jsisko - Digital Element

Create a Competitive Advantage for Account-Based Marketing With Precise Data

Posted on August 4, 2021November 11, 2024 by jsisko

The “spray and pray” B2B marketing strategy was already on a death spiral even before COVID-19. With the pandemic eliminating in-person events and conferences as well as face-to-face sales calls, B2B marketers increasingly turned to account-based marketing (ABM) to fill in that void.

ABM—focusing your marketing and sales efforts on precisely targeting just those accounts that are most likely to be purchasers of your product—has been around now for many years so the concept is not entirely novel.

According to the “Account-based Marketing – Global Market Trajectory & Analytics” Report, growth in ABM is taking place worldwide. The global market for account-based marketing is projected to reach $1.6 billion by 2027. The ABM market in the United States alone reached more than $202 million last year. Other noteworthy geographic regions poised for growth include China, Japan, Canada, and Germany.

Additional research shows that approximately 94 percent of B2B marketers have some type of active ABM program. B2B sales forces across all industries are prime for ABM, including financial services, enterprises, healthcare, manufacturing, IT, and SaaS companies to name a few.

It’s clear that ABM has become an important tool in the business-development arsenal. However, finding the right B2B data and turning that into actionable insights to fine-tune your audience targeting is sometimes a challenge.

Determining Your Data Needs

One dataset does not make an ABM program successful. In order to identify, understand and engage the ideal buyers at the right companies, it takes a combination of B2B datasets. Among them:

Customer data: The historical customer data within your CRM, billing systems and other databases;
Firmographics: Company operational information that includes financials, number of employees, industries served and corporate locations;
Technographics: Insight into the company’s current technology investments as well as its potential future IT needs; and
Third-party data: Any data from sources outside your company channels.

B2B IP Data Adds Much-Needed Context

IP addresses are particularly accurate in reaching audiences in a privacy-sensitive manner based on their place and context of access to the internet. An IP address can provide other data parameters outside of where an online user is located.

IP data gives B2B marketers an increased ability to discover and understand who is interested in their products and services, and to better target those prospects with the right messages, at the right time.

However, not all IP data providers are created equal. B2B marketers as well as ABM agencies and solution providers should look for reliable and global IP datasets to successfully power their account-based marketing programs—throughout the customer lifecycle.

Sample B2B IP datasets include:

Company Name
Domain Name
Geolocation (to a postcode level)
Home vs. Business
Internet Service Provider (ISP)
Organization Name

Create a New Dimension for Your Account-Based Marketing

Adding IP data to your B2B targeting base will allow your company to improve the way in which it discovers and interacts with B2B prospects online. Below are a few examples of how other organizations are adding a new dimension to their ABM programs with the addition of B2B IP data:

Enrich CRM

A leading customer relationship management platform uses B2B IP data to enrich its CRM offerings.

Create Audience Segments

The leading provider of B2B intent data uses IP intelligence to create addressable audience segments.

Enhance ABM platforms

A leading global provider of business decisioning data and analytics incorporates B2B IP data to enhance its account-based-experience and visitor-intelligence platforms.

Target Buyers at Work

A heavy-equipment manufacturer uses IP data to target buyers for commercial construction companies with relevant online ads while they’re at work.

ABM Is Here to Stay

Account-centric marketing efforts have become a significant source of revenue for B2B companies. Those with mature programs can attribute as much as 73 percent of total revenues to their ABM initiatives. With these types of revenue-generating numbers, ABM will continue to be an integral part of biz-dev strategies, even as the business world returns to normal with its face-to-face meetings and in-person networking events.

It does take a significant amount of time and financial investment in order to jumpstart a successful ABM program. Do your due diligence when it comes to the data you use. Reliable and broad coverage; intelligent application of diverse datasets; and timely audience insights create the competitive advantage that ABM programs need to be successful.

Targeting and Trust Series: Part Five – IP Geolocation Data in Action

Posted on June 29, 2021November 11, 2024 by jsisko

This is the fifth, and final, installment in our “Targeting and Trust” series of blog posts, dedicated to why IP-based geolocation data is well positioned to deliver both the accurate targeting digital marketers need for improved response rates and the trust consumers crave in terms of personalized promotions in a non-intrusive manner. Here we outline the many different ways IP geolocation can be applied to your marketing efforts.

As we’ve mentioned before, targeting customers by location isn’t new. But as the years have gone by, and location-intelligence technology has improved, brands are finding many new and unexpected applications for geolocation data. Here are some examples.

Find “Clusters of Similarity”

You have a group of users in mind to engage. For example, you might want to target smokers for a public-health campaign. To do this, you can find out the regions with the highest population of smokers, then geofence by IP address to direct your campaigns toward them.

Combine IP Geolocation with “Real-World” Events

When an event is local in nature, brands can factor it in to make a campaign more successful. For example, a clothing retailer could use local weather data to change its front page offers in different regions—bikinis in a heatwave; coats during a cold snap.

