jsisko - Digital Element

IP Geolocation Data Plays Key Role in Gaining and Retaining Online Shoppers

Posted on January 16, 2020November 11, 2024 by jsisko

There is no doubt that online shopping has become firmly entrenched in our daily lives. In fact, according to a recent poll by Marist College and National Public Radio (NPR), 76 percent of all adults in the United States shop online. Online shopping platforms have also opened a plethora of options far beyond the physical location of the shopper.

Consumers now have more shopping choices than they could have ever dreamed of and seem to gravitate toward brands providing a positive and pleasant shopping experience. And, with what seems to be shorter and shorter attention spans from consumers, teamed with fierce competition, retailers are faced with the need to quickly attract their attention, anticipate needs, and provide an engaging, seamless shopping experience.

ShopRunner, a unique subscription service that matches savvy online shoppers with top retailers and brands, decided to focus on developing an innovative ecommerce presence so its retail partners could stand out in the crowded online space. Key factors to reaching this goal included identifying customers’ locations and effectively leveraging data science to make the shopping experience more personalized.

Because the fashion industry is very heavily influenced by geography, the company’s retail partners were looking for help in accurately deciphering trending data to help them establish filters based on attributes to enhance the shopping experience and provide recommendations for shoppers’ specific areas.

Due to the need to accurately identify and leverage shoppers’ locations, the company made the decision to incorporate IP geolocation technology. To that point, the company selected NetAcuity^® Pulse Plus which combines device-derived data with reverse-geocoding data to determine members’ geographic locations and provide that information to its retail partners. An added benefit was this information was gained in a non-invasive way.

“We sometimes know very little about our shoppers, but with location we have a starting point that enables us to empower our retail partners to provide a meaningful online experience for them,” said Michelangelo D’Agostino, vice president of data science and engineering at ShopRunner. “This requires extremely accurate data so we were in need of an IP geolocation provider who could ensure reliable data as well as ease of use.”

With the use of NetAcuity Pulse Plus data, ShopRunner now helps its retail partners determine shopping trends by more pinpointed locations, allowing them to adapt and present products to consumers on the fly, whether on a website or via a mobile app.

“Today, we are using trend data to drive product innovation as well as leveraging latitude and longitude data in large metro areas for better targeting,” said Ali Vanderveld, director of data science at ShopRunner.

Read the full case study to better understand the importance of using accurate IP geolocation data to help your retail company identify potential customers, enhance the online shopping experience, and help your brand stand out in the ultra-competitive digital marketplace.

Government Organizations Gaining Ground with IP Intelligence and Geolocation

Posted on August 8, 2019November 15, 2024 by jsisko

If you follow our blog posts, then you’d find us and our clients writing a lot about how IP data can be successfully applied across a number of traditional industries, from advertising to retail and streaming media to publishing.

Government, on the other hand, has been one business segment where the benefits of incorporating the use of geolocation and IP data can best be described as more like an “open secret.” However, with cyber and security risks ever increasing, more and more government organizations across all three levels―local, state and national―are now actively looking for more reliable and cost-effective solutions that can be delivered with IP intelligence data.

In recent years, the federal government has published several papers on cybersecurity, including Executive Order 13800 and the follow-on Cyber Risk Determination Report, the Trusted Internet Connection (TIC) paper, and NIST Special Publication 800-53 rev. 4 / National Vulnerability Database (NVD). All are particularly informative as to how cyber initiatives are being considered and managed by the government.

Specifically, NIST 800-53 and the NVD thoroughly address cybersecurity from start to finish, and the applicability of IP intelligence is clear and definitive. Contained within these documents are lists of low-, moderate-, and high-impact security controls.

Of particular interest is the list of “High Impact Controls” of which IP intelligence is either directly or indirectly referenced dozens of times. Example references from different sections of NIST 800-53 include, but are not limited to: AC-17 Remote Access, AU-3 Content of Audit Records, IA-4 Identifier Management, PL-8 Information Security Architecture, SC-7 Boundary Protection, and SI-4 Information System Monitoring.

