Category: Geolocation Technology

Real time information about consumer location are playing a larger part in advertising over smartphones.

As smartphones and tablets continue to make their way into a growing number of consumer hands, mobile marketers have been keen to use geolocation data in order to help to better target device owners while they’re on the go.

Mobile marketing is rapidly evolving and incorporating new technologies and techniques.

Although advertising in the mobile sphere is still relatively new, it is growing and changing very quickly. Along with this increase, many marketers are looking into using more sophisticated data in order to improve the effectiveness of their strategies. In this, many campaigns are now including geolocation data to help to ensure that consumers are being provided with relevant offers at the most appropriate times.

This is making geolocation increasingly important to timing and targeting in the mobile marketing environment.

A recent report issued by Econsultancy has revealed that more than a quarter (27 percent) of companies around the world intend to implement some form of marketing strategy that uses geolocation, this year. Another 34 percent intend to make an investment into a mobile advertising strategy.

More data, which was released by a geolocation mobile ad platform, Verve Mobile, looked into more than 2,500 American mobile ad campaigns that were implemented across that platform. What it determined was that the percentage of mobile marketing campaigns that implemented some level of geolocation technology, such as geoware targeting and geofencing, had increased twice over. This brought the 2011 level of 17 percent up to 36 percent last year.

This type of geolocation mobile marketing campaign applies data from a consumer’s real time location in order to be able to provide that individual with specific, relevant, and frequently dynamic ads based on his or her proximity to a certain location such as a retail store. It can also be activated when a user enters a space or checks into a location. It can then monitor that user’s response to the message and enhance future communications for improved relevancy to that individual’s preferences, behaviors, and habits for improved appropriateness and usefulness of advertising.

The latest mobile marketing efforts from the social networking giant could include location tracking.

Sources with knowledge in the areas have revealed that Facebook currently has a team developing a smartphone geolocation app that will track user locations in order to help to boost the effectiveness and relevance of the social media experience on those devices.

The app is currently believed to be slated for a mid-March release for more than a billion users.

According to the sources – who have opted to remain unnamed as the company has yet to release the details of this geolocation project to the public – the main purpose of the app is to allow its users to be able to find friends who are nearby. Regardless of whether or not the app is actually open on the handset, it will still collect data for this and other purposes that are relevant to the application.

This geolocation app is only one of many features that Facebook is continually adding to its mobile experience.

The company may also be using the geolocation data that it receives through the app to be able to enhance the profitability of its mobile marketing efforts – which it has announced will be a primary goal for 2013. This would allow it to gain access to a tremendous amount of user location information, as there are currently over one billion people who use their mobile devices to access their Facebook accounts.

The geolocation information that will be gathered will present a considerable mobile marketing opportunity for the social network, as it will be able to sell ads based on the daily habits and the whereabouts of the app users. This could prove to be highly appealing to many companies who are seeking just this sort of opportunity to take advantage of the high tech benefits that m-commerce has to offer.

At the same time, many consumers and privacy advocates have already been raising concerns about the way that the company manages the personal data that it collects and this may only incense them further. They are not alone in their doubts of the social network’s management and protection of sensitive data, as it has also received the scrutiny of European and American regulators.

Facebook is not alone in this type of geolocation initiative, as both Google Inc. and Apple Inc. have already both created and implemented their own versions of location tracking.