Run Time-Sensitive Campaigns

When a brand is running an event that travels across multiple regions, it can phase in or stagger a campaign. For example, a music label could geotarget around a band’s touring schedule.

Look at Buying Patterns by Location to Make Budgets Go Further

This is geolocation “after the fact.” Often, after a campaign has run, the metrics will reveal strong local differences in uptake. Brands can scrutinize this data to make the next round of promotions more effective. These insights can be unexpected. For instance, a company might find it sells more sunscreen in places that get less sun because residents are more likely to travel to hot countries.

Link the Real and Digital Worlds

Often, brands run campaigns to make people take actions in physical locations. IP geolocation presents the chance to connect the dots. So, a retailer might send discount codes to customers and then use IP addresses to see how many recipients responded by visiting local stores.

Target Mobile Users on Wi-Fi

It’s estimated that 80 percent of mobile users connect via Wi-Fi networks, which are generally faster and often cheaper. But these users are invisible to most mobile ad networks. Adding IP geolocation to the stack brings them back. Ad providers can offer targeting by location, without relying on software downloads or user opt-ins.

Add the Ability to Tailor Campaigns to Your Needs

Sometimes you want scale. Sometimes you want to micro-target. It depends on your campaign.

As we’ve discussed, different geolocation approaches deliver different levels of accuracy. GPS and other “lat-long” techniques can pinpoint consumers to a few feet. However, they are limited by the need to have users opt in. This is accuracy at the expense of reach.

Meanwhile, IP geolocation is almost universally available. And, it provides the ability for hyperlocal targeting down to postcode level, globally.

However, some brands have the luxury of choosing from both options. Here’s how it often works. They use IP geolocation to make broadly targeted offers. This builds trust and customer satisfaction. Having established this trust, they ask users to opt in for micro-targeting via GPS. With both IP and GPS available, companies can then run campaigns that favor reach over accuracy or vice versa. They can move the customer down the “purchasing funnel” as required.

Augment Geolocation with Other IP Data Points

In this series, you have read how IP geolocation gives marketers the ability to target effectively by geography—without intruding on privacy. This type of targeting frequently delivers much higher click-through rates. Inventory rates go up, too.

Meanwhile IP geolocation specialists, such as Digital Element, can layer on more targeting attributes besides location. The addition of more IP-based targeting parameters can make campaigns even more effective. Digital Element can give insight into characteristics such as connection speed, Internet Service Provider (ISP), carrier data, home/business types and more. It has also developed an advanced proxy/VPN database.

IP intelligence and geolocation data—and its applications—have evolved over the last several decades to address the ever-changing needs of a global digital marketplace. There’s no better time than the present for brands to explore (or revisit) the use of location-based data in their marketing efforts.

Also, feel free to review or catch up on the “Targeting and Trust” series here:

Part 1: The Digital Marketing Crossroads focuses on how digital marketing has evolved and how location-based targeting fits in to navigating the road ahead

Part 2: Options for Location-Based Advertising looks at the advertising options for digital marketers who want to “go local”

Part 3: Using IP Geolocation to Overcome Marketing Challenges delves into how IP geolocation technology helps digital marketers overcome challenges they face every day

Part 4: The Fact About Using IP Geolocation Data compares the myths and realities of IP geolocation data

Targeting and Trust Series: Part Four – The Facts About Using IP Geolocation Data

Posted on June 1, 2021November 11, 2024 by jsisko

We continue our “Targeting and Trust” series of blog posts, dedicated to why IP-based geolocation data is well positioned to deliver both the accurate targeting digital marketers need for improved response rates and the trust consumers crave in terms of personalized promotions in a non-intrusive manner.

The fourth installment of our five-part blog series digs into the realities of using IP geolocation. Though IP geolocation technology has been around for nearly two decades and is widely used across the globe in a variety of applications, there is still a certain aura of mystery around exactly what this technology is and what it can do. Further, many companies have had negative experiences with IP data providers whose data did not live up to expectations and have, therefore, become disillusioned with the technology’s business potential.

Below we examine the common misconceptions surrounding the use of IP geolocation data and discuss the facts to help you understand the technology’s value and its role in an increasingly location-based digital world.

Misconception: IP-based geolocation data isn’t accurate enough in my country

Many IP providers rely to a large extent on publicly available (free) registration data (i.e. Whois), which is notoriously inaccurate at a city level (less than 50 percent) or even at a country level―and has gaps in coverage upward of 20-to-30 percent where no results are returned.

Reality

Digital Element utilizes patented web-spidering technology and 20⁺ proprietary methods to triangulate the location, connection speed, and many other characteristics associated with an IP address. By combining this “inside-out” infrastructure analysis with “outside-in” user location feedback gleaned from a network of commercial partners, Digital Element can identify where the user actually accesses the internet down to the ISP’s end-point equipment.

Misconception: You must rely on ISPs to get IP geolocation data.

ISPs are notoriously inaccurate in keeping the location information of IP addresses updated in their registries. In fact, most either don’t report location information in the Whois registries or only report the address of their corporate headquarters.

