4 min read 
In the ever-evolving world of advertising, data-driven strategies have become the key to success. However, as privacy concerns rise and regulations tighten, the future of advertising will shift towards contextual and consent-based approaches, rendering traditional identifiers less relevant. It is now more crucial than ever to explore new ways to future-proof advertising strategies. Location intelligence offers an innovative solution to the problem at hand. Let’s delve into what it entails, the benefits, and future possibilities that can enhance data-driven advertising.
Data-driven advertising harnesses the power of data and analytics to drive informed decisions regarding marketing strategies, campaigns and consumer engagement. Marketers can then refine all aspects of their work leveraging the wealth of insights data provides to make informed decisions. Location intelligence plays a vital role in data-driven advertising by providing insights into customer behaviour and preferences based on their physical location. By utilising geo-spatial data science, marketers can analyse data related to their audience’s location and extract meaningful patterns and insights. Marketers can then tailor their strategies and campaigns to specific times of day and locations, fully automated of course.
Let’s examine the essential benefits of data-driven advertising and the role that location intelligence plays in achieving them.
1. Personalised customer experiences for competitive advantages
Data-driven advertising is about leveraging customer data and taking advantage of the knowledge about their preferences, behaviour and needs. With the assistance of location intelligence, marketers can tailor their campaigns and promotions to target specific customer segments in specific locations. For example, retailers can send personalised offers to customers in proximity to their stores.
2. Improved customer engagement for enhanced loyalty and retention
Using location information, marketers can create campaigns that resonate well with customers. For example, a hotel chain can send location-based ads to customers who regularly visit a particular city, presenting offers and promotions relevant to that city.
3. Efficient budget allocation
Data-driven marketing helps marketers optimise their campaigns based on real-time insights. Location intelligence aids in identifying the most effective marketing channels and offers that resonate with customers in specific locations. This enables marketers to allocate budgets more efficiently.
4. Real-time campaign optimisation
Being able to measure in-store visits in real time, marketers can realise the full value of their campaigns, optimise spend and validate their media investment.
As privacy regulations, especially those related to online identifiers, continue to evolve, data-driven marketers must adopt new ways of collecting and utilising customer data that put privacy first. Here are a few promising strategies:
1. Panel-based approaches
In panel-based approaches, data is collected from a representative sample of customers with explicit consent to gain insights into their behaviour and preferences. Robust opt-in user panel data can then be used to derive aggregated and anonymized insights and statistics and supplemented with extrapolated datasets.
2. Statistical calculations
With the diminishing relevance of online identifiers, statistical calculations will have an increased role in deriving insights into customer behaviour patterns without relying on personally identifiable information (PII).
3. Geo-contextual marketing
As privacy regulations make individual customer tracking more challenging, marketers need to embrace contextual advertising through real-time enrichment of location signals, and web/app context.
4. Greater emphasis on first-party data
Marketers may prioritise collecting and utilising first-party data, which involves gathering customer data directly from their interactions with a brand. However, it is important to note that first-party data lacks scale and is limited to a small subset of premium publishers.
5. Increased investment in technology
As the advertising industry continues to evolve, it is imperative for marketers to embrace new technologies that enable the collection and analysis of customer data while complying with privacy regulations. By investing in cutting-edge tools and solutions, marketers can unlock the true potential of data-driven advertising. With actionable analytics at their fingertips, marketers can make fact-based decisions and optimise their advertising efforts for superior results.
Looking ahead, privacy regulations will continue to shape the future of advertising. However, marketers can go beyond traditional tracking methods by embracing geospatial data science. New approaches such as statistical calculations, panel-based approaches, and geo-contextual advertising have already proven to unlock new dimensions of success.
The future of data-driven advertising is bright, driven by exciting new technologies and possibilities. By early adoption of innovative approaches, marketers can elevate their advertising strategies, increase sales and profitability, capture market share, and build a strong brand image. The era of post-regulation advertising opens up new avenues for success, and forward-thinking marketers are poised to lead the way.
If you would like us to accompany and advise you on your journey, please do not hesitate to contact us.
We would be happy to introduce you to our Audiences in Motion – one of Adsquare’s latest initiatives that allows ID-free audience targeting. Adsquare combines mobile audience data with SDK-derived location data and connects the corresponding audience segments to country specific geometries and OOH locations. For each segment, Adsquare calculates indexes based on the ratio between all users seen within a geographic area and the desired audiences. These calculations allow Adsquare to score each audience segment for each geometry and for each hour of the day. For full control about quality and reach, marketers are able to change the index values in Adsquare’s self-service platform. In other words, Adsquare tells you what parts of cities are more visited when and by whom, enabling you to run targeted ads in real-time with a lot more precision.