Almost any agency has cyber, security, or controlled-access priorities. Some the typical agencies are those involved with intelligence, security, law enforcement, fraud and investigative missions. Agencies that need targeted notifications as well as geospatial or demographic information or perform network analysis and management are among the most common users. Our government clients include the National Nuclear Security Administration, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, and New York State.

Digital Element’s NetAcuity ^® technology offers accurate and time-relevant information about online entities, users and attack vectors such as location, proxy/VPN and more. By leveraging IP intelligence data, government organizations can proactively employ real-time intelligence about inbound and outbound network traffic; identify location and connection type information; uncover potential threats; and add critical intelligence to the investigation of cyber events. The most popular solutions for government include proxy identification with Pulse^TM and ZIP+4 geotargeting with PulsePlus^TM.

Examples of successful government applications include:

Cyber/anti-fraud: Identify incoming proxy and other circumvention tools used by bad actors or pinpoint the location of an originating IP to help prevent intrusion attempts.

Criminal investigations: Effectively sort through billions of IP and mobile connections for anomalous activity or connection types.

Intelligence community: By setting IP criteria, SIGINT and cyber analytics can be optimized and enhanced by reducing multiple orders of magnitude from billions of IP and mobile data points.

Credential verification: Compare and validate users’ IP information versus supposed origination location or proxy type.

Geofencing for inclusion/exclusion purposes: Set specific permissions or responses based on the location of IP- or mobile-based connections.

Targeted notifications: Alert users, specific geographic locations or system administrators of events based on location, domain or other criteria.

Server/network traffic analysis: Identify and analyze traffic patterns, location and connection types for IP- and mobile-based connections.

Content localization/customization: Allow for geographic, connection type or other criteria to be used to specify information, content or other personalized use cases.

As government organizations build their digital initiatives and bring increasingly more assets into the tech-enabled universe, more departments and agencies can easily and quickly apply IP intelligence to solve multiple cyber challenges on a number of fronts.

Learn more about our IP Geolocation solution here

How an Addiction to Red Hot Candy Led to 20 Years of Success

Posted on June 26, 2019September 3, 2024 by jsisko

What were you doing back in 1999? Tuning into “Friends” or “ER”? Belting out Britney Spear’s “Baby One More Time”? Rocking cargo shorts? Like us, crying in your beer as the Denver Broncos beat the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl XXXIII?

Back in 1999, the co-founders of Digital Element actually worked together at another company in Atlanta (Arris). Executive Vice President Rob Friedman had a red hot candy addiction and the other co-founder was selling the candy to Arris’ employees, and they soon developed a bond over a mutual love of these fireball treats. In one of their impromptu brainstorming sessions, they came up with the idea of geotargeting web content based on IP addresses so that ads and content could be instantly delivered to online users across the globe. Back then, no one thought it could be done! The two raised venture rounds (AOL, Siemens, and local VCs), hired a team…and 20 years later, Digital Element is stronger than ever―having taken an initial idea and growing it into a global business that delivers geolocation data and services for applications ranging from localized content and ad targeting, to fraud prevention and digital rights management, to enhanced analytics and reaching mobile users―and more.

Digital Element’s data is used by many of world’s most recognizable brands, among them Facebook, Hubspot, eBay, Netflix, Pinterest, Twitter, BBC, Sony, Hulu, Adobe, Intuit, and hundreds more.

During the course of these last 20 years, Digital Element has continued to make substantial investments in diverse data sourcing (infrastructure, GPS, Wi-Fi triangulation, etc.); tested data-science strategies; technological innovations; and an extensive network of partners. As a result, the company has reached an important data-quality milestone: the ability to deliver 10 times more unique global locations than its nearest competitor.

Think about it. This is a substantial data game-changer, as websites, brands, security companies, ad networks, social media platforms, mobile publishers and broadcasters now have access to more pinpointed locations to precisely target connected users.