Reality

Digital Element’s proprietary technology traces how traffic is actually routed over the Internet; how routers are connected; and the speed between routers. Then, the data-science team uses this information to triangulate where end-point equipment is located. The company’s technology does not rely solely on data-sharing relationships with ISPs.

Misconception: Because IP addresses are dynamic, it’s impossible to provide accurate geolocation information.

Since most IP addresses are dynamically allocated to some extent, this creates a problem for IP data providers that are solely reliant upon ISP/Whois registration information, as noted above.

Reality

Digital Element bases its mapping on where known pools of dynamic IPs are located. ISP dynamic re-allocations tend to be within those known pools of IP addresses, and the geographic allocation of pools actually remains fairly constant at the ISP end-point equipment level. With more than 10 trillion IP lookups per month, the company is able to pick up IP address reallocations the instant they occur.

Misconception: IP-based information is not as comprehensive as other forms of geolocation data.

Alternative, non-IP based geolocation technologies exist that may provide more granular location information―on small slices of the Internet. They often involve data-gathering techniques that rely on user-provided registration data, cookies, GPS-obtained latitude/longitude coordinates, or HTML5, etc. However, these techniques are far from comprehensive.

Reality

Digital Element’s IP Intelligence and geolocation solutions can provide a comprehensive, non-personally identifiable view of a user’s location within a 3- to 5-mile radius for virtually the entire Internet.

Misconception: Premium IP Intelligence and geolocation solutions are too expensive.

Most IP geolocation vendors simply repackage publicly available (free) Whois registration data and some supplement with user-supplied data, allowing them to offer discounted IP solutions. However, these are not reliable methods for accurate geolocation when used in isolation.

Reality

If coverage, accuracy, and granularity are important, then IP Intelligence and geolocation technology that integrates multiple methodologies, such as Digital Element’s, is the right solution for your business.

As a digital marketer, it’s important to fully understand some of the major differences between IP geolocation solutions and realize that not all IP data providers are created equal.

In Part Five, the final piece of this series, we reveal the many different ways IP geolocation can be applied to your marketing efforts.

Targeting and Trust Series: Part Three – Using IP Geolocation to Overcome Marketing Challenges

Posted on May 5, 2021November 11, 2024 by jsisko

We are continuing the “Targeting and Trust” series of blog posts this month, dedicated to why IP-based geolocation data is well positioned to deliver both the accurate targeting digital marketers need for improved response rates and the trust consumers crave in terms of personalized promotions without intrusion.

The third installment of our five-part blog series examines how IP geolocation technology helps digital marketers overcome many of the challenges they face every day. In Part One of our series, we referenced a series of challenges that digital marketers are now facing in the marketplace—many a direct byproduct of the pandemic.

Here we’ll look in more detail at each of these challenges and explore how IP-based geolocation offers a solution.

Low Response Rates

It’s open knowledge that click-through rates (CTRs) are low—and are getting lower. The first internet banner had a 10-percent CTR. Today, the rate is around 0.05 percent. Geo-targeting reverses this trend by offering relevant content, which generates a much better response. Real use cases show CTRs as much as tripling with the use of IP-geolocation data.

Falling Inventory Prices

Just as CTRs have fallen, so, too, have inventory prices. Again, geotargeted ads buck that trend. Typically, advertising delivered through geotargeting commands a 30- to 40-percent premium over non-targeted ads.

Cookies

Placing a cookie on a user’s browser lets a brand follow that user around the web. Abuse of the cookie is the original “creepy” ad-tech innovation. And, it is the big casualty of the new era of data privacy. Even Google is phasing it out.

Brands and advertisers need an alternative that supports personalization, but avoids intrusion. Many are experimenting with fingerprinting. However, some believe this technique to be as invasive as the cookie.

The removal of cookies should breathe new life into the IP address, which is ubiquitous and instant. An IP address can provide location and other user insights in real time—without yielding any personal information.

Privacy

In recent years, consumers have become increasingly active in speaking up when it comes to the use and protection of their personal information. The result? We’re seeing a rise in the utilization of tools such as ad blockers and virtual private networks (VPNs). Today, respect for privacy is such a consumer hot button that Apple is basing campaigns around it.

Consumers might reject creepy tracking methods, but they still respond best to personalized advertising, promotions and messages. Geotargeting offers marketers a privacy-sensitive solution they can be confident in to provide valuable insights into online traffic. Moreover, premium IP data can detect proxy, VPN and Tor traffic.

For marketers, in particular, the inclusion of proxy information in their data arsenals works to improve efficiency and performance of content and message through: 1) Avoiding wasted impressions; 2) Fighting click fraud; and 3) Enhancing attribution and analytics. Research suggests that 28 percent of website traffic has shown strong “non-human signals.” Where there’s non-human traffic, there’s certainly the potential for ad fraud.

