Location signal is a powerful and unique set of data points passed through mobile devices. Many digital marketing practitioners often compare it to online “cookies” and call it “cookies” of the physical world. Location-targeted mobile ad spending is forecasted to grow from $9.8 billion in 2015 to $29.5 billion in 2020. The growth of location-targeted mobile ad spend can be attributed to the increased adoption, especially by retail marketers, of location-based ad tactics such as geo-fencing. Mobile location data enhances retail marketers’ understanding of consumer behavior in the physical world, and helps reach consumers when they are in the right context, measuring marketing campaign effectiveness in driving consumers to store and connecting the dots between different marketing platforms, including TV, desktop, mobile, and Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH). Aside from advertising purposes, retailers have also increasingly used mobile location data to enhance customer services.
This playbook encapsulates best practices for retailers to leverage location data for marketing and customer service throughout the consumer purchase journey. For the purpose of this document, we simplify the consumer journey to the four major stages: consideration, evaluation, purchase, and loyalty. However, keep in mind, today’s consumer path to purchase is no longer a linear, “down the purchase funnel” process. The path to purchase also varies by brands and products. In fact, mobile location data helps retailers better understand their consumer journey, which is also discussed in the playbook.