“When you consider that the majority of start-ups don’t make it past their fifth year and the average lifespan of an S&P 500 company is now less than 18 years, I feel very proud about the path we’ve chosen in terms of the evolution of our solutions,” said Friedman. “Our geolocation and IP intelligence solutions were engineered in Atlanta―before the city became a world-renowned technology hub. Our company was one of the few that came out of the dot-com bust relatively unscathed. And, we were making privacy-sensitive data available to companies before it became such an important factor in interacting with digital consumers in more socially responsible and respectful ways.”

Significant corporate milestones that have contributed to Digital Element’s success include:

1999: First introduced NetAcuity^®technology and pioneered the “geo-intelligence” or “geo-location” space

2001: Introduced new databases, including connection speed, domain name, ISP, language and other characteristics about online users

2002: Named Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum (and in 2003)

2004: Issued patent for technology based on identifying location of Internet users to the city level utilizing IP addresses

2005: Parent company Digital Envoy creates two business units: Digital Element and Digital Resolve

2007: Acquired by Landmark Communications, Inc.

2008: Keynote Assessment provided third-party validation for accuracy of location data and collection methods

2009: Introduced NetAcuity Edge™, the first validated, global, partner-contributed geographic ZIP code and postcode level data

2010: Opened first European office in London and expanded international sales team

2011: Introduced IPv6 geographic database to address accessibility issues

2012: Launched NetAcuity Developer’s Edition for evaluation, small deployments and developmental purposes

2013: Received accreditation for the geographic location identifications reported by its NetAcuity platform from the Media Rating Council (MRC); and issued patent for hyperlocal geolocation technology

2014: Introduced NetAcuity Pulse™, the industry’s first mobile-centric IP targeting solution

2015: Launched GeoMprint™, a new reverse geocoding solution

2016: Received a GLOBE (Georgia Launching Opportunities by Exporting) Award from The International Trade Division of the Georgia Department of Economic Development for expansion into Brazil; and became the only provide to offer a ZIP+4 IP-based targeting solution

2018: Introduced industry’s first IP-to-Point-of-Interest (POI) database; and awarded MarTech Breakthrough Award for Best Geolocation Platform

Read the full press release to see how far we’ve come and to learn where we’re headed in the next 20 years.

Guest Post: How Accessible Data Allows for Deeper Marketing Optimization

Posted on May 1, 2019September 18, 2024 by jsisko

Data has become accessible thanks to advances in technology, including Digital Element, that now empower you as a marketer.

This accessibility opens up opportunities for you as a marketer, letting you go deeper than the base levels of publisher and country. More importantly, you can now make these granular optimizations without spending countless hours trapped by the misery of spreadsheet pivot tables.

The combination of depth plus ease allows you to gain a competitive edge over your peers. Each small optimization you make only produces minor improvements to your performance, but if you can pile them up quickly, they compound into massive returns.

Take your Optimization to the City Level

Go deeper. Rather than treating a country like the United States as a whole, optimize your channels on the city level. Once you’ve done some basic city-level optimization to your channels, start sending traffic to city-specific landing pages, and keep optimizing your conversion rates.

For example, marketers can use Everflow’s analytics report to break down city data:

When you look at the city level, your base conversion-to-event rate for Los Angeles is 14 percent, but only 9 percent for Chicago. This data provides you with an opportunity to test how you can improve your underachieving city’s performance, or whether you should adjust your marketing strategy accordingly.

Creating a Chicago-specific landing page gives you massive levers for conversion rate optimization. You can determine if there is better messaging or offerings for addressing that market, which can lead to significant gains in your conversion rate.

If you’re buying media, then don’t let your evaluation stop at the top-level performance. You can make huge optimization gains by diving deeper and viewing your opportunities on a granular level.

In this example, when looking at the highest revenue cities, everything looks good:

However, if you also examine more pinpointed locations where you’re buying traffic but driving no revenue, then you can quickly boost your margins by deactivating those sources―assuming that you’ve collected enough volume for this data to be statistically relevant:

Data Plus Technology Leads to Performance

When you have a powerful data provider such as Digital Element, and a feature-rich tracking platform like Everflow, you can make smarter decisions about how to run your campaigns and expand your marketing.