Click Fraud

And speaking of ad fraud…the key to detecting it is to know more about who (or what) the ”clicker” is. Why is this important? Because the fraudster is usually trying to assume the identity of a legitimate consumer. Obviously, fraudsters use all manner of techniques to hide their identities—and to steal others.

IP-based geolocation gives brands a tool for spotting these scams by:

Revealing traffic surges from areas outside a campaign’s target zone;
Filtering out clicks from regions where services aren’t available;
Flagging account access from unusual or high-fraud areas;
Showing where traffic is coming from, such as proxies, which might indicate fraud;
And so much more.

Companies can then use this type of insight to reduce click fraud.

We live in the age of tailored, targeted, programmatic advertising that delivers relevant, timely messaging to consumers. The relevance of that messaging is dependent on good data. Much of the simple IP-based data that has previously been available to digital marketers has been inconsistent and inaccurate. By deploying more innovative, industry-leading IP geolocation data, digital marketers can overcome a myriad of challenges they face today through the use of more robust and reliable location-based advertising strategies.

In Part Four of this series, we’ll compare the realities and limits of IP geolocation data.

Targeting and Trust Series: Part Two – Options for Location-Based Advertising

Posted on April 6, 2021November 11, 2024 by jsisko

This month, we continue the “Targeting and Trust” series of blog posts dedicated to why IP-based geolocation data is well positioned to deliver both the accurate targeting digital marketers need for improved response rates and the trust consumers crave in terms of personalized promotions without intrusion.

The second installment of our five-part blog series focuses on the options that digital marketers have if they want to develop more localized advertising campaigns.

Location data has grown into a reliable tool for marketers who have learned to use it in their customer segmentation, analytics, attribution and targeting. To display location-based advertising and content, you need to know where a consumer is.

So, what are the options if marketers want to “go local”? There are many ways to do this.

Here are the main geotargeting data options:

User-Supplied

Sometimes you can just ask consumers for their location information. They can fill in a form to declare their whereabouts. However, this is the real world. Most consumers lack the time or the will to do this. And, even if they do, then the information is not always accurate—and can go out of date quickly.

Cookies

A cookie on someone’s browser can store previously entered location details. However, this is only true when the person actually supplies this information (see above). He or she might also clear the cookie cache at any point. Finally, of course, the cookie’s days are numbered. Browser companies are phasing them out.

GPS

Every smartphone supports GPS. The technology can be accurate to within a few feet. That sounds great, but again, GPS data is only available when mobile users agree to share it. Most don’t because of privacy or battery-life concerns. GPS is also application based (not browser based). Together, these two factors drastically limit how many users a brand can expect to target using GPS.

HTML5

HTML5-based mobile sites can collect some location information from visitors. However, visitors have to agree to this. Not to mention, their permissions expire after one session. As a result, HTML5 is very limited in terms of reaching an addressable audience.

IP Geolocation

IP geolocation technology uses an IP address to determine where a user is located. Everyone and everything connecting to a website is assigned an IP address. There is no connectivity without one. As an example, even a smart refrigerator has its own IP address.

An IP address is made up of a series of numbers. It can be used to identify location and other connection attributes, such as the type of device and the network it is connected to. The number includes:

The Internet Service Provider’s (ISP’s) name
The ISP’s host name
County/region/state/city

But that’s not all. An IP address can produce other properties that support even better targeting. These include 4G, 5G and Wi-Fi connections, or whether devices are on a corporate or home network. An IP address can also reveal connection speed. All of these extra attributes can help brands personalize—and localize—their goods or services.

Finally, here is what an IP address does not reveal:

A person’s name
An exact street address
A phone number
An email address

As stated in Part One of our series, the absence of this personally identifiable information (PII) protects a consumers’ privacy.

One marketing tactic that has been missing in the online world is the ability to effectively reach out to consumers without first asking for something in return. For example, in the current e-business world, for users to receive information that matches their unique tastes, they are required to give away a piece of themselves in the form of PII such as name, age, etc. And, more often than not, consumers are unwilling to part with such valuable—and personal—information for fear that it will be mishandled or sold to a third party.

By incorporating IP data into marketing initiatives, companies can improve the way they prospect for, acquire and retain customer relationships.

In Part Three of this series, we’ll delve into how IP geolocation technology helps digital marketers overcome challenges they face every day.

Targeting and Trust Series: Part One – The Digital Marketing Crossroads

Posted on February 23, 2021November 11, 2024 by jsisko

Today, we begin our series of blog posts dedicated to why IP-based geolocation data is well positioned to deliver both the accurate targeting digital marketers need for improved response rates and the trust consumers crave in terms of personalized promotions without intrusion. Throughout the series we’ll discuss how IP geotargeting:

Supports targeting that respects privacy;
Does not require an opt-in and is, thus, regulation friendly;
Is immune from the cookie showdown;
Links physical and digital activity;
Generates high response rates;
Commands higher inventory prices;
Combats click fraud; and
Unlocks unexpected customer insights.

This first installment of our five-part blog series focuses on how digital marketing has evolved and how location-based targeting fits in to navigating the road ahead.

