Commentary

A shopper marketing conundrum: Providing a personalized mobile experience at scale

Matt McGinty, chief revenue officer, Fiksu DSP, provides insight on why targeting shoppers via mobile, based on their shopping habits, can improve the consumers' relationship with the brand.

Photo: iStock.com

September 8, 2017

By Matt McGinty, chief revenue officer, Fiksu DSP

As marketers, we've heard it before and we'll hear it again: successful marketing is all about delivering the right ads to the right person at the right time.

In the retail environment, especially, delivering the right ads on the right platform plays a crucial role in positively influencing a customer's overall shopping experience, which can drastically differ depending on the location. Big box stores, local supermarkets and convenience stores all offer very different in-store experiences to shoppers, so reaching shoppers on the platforms they use most plays a pivotal role.

Targeting shoppers via mobile based on their shopping habits can improve the consumers' relationship with the brand, whether they're picking up toothpaste at the convenience store or doing their weekly grocery shopping at their favorite local grocer.

Retail advertising has a multitude of factors playing into the success or failure of a campaign, including reaching customers online and in-store and merging those touch points to give the shopper the best possible experience.

From paper towels to cereal, shoppers want to see ads that are tailored to them and fit their own needs, even for the most basic of items on their grocery list. For many shopper marketers, one of the biggest challenges is delivering personal experiences and advertisements at scale, while constantly growing their target audiences. This is where mobile comes into play: 60 percent of shoppers who engage with a retailer prior to shopping do so via amobile device — making mobile the perfect channel to engage and target customers.

Successful in-store campaigns benefit brands with better shelf placement and visibility among shoppers, so it is imperative for shopper marketers to target consumers on the devices they use most, their smartphones. Many retail advertisers are turning to data management platforms to hone in on behavioral data tied to mobile IDs that help shopper marketers better target consumers. This data is valuable to both retail and mobile marketers because it allows brands to offer more precise and relevant ads to consumers rather than spamming everyone with ads that don't match their needs.

Here are three tips shopper marketers can put into action to successfully expand their mobile audiences.

Match customer profiles to personas: Many times, consumers can be segmented together in to groups based on similar characteristics. Customer relationship management data on past purchases, branded interactions, website searches and more can be a valuable asset to marketers looking to group together different shoppers based on their previous behavior. These can then be made into personas to target. Because these segmented personas are based off real actions shoppers have taken, they are the strongest predictor of future behaviors, which is great data to have when looking to re-engage or expand your audience via mobile ads.
Lookalike targeting: When trying to expand consumer audiences, targeting consumers whose shopping behaviors are similar to those already loyal to your brand is the best first step. Lookalike targeting is especially helpful because it's based off real users whose actions are similar to your current user base. Lookalike targeting can offer greater precision for audience expansion because it's based off actual behaviors, increasing the chances of your ad resonating with them. Many brands also leverage programmatic techniques and real-time bidding networks to seamlessly disseminate these ads across a variety of mobile platforms for even more precision.
Geo-targeting: Precise geo-targeting can help marketers reach those who are physically close to key retailers and can be immensely helpful to those looking to expand their audience. The technology available today gives marketers the ability to target users based on latitude and longitudinal data, allowing for even more precision. Furthermore, geo-targeting can be a great tactic for those looking to re-engage shoppers who have previously visited a retailer or live in that geographical area. Geo-targeting can be a great technique to use for audience expansion, especially if you're targeting key retailing areas, like malls.

As a shopper marketer, being able to target mobile IDs is critical when working to expand audiences. Creating lookalike audiences and mobile personas are an easy and strategic way to provide both the personalization and scale needed to reach consumers. Maintaining quality of both ads and impressions is obviously key, but using data to help better target consumers improves both performance metrics, like click rates, and a user's overall experience with any given brand and retailer.