You can take it even further and start setting up deterministic automation for these clear decisions, for example, creating notifications when you’ve generated 10,000 clicks from a city without conversions, so you can deactivate those placements inside your media-buying platform.

Being able to easily perform a deeper level of granular optimization opens up substantial opportunities to beat out your competitors. Take advantage of this, and make sure it can be done effectively without burning up your precious hours.

Guest Author: Michael Cole, director of marketing at Everflow

Guest Post: How Smart Targeting Can Help You Achieve High-Performance Marketing

Posted on March 18, 2019November 18, 2024 by jsisko

It goes without saying that location is one of the most important criteria for advertising smart targeting as well as for the optimization of ad campaigns.

Pinpoint data accuracy is a key factor for reaching a designated audience and, ultimately, facilitating better returns from advertising campaigns. From what the comparative statistics show, smart targeting allows advertisers to reach a more relevant audience in comparison to ordinary targeting, that often can leave behind around 30 to 40 percent of potential consumers.

As a solution provider for advertisers, affiliate networks and publishers, Affise offers a performance-marketing platform to run, manage and optimize their ad campaigns. Thus, we need to provide our clients with unmatched geo-accuracy to ad-campaign targeting and tracking.

However, we quickly realized that not all geolocation data providers are created equal and recognized that our current datasets were no longer enough for ensuring accurate targeting for our clients―for whom granular data is a must. The need arose to find a solution with global datasets that would accurately, reliably and non-invasively identify the location of digital consumers to help ensure smart targeting for our clients.

Integrating Industry-Leading IP Intelligence and Geolocation Data

Because the accuracy of geotargeting depends on the quality of the database being used to identify users’ locations, the only solution for us was to partner with Digital Element, the industry leader in global geolocation data and services.

With NetAcuity Edge technology, Affise is able to more accurately geotarget, either as a standalone targeting criterion or by adding accurate IP location data to other datasets to build better targeting profiles. Additional datasets, such as connection speed and mobile carrier, have been added to broaden targeting options and enrich capabilities, helping to improve the relevance and response for online campaigns.

Our team worked diligently to ensure the Affise platform integrated with and deployed the solution for our clients smoothly and effortlessly. Now, Affise clients benefit significantly from this new feature, and we’re changing the way affiliates target their designated audiences by greatly improving the accuracy of our geotargeting.

Multiple Benefits Provide Boosted Performance

The main results of integrating NetAcuity Edge within the Affise platform are highlighted below:

Deeper and More Far-Reaching Analytics
It enables more accurate segmentation of online audiences and gives more detailed portraits of consumers. With this data, advertisers receive much clearer insights into particular customer behaviors and are able to adjust campaigns and target accordingly.
More Accurate Geotargeting and Traffic Tracking
By using more accurate and reliable datasets, our clients reach the right audiences with more relevant ads―ultimately improving click-through rates.
Stronger Fraud Prevention
Using IP intelligence reduces online fraud by more than 90 percent. We’ve seen this benefit through:
1. More balanced risk management where geolocation information is used to identify and allow legitimate accounts access or identify and reject fraud sources;
2. Enhanced identity verification that prevents access from non-targeted or high-fraud areas; and
3. Detection and prevention of non-earmarked traffic from proxies.

With all these advantages, Affise has taken a big step forward to ensure that clients’ advertising campaigns would benefit from smart targeting and have the best possible performance―bringing more conversions and higher ROI.

Guest Author: Dmitrii Zotov, founder and CTO of Affise

How to Use Geolocation Data to Enhance Global Broadcast Services

Posted on January 2, 2019November 18, 2024 by jsisko

In September, we at Spicy Mango announced our partnership with Digital Element to provide technical architecture and services to integrate its geolocation data into the Over-the- Top (OTT) platforms of some of the world’s most prominent broadcasters.

For those who aren’t too familiar, geolocation data is hugely useful to video providers and gives us as technologists a method to “translate” an IP address into a whole bunch of valuable information.