Even before the pandemic, online activity was booming. However, as COVID-19 forced lockdown after lockdown across the world, more consumers turned to the internet for, well, just about everything—from shopping to entertainment to work and education.

Understandably, ad budgets have taken a collective hit in the last year. However, while traditional media suffered, digital ad spend grew in 2020, up by 6 percent year over year. Even with any lasting effects from the pandemic, the latest estimates predict the global online advertising market to reach $517 billion by 2023.

Yet, for all the good news, digital marketing has come to a crossroads.

Adtech is facing challenges on multiple fronts: privacy issues; falling response rates; click fraud; regulation; the power of the tech duopoly; and more.

The industry needs to find ways to send targeted messages that give customers real value, while respecting their privacy.

Location-based advertising offers some compelling solutions to the impasse. Geolocation offers a powerful model for targeting. It lets a brand know where its customer is now, and allows for the delivery of more contextually relevant advertising and content.

Many mistakenly believe location-based advertising is only possible when a (mobile) user turns on GPS and gives consent to a brand to access it. But there are other options. This is a relief given how few people choose to opt in to GPS.

The main alternative is IP geolocation. It uses the IP address as the basis for determining location. With the help of additional techniques, IP geolocation is good for targeting users at scale, down to a postcode level—worldwide.

IP geolocation is also entirely anonymous. The IP address reveals nothing personal about the user. This preserves trust and makes the method regulation proof.

Even better, an IP address can say more about an internet connection than its location. It can also identify characteristics such as connection speed and type (mobile or Wi-Fi), the identity of the Internet Service Provider (ISP) and mobile carrier, as well as business insights such as a company name. Brands can use these additional attributes to build even better targeting profiles.

IP geolocation is more than two decades old. It’s well-established. And, it provides the flexibility for marketers to scale—or micro-target—to meet their specific campaign goals.

With conventional targeting techniques coming under pressure, it feels like the start of a new era for IP geolocation technology.

In Part Two of this series, we’ll take a look at the advertising options for digital marketers who want to “go local.”

Data Will Continue to Be a Driving Force into an Uncertain 2021

Posted on December 16, 2020September 3, 2024 by jsisko

Needless to say, as the pandemic unfolded around the world, companies had to pivot their business models and consumers had to re-prioritize how they engaged with their favorite brands. These seismic shifts introduced many unanticipated changes for marketers still tasked with promoting their organization’s products and services under a darkening cloud.

“Marketing in uncertain times” became their mantra.

While the coronavirus drove many of the marketing and data trends we saw in 2020, there were several others that unfolded—ones which we discussed here on the “Elemental Knowledge” blog throughout the year:

The new reality of digital advertising in a cookieless world;
Using geolocation data to reach local and regional travelers;
How reverse geocoding strengthens real-time mobile interactions;
New roles for proxy and VPN datasets in today’s digital marketplace; and
The multiple ways IP data is benefiting streaming content providers.

While the good news of COVID-19 vaccines will help jettison us into the new year with renewed hope, the stark reality is that marketers will still need to navigate an uncertain 2021 where the economy probably won’t find its footing until mid-year and businesses such as restaurants and brick-and-mortar retailers as well as those in the travel and hospitality industry will struggle to stay above water.

While it remains difficult to predict what exactly the immediate future holds for marketers, here’s what we foresee—for now—in 2021:

The Democratization of Omni-Channel Commerce Will―Finally―Occur: Every retailer will need to be able to sell online. The democratization of this capability will come from key tech companies that will become more of a monopoly/oligopoly. Therefore, many key marketing capabilities will see tremendous improvements such as targeting the right shopper through massive amounts of new information being fed to algorithms.

More Companies Will Scale the Wall: More medium- to large-sized non-walled garden companies will have the same benefits that come from hyper-targeting capabilities that only walled garden companies (Google, Facebook, Netflix, etc.) have enjoyed until now, due to more data being available on consumer patterns generated from digital commerce, and further sharing of data through data clean rooms. Data clean rooms will become the norm rather than the exception as companies will try to cobble together clean data to get deeper insights on consumers (IP addresses, HEM technology, etc.).

Data Privacy? Yep. Will Be an Even Bigger Deal: Consumers will demand―and be given―more and more control over what data they share and how it’s used. However, with the COVID hangover more than likely lingering well into the new year, we’ll see more consumers with fewer negative reactions to being hyper-targeted with marketing and advertising messages. Ad targeting will begin to deliver on value to both marketers and consumers.

IP Data is Going to Skyrocket in Value: Considering all of the privacy discussions in the market today, especially around the demise of cookies, the data that is non-invasively gleaned from an IP address will become more relevant than ever. It’s a proven technology that will be used for a variety of business applications outside of ad targeting, including but not limited to legal/regulatory compliance, network routing, analytics and fraud/security.

