The new methods marketers have to leverage data for better audience targeting and measurement represent one of the most innovative digital trends of the past 18 months. Being able to reach a targeted audience rather than investing in the mass distribution of messages will drive better results by precision and cost savings.
Having access to accurate customer profiling data is the holy grail for marketers because it enables them to hone their marketing and deliver campaigns that produce the best possible ROI. And at a time when marketing budgets are under more scrutiny than ever before, marketers are constantly looking for ways to get the most from their existing assets. The integration of email and web analytics platforms, and then remarketing based on observations from web behavior, is just one example of how marketers are squeezing every last ounce of intelligence from their existing data.
But there is another tactic that marketers should consider -- one that is popular with email marketers already but also has significant potential for display, ad exchanges, and search. And that's data appending.
Data what?
Data appending is a useful practice that helps marketers maximize the value of their customer databases by enabling them to more effectively target customers, provide more relevant messages, keep customer records current, lower the cost, and increase the efficiency of communicating with customers.
As I said, this practice isn't new -- especially in email marketing -- but it offers lots of benefits to marketers, many of who are keen to take advantage of the detailed audience profiling it delivers.
Pairing offline knowledge with the online world
In the offline world, marketers have always known a lot about consumers' lives, whether it's the cars they drive, their age, where they live, what they like to eat, and so on. Now, thanks to new technology that takes advantage of cookie data, marketers are beginning to use this information much more efficiently in the online world.
By using historical surfing habits (from site and contextual data to looking at registration data), marketers can customize their messages, thereby further taking the guesswork out of audience profiling. This enables marketers to show different and more relevant products to people with different shopping habits and needs.
For example, during their lunch break, two people based in the same office visit a sporting goods website. One is served ads for Runners World magazine and Mizuno trainers; the other sees ads for kids' swimming gear. This honing of messages is possible because the aforementioned cookie data contains additional information about these two people, such as where they live, number of children, recreational activities, etc.
The benefits for both advertisers and publishers are clear. Data appending enables publishers to provide a more targeted offer to advertisers because they will serve more personal and contextual ads (for which they can charge premium rates). Marketers benefit because they are buying more relevant display advertising. It's a win-win.
The icing on a very big cake
In the ever-changing digital landscape, audience discovery and targeting is possibly one of the most important challenges marketers continually face. Data appending is just one of the tactics marketers have in their armory to prevent them from falling behind. Although it's not widely used outside of email marketing today, I believe it will become mainstream in the next three to five years.
Even if you are not ready to jump into the field of data appending, you should start to gather data and marry it to the cookie data being stored, either through DoubleClick's Boomerang tags or a myriad of other technology (Datran, Quantcast, etc.). Start learning about your audience now so that when you decide the time is right, you have the data you need to target.
Chris Neuner is managing director, North America, at Acceleration.
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