Local online cellular contract comparison engine, Phonefinder.co.za has boosted its ad targeting capabilities with the implementation of a Data Management Platform (DMP).
Lance Krom, founder and managing director at Phonefinder, explains that a DMP is a centralised platform that aggregates cross-channel audience data. The system analyses this data and generates audience segments, or packets based on demographic, psychographic, and behavioural parameters. This user data can then be tagged, enabling advertisers to follow web browsers onto other online channels and platforms with hyper-targeted ads and retargeting campaigns.
“By collecting browsing data from visitors to our site, which is done in an anonymous and unobtrusive manner, we can segment according to the individual interests and browsing behaviour of the over 7,000 unique visitors the website receives on average each day,” explains Krom. Whether visitors to the Phonefinder website buy a contract or not, information on what they clicked on is collected using cookies, which can then be combined with user profile data.
“Phonefinder is unique because we can gather user behaviour data that spans budget, phone preference, current phone in use, and a user’s propensity to choose either minutes, data or SMSes in contract bundles. No other website can collect such valuable behavioural insights from users,” states Krom.
This rich data can then be analysed to optimise omni-channel online campaigns by ensuring that relevant ads reach the right people across platforms. “The ability to target higher income segments based on factors such as their brand and model of smartphone is one example,” explains Krom. “These capabilities will ultimately improve the return on investment (ROI) advertisers experience from their digital marketing spend, due to relevance and the resultant higher conversion rates and improved customer retention it delivers.”
According to Krom, this ability to segment and target on a more granular level, using a combination of first-party and third-party data, is what has made Google and Facebook the veritable online marketing powerhouses that they are.
“However, since DMP has emerged, with the ability to integrate it with Demand-Side Platforms and other tools, agencies and advertisers are now able to offer similar segmentation, targeting, and retargeting capabilities, which is enabling them to achieve a high ROI both inside and outside the walled gardens of Facebook and Google.”
Krom adds that the DMP will also offer agencies and advertisers the ability to more accurately measure retargeting campaign performance, giving them the ability to refine their segmentation and targeting in real time.
“These technologically-enabled and automated capabilities, which use sophisticated algorithms to turn user data into deep audience insights, will ultimately boost advertising ROI by ensuring that ads are served to precisely defined audiences, with relevant messages and at the right time in the purchase decision-making process, while also enabling quicker and more effective decision making,” he concludes.