We expect 2021 to continue to be a bit of a roller-coaster ride: formidable in terms of the pandemic’s impacts continuing to wear on both businesses and consumers alike, but exciting in terms of seeing light at the end of the tunnel where our economies gradually open back up and return to some semblance of normal. The most agile marketers will evolve to take advantage of the opportunities ahead of them—using data, technology, new processes and analytics in tandem to create value for their organizations.

Geolocation Data Is Key to Reaching Local and Regional Travelers

Posted on May 20, 2020November 11, 2024 by jsisko

Travel and tourism was one of the first, and arguably the most prominent, industries to be impacted by the global crisis caused by COVID-19. Trip cancellations were abundant. Popular tourist destinations looked like ghost towns, leaving many of the hotels, restaurants and retailers that depend on a steady stream of travelers struggling to make ends meet.

With stay-at-home orders gradually lifting across the country and the official start of summer just around the corner, people are anxious to get out and resume travel. However, most will be staying closer to home for the immediate future which means travel, hospitality and retail marketers can effectively use geolocation data to target advertising, promotions and other communications within their respective local and regional destinations.

The Start of Travel Will Be Closer to Home

A recent Longwoods International travel-sentiment tracking study, showed that more than half of American travelers want to make their first trip (once it’s appropriate to travel again) a domestic visit to reunite with friends and family. Eighty-six percent of those travelers signaled that they plan on visiting a U.S. destination, with 76 percent of those saying they’d travel by car and 24 percent by air. Of those who plan on driving, 52 percent said they plan to stay within 200 miles of home.

As businesses around the country adapt to their new reality as a result of the pandemic, many should find hope and value in geolocation technology. With local being the new norm, it makes sense for travel, hospitality and retail marketers to look at localized strategies using IP geolocation and point-of-interest data to reach current and future travelers to let them know “We’re Open for Business!”

Reaching Consumers in Today’s New Reality

No doubt, as people begin to venture out, businesses built around the travel industry will be met with a new wave of competition to capture consumers’ attention in an attempt to get diners in restaurant seats, shepherd shoppers through the front doors, and offer weary travelers a safe and homey place to rest their heads. These businesses will need to use creative and relevant messages to grab their attention, delivered using reliable and accurate geotargeting data.

Incorporating IP geolocation and point-of-interest data into digital marketing initiatives has always been a successful and proactive way for local businesses to target consumers. If there was ever a time that geotargeting made complete sense for brick-and-mortar businesses (especially those that have not considered this approach previously), then this is certainly it.

As an example, a local hotel from a major chain such as Hilton or Marriott, in downtown Denver can geotarget ads to Coloradans offering a one-night free discount for a long weekend stay during the month of June. And, if a traveler is visiting The Georgia Aquarium in downtown Atlanta, then nearby local restaurants or retail shops from recognized national brands, such as Hard Rock Cafe or Foot Locker, have an opportunity to target that same person with a “Come Eat Here” or “Come Shop Here” type of message.

Geotarget with Confidence, Sooner Rather Than Later

Two things to consider when incorporating IP data into your marketing efforts:

Publically available data is patchy, rarely updated, and inherently inaccurate; and
Not all data providers are created equal. There are several suppliers and systems available that can determine where an IP is and, for a small investment, an answer can be provided. But, determining the correct location of an IP address, along with other contextual information, requires advanced infrastructure analysis―which not every vendor possesses.

NetAcuity^® is a premium IP solution that, at its most granular level, can accurately and reliably locate an online user down to a city/postal code level and identify Wi-Fi connection locations without becoming personally identifiable. Accuracy is 99.99 percent at a country level, up to 97+ percent at a city level and the data is refreshed 24×7 and delivered weekly. It is also easy to deploy on an internal server, in less than 20 minutes. This is a tremendous advantage for businesses that want to quickly get out in front of the competition.

Once travel-related businesses find themselves on the other side of this pandemic, one thing is for certain—they are bound to emerge in a vastly different landscape than the one we experienced prior to the pandemic. In the meantime, geotargeting technology can play a huge part in helping the travel industry adapt to Americans’ preferences to stay a little bit closer to home.

The New Reality of Digital Advertising in a Cookieless World: A Conversation with Digital Element’s Rob Friedman

Posted on March 5, 2020November 11, 2024 by jsisko

Ad tech industry discussions around the death of third-party cookies which track users for targeted advertising have been going on for some time now. Cookies have already been removed from Safari and Mozilla. However, the recent announcement regarding Google Chrome phasing out its support of third-party cookies over the next two years has brought us closer to the new reality of digital advertising in a cookieless world.

Here, we talk to Rob Friedman, Digital Element’s co-founder and executive vice president. For more than two decades, he’s worked closely with advertising and marketing businesses across the spectrum to ensure that they are getting the most out of their targeting solutions. He’s seen the industry evolve over those years to meet new marketplace demands―which, in turn, are driven by ever-changing consumer preferences in terms of how they want to engage with brands. When he speaks, you should listen.

What is your opinion on Google’s recent plan to phase out third-party cookies in Chrome within the next two years?

