

Archaic tools used to reach moms are simply no longer effective; with mobile geofencing, we have the new tools to meet and engage with a new generation of moms.

Geofencing – Off-Campus Housing

Mobile Marketing is a perfect fit for companies that own off-campus housing properties. College students are a great demographic for geofencing. The expansion of mobile capabilities and tracking have allowed mobile marketing companies to be creative in their approach to client’s needs.

Off-Campus Housing properties need to fill beds. The competition is fierce. There seems to an insatiable appetite for newer and better. But if there was an ability to meet the short term goals of filling units and create a consist pool of would-be renters that would be an interesting model.

Mobile Marketing can deliver that model. Here are some key aspects that mobile marketing uses to create a campaign for off campus housing properties.

Video Ads – The rise of video ads continues. The price has dropped and video ads are more effective than banner ads.  Another important aspect is that they tell a story. Marketing is all about telling a story.  By delivering your commercial to the tagged smartphones you can bring your property to them before they visit you.

The first week can be an introduction video commercial the second week could be commercial inviting device users to an event at your property and so on. After the device owner clicks on the video they are brought to your landing page to see the conclusion of the presentation. Copley Advertising is offering a video commercial in each tagged smartphone on campus. All user data (engaged IDs) is stored for future retargeting.

Geo-Conquesting – Your best demographic is students living in other off-campus housing. Even if the property is not in the targeted demographic the results we have seen is that the click rate is still between 2x to 6x higher than the average campaign.  Plus delivering those impressions that engaged to the retargeting pool is key.

Data – Many mobile platforms ignore the data. Copley Advertising helps clients see that each target location has subtle differences. Drilling down to operation systems (Android or iOS), app placement (which apps are overperforming and which apps are underperforming) and creative A/B testing. This information changes from college to college.  It’s extremely important that the information from the data guide the campaign.  This will increase effectiveness and efficiency.

Mobile marketing is not about just geofencing. Copley Advertising has the tools and experience to put together a complete marketing program that will reach off-campus housing’s short term and long term needs.

Questions? info@copleyadvertising or (617) 651-2249.