The importance of real-time behavioral data and cross-device matching
According to statistics compiled by USC Annenberg, the average American now spends a full day 24 hours each week on the Internet. And what are they doing when they’re online?
A report from the Center for Digital Future reveals some very telling information about media consumption. More than 70 percent of people who go online visit their social networks. Sixty percent of people do so to download or watch videos. Fifty-six percent said they download or listen to music and 44 percent play games.
How people access this media is also assessed: Eighty-two percent of people get on the Internet through their phones, while 30 percent use a tablet or other device. Other interesting stats from the report:
- 53 percent said they sometimes or often watch television shows on their TVs as well as computers and mobile devices
- 37 percent said they sometimes or often watch TV shows through a free streaming service
- 51 percent said they sometimes or often pay to watch movies online
- 37 percent said they sometimes or often pay for streaming music
- 37 percent also said they were likely or very likely to cut back or give up cable or satellite service entirely and just watch TV online
How BDEX can help media companies target customers of both their media and the products and services sold by advertisers
Device graphs
These days, it’s all about getting the right content in front of the right people, at the right time. The best way to do this is by utilizing actionable, accurate data. At BDEX, we help media companies use data in several impactful ways.
First, with our device graphs, they can identify customers based on their devices. This allows them to market to a consumer at every touch point. Because so many people use a variety of devices, often this is a challenge. But our device graphs enable a media company to reach customers on many and sometimes all of them.
Real-time behavior
Once a company knows who is on what device, they can access and leverage the person’s real-time behavioral data. Content creators, advertisers, and other partners can then tailor specific media to that individual based on this behavior, as opposed to relying on typical audience groups, which generally consists of an older, less-specific set of data.
Better ad impression measurement
Device-matching is especially effective for ads. When ads are randomly run across devices, there is a good chance that one person sees the same ad twice. As a result, there is no way to measure how many individual customers saw it.
But when a company can identify the unique use of a phone and tablet, for example, they can make sure that ad is only run a predetermined number of times. This allows for much better insight into how many different people will have seen it, which can generate much more accurate measurements of ad impressions. Not only does this help the individual business, it also allows a media company to charge better ad rates for more effective ads.
How this can be put into practice
At an essential level, media companies have the capability to promote media on different devices. A new show that may be typically consumed on a certain individual’s tablet may be promoted across many of that person’s touchpoints from the tablet to a text to their smartphone, as well as a dynamically-served ad on a website viewed on the browser of their laptop.
That media company’s advertisers reap similar targeting benefits. To get a sense of how these tools can be put into practice, let’s take a look at cars. Many media companies have partnerships with big car companies. Marketing initiatives in the past typically involved using an audience segment that would show someone was likely to buy a new car. This would usually consist of some sort of predictive analysis that, while somewhat accurate, had a failure rate that was still very high.
With our real-time data, all of this has changed significantly. Now media companies and the auto companies (as well as any other industries) who buy from them can be sure that they are targeting an audience that is much more relevant. They can do this by looking at the behavioral data that will show that someone is at that moment shopping for a new car and mixing it with the data that shows where to reach them which is exponentially more specific than the old, scattershot approach.
Want to find customers who are ready to buy what you or your partners are selling? Our real-time marketing takes the guesswork out of the equation. To get more information about the services we can provide for your media company, please contact us.