First and foremost, anything that furthers user privacy is a good thing. We started this company more than 20 years ago with an eye toward user privacy and making sure people were not scared off the internet. At that time cookies were first coming into play, and people were worried about companies spying on their browsing behaviors.

We thought there had to be a better way to target. People don’t behave the same if they know they are being tracked. However, if they know there is some value exchange (i.e. special discounts, personalized information, etc.), then they are more willing to give up some information. We think tracking without providing anything of value or without affirmative consent is the wrong approach.

Plus, it’s tough to have one company, for example Google, be in control of everything. For practical reasons, you can’t make the whole ad ecosystem dependent on one company. And, in the case of a data breach, that’s a single point of failure. You also miss the whole air of transparency.

Digital Element has been at the forefront of the online ad targeting industry since 1999 with its IP Intelligence data. What role will your data have now in a world without cookies?

The removal of cookies will breathe new life into the IP address. It’s ubiquitous and instant. The IP address is necessary for routing online. Every transaction online has an IP address, whether it be a mobile device or anything else.

However, I think people’s knowledge of what IP targeting can do has not caught up with the innovations we’ve made in the past 10 years. People think it’s a rough targeting technology with only DMA-type reach. That assumption misses all the developments that we’ve made in the interim.

IP targeting has never been more relevant than it is today, and we’ve invested millions of dollars in taking in a whole bunch of data. We’ve turned our data scientists loose: slicing, dicing and tying data to IP addresses to give rich profiles of users at a very granular level, such as the sub-postal code, and in some cases ZIP-plus-4.

We are certainly not down to a household level, as that is nothing that we want to do or can do. Nor, is the internet made for that type of targeting. It’s not something that can be done. But, we can get much deeper profiles of behavior once you know that type of granularity around a user. If a business traveler is at a point of interest, for example at a hotel, he or she will have different interests than a residential online user. We are helping to build context around users. We are doing what we’ve always done; it’s just that now IP targeting has never been more relevant.

In what ways has IP Intelligence evolved during the last 20 years?

We’ve always had the most accurate IP Intelligence technology out there. After years of investing very, very heavily in IP targeting, the gap between data providers has never been bigger. We are light years ahead of the competition.

We have always taken a leadership role, but never has it been more important than it is now―especially considering all of the third-party data that’s available. Remember, just getting third-party data isn’t enough. You have to have the ability to vet that data. Our long-term experience in the industry enables us to validate this data better than anybody. Digital Element has invested in data vetting and onboarding as well as controlled testing that proves that we are exponentially better than competitors.

This isn’t your grandfather’s IP targeting. IP addresses are going to skyrocket in value for ad targeting now. It’s a proven technology. And, considering all of the privacy discussions in the market today, we’re so far ahead of the curve because our data is not invasive.

We’ve never tracked anybody with cookies. This has been in our DNA ever since we started Digital Element. It’s fun to be the cool kids again. Not to mention, we’ve taken the explosion of mobile data and layered that on top of our IP framework.

Did the mobile explosion challenge your adherence to IP targeting?

We always had faith that IP targeting was important. It goes back to our initial mission to not snoop on online users, but help them find content more readily without being creepy. We’re the “non-creepy” technology.

All along the way, we stayed in our lane and invested money there, knowing the importance of what we were doing would eventually lead us to this point. Everyone chased personal information about online users, but we work in a place where you can’t even do that.

It’s not a concept where we track an IP address to a person. IP addresses don’t work that way. They are routed in a network way, not a device way. We’ve been able to take that to the next level.

Therefore, our singular focus on IP targeting helped us become better, and we challenged ourselves to get getter. Now our technology is even more important because companies are using it for mobile targeting.

Businesses want the most granular data around IP addresses so it matches better with mobile. You should have the same level of targeting with respect to all your campaigns―there are not two sides of the house―mobile and everything else. It should be a cohesive strategy regardless of the device.

In most instances, in order for marketers to take advantage of location-based services (LBS) to deliver targeted ads, promotions and content, mobile users must opt-in. But many users refuse, citing reasons such as privacy or battery-life concerns.

And, once they turn LBS services off, it’s often hard to get them to turn them back on. Mobile users will opt in to LBS when they feel they will get something of value in return, but blindly asking someone to opt in does not work. Here we are back to that value exchange.

With IP-based geolocation technology, marketers can fill the mobile gap by allowing companies to target mobile users by location and connection type as they increasingly take advantage of the ever-growing population of rate- and speed-friendly Wi-Fi networks.

By using IP data in a first-layer targeting approach, marketers can give mobile users something of relevance (i.e. a discount at a nearby coffee shop), and thereby incent them to opt in to get even more relevant mobile content as a second layer. Targeting mobile users should be a layered approach. This is how we bridge that gap in the mobile world.

Has having more granular IP data available opened up new markets for Digital Element?

Absolutely! For example, advertising via IP address is great for national or regional companies, but for Mom-and-Pop shops―who need to target by sub-ZIP code or mobile―our hyperlocal data opens up new opportunities for these companies who can advertise on small networks using our data.