As an example, in modern handsets, laptops and tablets, GPS receivers extract your latitude and longitude, then pass this information back as a city, region or country code. However, in older devices, GPS receivers aren’t so common. Even in modern handsets, with privacy at the forefront of everyone’s minds these days, it’s a dwindling few that give applications and services access to their device location anymore.

Why Location Data Is Needed for Video Distribution

So why do we need geolocation data and services such as this? For a service provider or operator of video platforms, having global geographic-rights and entitlement-management capabilities are critical. Studios and broadcasters issue content to providers, such as Netflix or Hulu, with rules. These rules determine where and when the content may be viewed by the consumer (that’s you and me). Seems like a trifling issue, but the reality is that the penalties for a breach of the rules are severe.

These rich data sets are wrapped around interfaces that allow applications to provide an IP address, and have it translated to the data set demonstrated earlier. By using IP-address translation services, we can achieve almost the same results as we’d get with a GPS receiver, but without the pinpoint accuracy. In fact, for a video operator or service provider, a city or country is often only needed to be able to enforce these commercial and legal rules.

IP-Based Data Is Useful Beyond Geographic Rights Management

We’ve covered the why and the how, but what else can we do with geolocation data? Alongside its most frequently found use case, location information can serve us well in the wider context of the video distribution platform―when used to provide services, features or capabilities that are tailored to regions or markets. With that in mind, here are five other things that your location data can do for you on a day-to-day basis:

Control Service Access

In many services, users are able to access the applications, even registering for accounts or perhaps in the worst cases, creating subscriptions, only to discover that at the point of playback, content-rights restrictions prevent playback. This can be hugely frustrating for consumers. Location data can be leveraged way before the entitlements check to verify that your users are in the right place to begin their journey with you.

Personalize Catalogs

Finding a piece of content in catalogs―usually after a good old search―only to discover that your location prevents access is one of the most frustrating things consumers often encounter. We’d think in today’s age, that this shouldn’t be happening, but it still does. Location data can be queried and used at the point of catalog presentation―ensuring that only the video assets your users can view are presented before your carousels (or pages) are rendered. This is a great way to present country- or region-specific catalogs.

Localize Messaging

The success of deploying and operating a truly international service involves meeting the needs of consumers wherever they may be. Location data can be used to tailor the application or portal to local requirements. It can be used to present translated text or information tables and localized offers or content, as well as player or play-back messaging. This is a refreshing approach to hard coding applications and portals in a handful of languages.

Control Features

It’s not uncommon to want to control features or capabilities by territory. In the case of large multi-national events, features in the service such as download to play offline, instant restart or DVR may be subject to international restrictions as a result of licensing or partnership deals. Use location data to restrict capabilities based on location. When coupled with device-management platform technologies, the ability to enable or disable features based on location or other defined parameters requires no more than a simple change of a toggle in a console―not distribution of territory-version-specific applications.

Build Reports

Location data can also be used to help build detailed reports, for example, where you might see the most activity in your service. By collating city or country codes and feeding these into analytics tools or proprietary interfaces, you can build accurate heat maps of where requests originate.

If you’re looking for a way to determine the next hot territory that’s desperate to use your service, this could be it. If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, use the data to spot abnormal traffic patterns―comparing this to volumes of requests or data hitting your APIs and interfaces. You’ll soon spot spammers or Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) wannabe hackers.

The real-life applications don’t stop here. There is a lot you can do with geolocation data when you understand how to tie it to core services and functions inside of your video service or platform. Used correctly, it can be an incredibly powerful tool to enable true personalization and regionalization of services, as well as support the enforcement of rights.

Guest Author: Chris Wood, Chief Technology Officer, Spicy Mango

Identify Proxies…Fight Click Fraud and Wasted Impressions

Posted on November 28, 2018November 18, 2024 by jsisko

Today’s digital world has become a mass online universe that constantly challenges marketers to find new and innovative ways to reach what is often a faceless and geographically dispersed audience.

If we’ve learned anything, it’s that location provides valuable insight into what is typically an anonymous audience online. A plethora of contextual information can be gleaned from knowing internet users’ locations in order to make marketing messages more personalized.

