Often, when we talk about the top mobile advertising platform options for CPG brands, we focus on what CPG customers want and need.
However, a great performing app for customers isn’t going to offer much to the brand if it can’t be used it to increase sales or brand affinity. CPG brands need to be able to target audiences, offer engaging content, and manage behavioral data in order to create a mobile campaign with a high ROI. A mobile advertising platform that provides insightful features to the brands that use it is the one that will offer the highest ROI.
When it comes to mobile, marketing managers can’t focus solely on the creative aspects of advertising. Advertising in the digital space requires some technical know-how. Managers need to be able to look at data, identify key purchase indicators, and narrow down the best time and targets to market to. This data can be used to inform on future marketing campaigns as well as find ways to fix underperforming ones. That’s why certain features, like audience targeting, behavioral analytics, and premium feature support, are integral to a mobile marketing campaign.
Targeting the Audience—Going Beyond Demographics for Customer Engagement
Marketing managers for CPG brands know the value of demographic targeting, but audience selection is more than just focusing on age, gender, and marital status. There are other options available that managers can use to further influence their marketing audience.
- Geotargeting: Proximity marketing is a strong customer engagement strategy because it allows you to connect with consumers while they’re shopping. This is a powerful time for conversion. As estimated in one survey, 90% of smartphone owners have used their devices to inform a purchase decision while in a brick-and-mortar location. Using a system that encourages users to work with your app when they’re in the store offers a better ROI. Your app can be the decision-maker that pushes them in your product’s direction.
- Dayparting: Dayparting is the process of ad timing, in which ad managers will divide a broadcast day into several parts to target the times when someone is more likely to seek out a specific item. This is something which can be used in mobile advertising. For example, someone might be more likely to buy orange juice in the morning and wine at night. As a result, that manager would display ads for orange juice in the morning and wine in the evening.
- Behavior: People often defy demographics. For example, while demographics will tell you that women ages 20 to 35 are interested in makeup, we all know one or more woman, in that age range, who never wear it and have no interest in it. Narrowing down demographics by interest, and using things like prior purchase behavior, makes it easier for marketers to target their ads to the individuals most likely to be interested in their products.
A platform that offers hyper-targeting allows you to engage with the users most likely to be interested in your products. This focus takes your marketing dollars further and provides a better ROI. Of course, all of this depends on how well the ad is represented.
A Mobile Advertising Platform Should Support Engaging Features
When it comes to consumers’ preferences in mobile platform features, the top downloaded apps demonstrate an affinity for social media, streaming video services, and information apps such as weather and map services. Current CPG trends in mobile marketing further show a need for platforms that offer engaging, tech-forward features. Therefore, brands should seek out platforms that provide:
- Video: While many platforms offer native video support, not all platforms support it well. Marketing managers should select a platform with a proven ability to seamlessly integrate video.
- Interactive features: Advertising at consumers often results in individuals viewing the ad passively, meaning that they don’t feel the impact of the message. Interactive features that require consumers to take action improve engagement. This is something seen in the Shopkick app, where consumers use the app online or in-store to scan items and collect reward points—knowns as kicks—that can be redeemed for gift cards.
- Real-time information: When consumers seek out utility apps, they seek out apps that offer real-time information. This type of information for CPG brands would be related to new products, pricing, and events. The mobile advertising platform should be able to support regular updates with new information to continue delivering a relevant experience to consumers.
Using a mobile platform that supports these features will offer a better consumer experience. That consumer experience will provide brand affinity, and user interaction with the app will provide data, which can then be used to inform future marketing decisions.
How Behavioral Data Makes the Difference
One of the biggest benefits of working with a mobile advertising platform is that it gives brands the ability to travel with consumers through all aspects of the purchase journey, from product discovery to conversion. This data is invaluable because it tells brands what they’re doing right as well as where they’re losing the customer’s attention.
One of the biggest benefits of working with a mobile advertising platform is that it gives brands the ability to travel with consumers through all aspects of the purchase journey…
Mobile advertising platforms can also become a form of A/B advertising testing for videos. If a brand wants to test out two video options for audiences, both videos can be displayed on the mobile platform. The brand will then be able to see which one leads to higher engagement rates and use it in broader, off-platform campaigns. Mobile platforms provide valuable signals of purchase intent specific to a product, which can be used to determine when, how, and where to advertise.
Mobile platforms provide valuable signals of purchase intent specific to a product, which can be used to determine when, how, and where to advertise.
Best of all, these features work in a cycle. Behavioral data can be used to target customers later, helping brands narrow down demographics and geographical areas where ads perform strongly. By using a mobile advertising platform that offers the ability to target customers and then provide them with exceptional, interactive content and monitor their reactions, brands can create better, more effective campaigns.
Shopkick provides many features our partners need to create more impactful mobile advertising campaigns that are targeted and intuitive. For more information, contact us.
Image courtesy Maria_Savenko
