Mobile Location-Based Marketing Tactics

Over the last few years, there has been a lot of buzz around mobile location targeting, and for good reason: It provides an enormous opportunity for advertisers when it’s done right. The mobile phone has ushered in a new era in which advertisers can reach consumers whenever and wherever they are.

The enormous growth in mobile device penetration, coupled with the huge increase in mobile content consumption and consumers’ increased comfort in sharing location, is leading to increased opportunity in mobile location targeting.

In this article, I’d like to explore this opportunity, specifically outlining how location can be used to help marketers reach their target, location targeting tactics, and best practices, as well as an interesting alternative, uses of location services.

Location: An opportunity for marketers to reach the right consumer

It all starts with a location signal. For purposes of advertising, there are three types of these signals. One that comes from a phone’s GPS hardware, a second that is derived from the IP address to which the phone is connected, and the third from a cool little device called a beacon.

In the case of Wi-Fi, it is important to note that there are two types of IP addresses the phone can be connected to: The first is from an individual’s Wi-Fi, the second comes from the cellular network using the consumer’s data plan.