However, 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 targeted marketing campaigns.

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.

More Proxies Equals More Demand for IP-Based Data

A number of different proxies exist in today’s online world―for both legitimate and nefarious reasons. Detecting proxy traffic is an IP-based phenomenon. The presence and type of a proxy dictates how certain IP traffic is handled. For marketers, the ability to deploy technology that identifies and bypasses online users who may be masking their locations and digital personas means improvement in targeted campaign performance with fewer wasted impressions.

During the last year, we’ve seen a 25-to-50-percent increase in requests for proxy data. The demand is specifically coming from ad networks, analytics companies, video content providers, fraud-prevention solutions, and software providers with geographic rights restrictions.

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. Recent research suggests that 28 percent of website traffic has shown strong “non-human signals.” Where there’s non-human traffic, there’s almost certainly ad fraud.

Proxy Data at Work

As we’ve discussed, relying on a proxy’s IP address location often leads to incorrect targeting and wasted impressions because the user is hiding his/her location behind a proxy. In the case of hosted or pay-per-click (PPC) ads, companies can utilize proxy data to combat malicious clicking that unnecessarily assesses charges to advertisers. Proxy information can also be incorporated into analytics to report on human versus non-human (i.e. invalid) ad traffic.

Several real-world examples of proxy data at work include:

AppsFlyer: The global leader in mobile attribution and marketing analytics, is proactively using proxy data to combat the real and growing problem of mobile ad fraud. It utilizes proxy data to give mobile marketers the clarity and confidence they need to optimize their campaigns and improve their overall performance by identifying responses from non-humans as well as uncovering uncertainties around their advertising traffic.

Sift: A mobile advertising technology provider utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning includes proxy information with a full geolocation data arsenal to improve efficiency and performance of clients’ advertising―helping them avoid wasted impressions and fight click fraud as well as enhance attribution and analytics.

Knowing more about where internet users are accurately coming from as well as how they connect will help marketers improve the monetization of their online advertising and content. Learn more here about the different types of proxies that could negatively impact your online advertising campaigns as well as best practices for selecting a proxy data provider.

Latin American Pay-TV Operators Gain More Data Insights to Strengthen Digital Rights Management

Posted on March 14, 2018September 18, 2024 by jsisko

Mar. 14, 2018

The rise of the internet has revolutionized the broadcast industry. The days of a fixed program schedule delivered through a small number of terrestrial TV stations are long gone. Instead viewers have access to over-the-top (OTT) and video-on-demand services (VOD) and have become their own program schedulers, with a vast array of content at their fingertips. This programming revolution has gone hand in hand with the explosion of devices that are capable of streaming high-quality video. People are no longer viewing through a single TV in their households. They can access content through a variety of tablets and smartphones wherever―and whenever―they want.

This new video landscape presents some interesting challenges for pay-TV operators. As people are watching more content on multiple devices while on the move, these companies have to be mindful of compliance with licensing, copyright agreements and cultural differences. They need the ability to grant access where viewing is permissible and restrict access where it is not, all while making the end user experience as seamless as possible.

In addition to location, the detection of anonymous proxies and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) is becoming mandatory for any company looking to address the evolving challenges when it comes to providing a reliable digital rights management (DRM) solution. More companies across the video market spectrum―from studios to telecom companies to technology solutions providers―are looking for additional data parameters to help strengthen their DRM activities while still protecting consumers’ privacy and preserving their video viewing experiences.

“Our clients needed a solution that combined geolocation, VPN and proxy detection so that they could make use of content from studios from which they had the rights,” said Ricardo Lima, director of BOLD S.A.

Headquartered in Uruguay with a focus on the Latin American pay-TV market of middle-sized operators, BOLD has been at the forefront of providing the most innovative solutions and products customized to companies’ unique needs in this space. BOLD will integrate the NetAcuity Edge^TM database, which includes validated, partner-contributed geographic postcode-level data, into its content manager system to help customers comply with industry requirements for video distribution. Additionally, the company will also employ anonymous proxy and VPN databases to help add even more security for its DRM solutions.