They are now more competitive than they ever were. Any local business can fine tune their traffic and get a better return on their ad spend. Our data also helps with attribution and gives advertisers a new layer of information with which to monitor performance and change campaigns on the fly if need be.

Because of the improvements we’ve made, other markets have opened up where local targeting makes sense, especially in today’s new privacy-sensitive and identity-driven landscape.

Want to hear more about the demise of cookies? Readers can connect with Rob on LinkedIn.

The Role of Proxy Data in Fighting Cybercrime

Posted on January 30, 2020November 15, 2024 by jsisko

According to research firm Cybersecurity Ventures, the cost of global cybercrime will reach $10.5 trillion USD annually by 2025, up from the $3 trillion USD that it was in 2015.

Today’s enterprise IT professionals are clearly on the front lines of a very intense battle, where the losses span monetary, reputational, productivity and IP theft, to mention only a few.

In today’s world, new technologies usher in new tactics used by criminals. They can launch ransom attacks, take over networks, and illegally infiltrate consumer accounts through diverse devices from anywhere in the world.

By leveraging camouflage techniques, they can do so anonymously. Tools such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), proxy servers, queue networks, and Domain Name Systems (DNSs) allow them to hide their true identities and locations.

The reliance of cyber criminals on these tactics can be key to deciphering crime networks and their activities if businesses take the right approach.

Separate the Bad Guys from the Good Guys

A growing amount of internet traffic is being masked through proxies. For example, online users wanting to surf the web anonymously often use proxies that can provide them with a means to hide their IP address from the rest of the world.

By connecting to the internet through proxies, a device’s IP address will not be shown but rather the IP of the proxy server. Whether used intentionally or unintentionally, proxies can significantly throw off a company’s online initiatives.

The expanded availability of low-cost, IP-redirect options that run through geographically distributed hosting facilities have caused a proliferation of proxies. These include anonymizers, VPNs, and Tor services to name a few.

Cyber criminals, in particular, have found the use of proxies to be effective. But, it’s important to remember that not all proxies have malicious intent. VPNs are widely used by legitimate users for diverse purposes and are a popular choice for enhancing security and privacy. Recent data indicates approximately 26 percent of global online users access the internet using a VPN or proxy server.

As a result, stopping all VPN users is not practical. It increases the danger that real customers or employees are mistakenly labeled as crooks. If that is not enough, this method fails to discover the root of cybercrime. In order to mitigate risks and protect real users, companies must find the means to separate the bad guys from the good guys― and one of the tools for accomplishing this is the incorporation of IP-based VPN and proxy data into your platforms and technologies.

Data Accuracy Is Imperative for Fighting Cyber Crimes

By connecting to the internet through proxies, the IP address of the criminal’s device will not be shown accurately, but rather the IP of the proxy server.

The ability to identify if an online user is connected through a proxy and what type of proxy it is enables companies to flag potential criminal activities and set protocols for handling this type of “non-human” traffic differently.

Understanding the type of proxy a visitor is connecting to the internet with, such as anonymous, transparent, corporate, public, education or AOL, can trigger fraud alerts. Responses to the type of proxy can vary depending on what type of proxy it is―for example, an anonymous proxy may warrant a higher fraud score than a corporate one. By identifying connections that obscure the end-user location or those that seek to portray a connection from an “acceptable” city or country can now be easily identified and categorized.

Of course, success depends on data quality. Reliability of information can vary significantly among data sources. But the most accurate proxy data providers not only ensure that information is constantly updated on a daily basis, but that information also originates from excellent sources.

The Advantage of Other IP-Based Data

The analysis of criminal activity can go far beyond proxies. Initially, this may include an assessment of the connection type. For example, a hosting center can be a tool for traffic, not a source. Then traffic originating from it can be examined alongside existing records, such as information stored in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) database. The same goes for proxy, VPN and queue servers. By evaluating the type of proxy used against the highest quality proxy data, companies can start distinguishing between a reliable VPN and a mechanism that is more suited to suspicious activity.

Beyond connection features, IP geolocation allows companies to run comparisons. For example, in retail, this includes the implementation of smart rules where IP location is automatically checked when there are log-ins from high-risk locations. Alternatively, companies can secure internal networks by tracking speed patterns and identifying suspicious trends, such as people jumping between locations at illogical speed or in illogical order.

After analysis, companies can choose their preferred mode of action. Any suspicious activity that poses a low threat can be flagged for a form of authentication, such as sending an email or SMS that allows the user to confirm their identities. In the meantime, serious threats can be blocked immediately to prevent damage. Alongside reducing false positives, this approach shows consumers that companies are committed to cybercrime prevention.

In order to thrive in the digital world, companies must equip themselves with tools that identify and exploit crooks and cyber criminals to strip them of their anonymity without jeopardizing real users―and this can be accomplished effectively and seamlessly through proxy data and other IP-intelligence factors.