As advertisers become more focused on hyper-personalization, the ability to understand consumer behavior in the physical world is invaluable. This is where location intelligence comes in—and it’s reshaping how advertisers build audiences and measure success. In the simplest terms, location intelligence involves gathering, analyzing, and applying location data from mobile devices and turning them into insights. This data allows advertisers to identify where consumers go, when they visit certain places, and what these movements say about their interests and behaviors.
Breaking Down Location Intelligence
Location intelligence can be categorized into three key types of data:
- Device-level data: This is the most widely used data in advertising and typically includes Mobile Ad IDs (MAIDs), which track a device’s movement by recording its location at specific times. For advertisers, this data can pinpoint where a device—and likely its owner—has been over time, making it easier to target specific audiences based on their behaviors.
- Aggregated foot traffic data: Handling individual device-level data for large-scale campaigns can be challenging. That’s where aggregated data comes in. By summarizing large data sets, advertisers can model audience behaviors and trends, making it easier to measure the success of campaigns, especially those that aim to drive in-person actions like store visits.
- Insights: This goes beyond simply knowing where devices have been. Insights combine aggregated data with contextual information to answer deeper questions about why certain behaviors occur. For example, why did foot traffic to a store increase? What types of people made up those visitors, and what are their buying motivations?
Why Location Intelligence Matters in Advertising
In the digital age, understanding online behavior is only half the picture. Location intelligence fills the gap between online activity and real-world behavior, allowing advertisers to connect the dots between digital campaigns and physical visits. Whether you're trying to drive foot traffic to a store, analyze visitation patterns, or understand how various campaigns affect consumer movements, location intelligence is a must-have tool.
However, with great power comes great responsibility. Ensuring data accuracy, ethical sourcing, and compliance with privacy regulations are critical. Unacast emphasizes data quality and privacy, helping advertisers make the most of their location data without compromising consumer trust.
To dive deeper into the types of location intelligence and its crucial role in the AdTech ecosystem, download our comprehensive report, The State of Location Data and Its Impact on Advertising.