IP data is vital for content providers to comply with digital rights licenses, either at a country or regional level. Yet, many are using poor approaches that restrict users who should be able to view content, while allowing access to those who should not. The deployment of accurate IP geolocation technology negates this issue because it accurately identifies the user’s location. Working with less accurate data providers can create false restrictions, leading to disgruntled consumers.

There are many unscrupulous users who try to access content they should not be viewing by masking their location, using proxies or VPNs. Pay-TV operators need to utilize premium IP solutions to ensure they are not falling foul of nefarious methods of internet access.

Advanced proxy databases can identify the type of proxy―such as anonymous―or if the traffic is coming from a hosting center. In addition, it can ascertain from where the proxy emanates, such as a Tor exit, Tor relay, the cloud or through a VPN. Data should be refreshed daily to ensure it is sound. This breadth and depth of this level of proxy information provides the ability to identify more suspicious connections and minimize false positives, enabling the broadcaster to make more informed decisions about allowing or denying access to content.

BOLD has a varied group of clients in Latin America which have continued to show their loyalty through the years, among them NUEVO SIGLO and Montecable. With the integration of the NetAcuity datasets, BOLD will help its clients deliver more accurate and reliable video DRM throughout Latin America.

Read the full press release to learn more details on how BOLD will help pay-TV operators in the LATAM region strengthen their DRM activities.

How IP Geolocation Technology Gives iGaming a Winning Hand

Posted on December 18, 2017September 18, 2024 by jsisko

Dec. 18, 2017

Online gambling is a thriving industry, and global online wager value is expected to rise to a staggering $950 billion by 2021, a substantial increase from $550 billion last year.

Much of this growth will come from mobile channels, driven by a proliferation of smartphones and tablets; availability of low-cost data plans; and increased access to Wi-Fi―all of which allow consumers to gamble without location restrictions.

The expansion of the industry can also be accredited to more countries legalizing online gambling; a change in attitudes due to the rise of social and sports betting; and increased availability of non-cash payment options such as credit cards and virtual currencies͘. Take for example, the looming Supreme Court decision in 2018 to possibly repeal the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) that would put an end to the federal ban on sports betting and infuse the market by 2023 with $6.03 billion in annual revenues.

But, as the gambling market continues to grow, companies need to do more and more to stay ahead of the game. During the next few years, the priority for gambling sites will be to implement up-to-date technology to comply with country-specific jurisdictional requirements; ensure optimum quality across devices; and provide a more localized experience.

So how can companies guarantee jurisdictional control and keep up with consumer demands to ensure fair play for both users and advertisers? In short: IP geolocation technology.

Counter Strike Illegal Gamblers

The omnipresent nature of the internet means players can connect to gambling sites from all over the world͘. While this provides access to a wide audience, it also creates challenges for gambling sites that must ensure they hold a license for each user’s jurisdiction―allowing access to gambling where permitted and restricting where it is not.

As country regulations are tightened, gamblers increasingly attempt to gain illegal access by falsifying their location or hiding behind a proxy server such as a Tor, VPN or hosting center. To combat the issue of illegal betting and protect the integrity of their licenses, many companies are now using IP intelligence to detect suspicious activity.

The technology works by determining the users’ locations right down to a postcode level without them becoming personally identifiable. Additionally, premium IP data providers can accurately determine if users are trying to spoof their locations by masking their access via a proxy, Tor, VPN or routing via a hosting center. Users remain anonymous while gambling companies ensure compliance with data protection laws.

Bring Action to Every Device

With the rapid expansion of mobile betting that gives users “a piece of the action” from an ever-increasing range of devices, gambling sites need to be optimized across all devices and screen types to provide the best possible customer experience. IP intelligence can be used to identify mobile traffic by determining the connection type and speed, allowing the most appropriate content format to be selected for that user.

In addition, this information can be used to determine the type of advertising the user is exposed to while using the site. For instance, a static display ad can be shown to an on-the-go smartphone gambler who is accessing via a slow internet connection, while an interactive video can be shown to a player who is using a tablet and a faster Wi-Fi connection.

Rack Up Points with Localized Content

Determining the locations of users means online gaming sites can automatically display content in their preferred language or currency, without them having to select options from a dropdown menu. Companies will also be able to share relevant information with the player such as local sports results.

In this way, IP geolocation technology helps gambling companies build more meaningful relationships with their customers and yield higher levels of trust, brand loyalty and, ultimately, revenue.

Double Down on Advertising Campaigns

In recent years, both consumers and content providers have spoken out against the annoyance of intrusive, irrelevant ads and the detrimental effect that spamming has on potential online customers. Gambling sites are far more likely to attract and retain players who are served relevant ads, and advertisers will also feel they have hit the jackpot as they watch their click-through rates improve.

Both gambling sites and advertisers can use IP intelligence to raise their game by combining IP data with other criteria to target customers with highly relevant and timely campaigns; share promotions based on user location; and align ads with external events to make the gambling experience even more immersive and meaningful. They can also use location data to deliver personalized messaging that will drive customers into local casinos or betting shops.

In an industry that is governed by country-specific regulations; faces a constant threat of illegal use; and that is evolving to accommodate gambling across a growing number of devices, IP intelligence and geolocation technology is essential. For gambling sites that recognize the need to deliver targeted content and advertising without annoying or identifying the user, making use of good-quality, highly granular, real-time IP data will be the winning hand in the future.

How a Boost in Quality Geo and Carrier Data is Driving “Ridiculous” Conversions for Mobile Content Advertisers

Posted on November 7, 2017September 18, 2024 by jsisko

Nov. 7, 2017

In August, we at Go2mobi made the announcement that our self-serve mobile DSP was taking Geo-IP and Carrier targeting to a new level by integrating Digital Element’s NetAcuity Edge™ technology and data. Two and a half months later, we’re thrilled to say that nearly 1,000 campaigns are now leveraging this data to target their specific audience segments on specific carriers―more accurately than ever!

As the industry standard for carrier and geographic mapping, NetAcuity is leading the pack with city-level accuracy up to 97⁺ percent worldwide. In addition, NetAcuity is providing coverage for 99.9999 percent of the Internet and collecting more than 60-70 million points of view daily. With this intense boost of quality data, it’s no surprise that our advertisers have seen tremendous success in campaigns that are heavily reliant on targeting Geo-IPs and Carriers accurately.

Advertisers running 1-click Mobile Content, also known as carrier billing or Value-Added Services (VAS) campaigns, have been able to double down on this rich data and now have the ability to target approximately 2,400 carriers in more than 230 countries. This results in serving ads to the right customers, on the right carriers, at a precise place and time, and at scale! So in other words, conversions, conversions, and oh, did I mention CONVERSIONS?

As a pioneer in mobile programmatic advertising, Go2mobi knows that data is king. More importantly, we recognize the ability to make well-informed decisions based off of data is what truly makes it powerful. This is where Go2mobi’s DSP can be fully leveraged as our platform grants advertisers the ability to drill down to three levels of data combinations for more precise optimization. This allows them to unlock hidden pockets of profitable traffic with a degree of transparency that is simply not available on other DSPs.

In fact, Go2mobi’s advanced targeting enables advertisers to determine combinations of traffic that are driving not just high conversion rates, but also profitable effective costs per action (eCPAs). For instance, you could have a hyper-targeted combo set, such as Vodafone customers in Germany on iOS devices, that is highly profitable versus a combo set of Vodafone customers in Germany on Android devices that is not. This is critical information for any programmatic marketer to have in order to decide which combos should be whitelisted or blacklisted and/or bid up or bid down to successfully optimize campaign budgets.

While we’ve seen 1-Click Mobile Content campaigns leading the charge in leveraging our integration with Digital Element’s industry leading data, we know that the opportunities for other campaign successes are endless.

Guest Author: Grant Storry, COO at Go2mobi