Looking back at the advertising industry, even as little as five years ago, it’s easy to see how quickly the industry has been forced to focus on cross-device. In just two years’ time, the average number of connected devices per person is expected to climb as high as 6.58 (Statista).
In this always connected world, consumer expectation has changed. Deliver seamless ads and content experiences between all of a consumer’s digital formats or don’t even bother. While still a difficult task for advertisers to muster, the industry is finally coming together to coordinate data sets between devices in order to deliver the cohesive experiences consumers desire. Enter mobile advertising and mobile ad identifiers (MAIDs).
So, what are MAIDs?
A MAID is similar to a cookie in that it helps advertisers identify the person behind a device. A MAID serves the same purpose for marketers as a cookie does in a web browser. Using these identifiers that are connected to certain devices, marketers can reach users based on the data sent by their mobile device. Since MAIDs are set by the operating system, data is easily available, allowing for a more complete and deterministic picture of a consumer.
But the benefits don’t end there. MAIDs are bringing major opportunity to marketers that never before existed on digital. Mobile devices are quickly becoming the go-to platform for just about everything, and businesses have to adapt rapidly to ensure that they are responsive to this unwavering trend. Statista has found that mobile traffic globally has a larger share of internet usage than desktop traffic. (Actually, mobile traffic has been ahead since 2015.)
Here is why you should care:
Identifying A Unique Owner
Computers and desktop browsers can be black holes for marketers. Computers often live within multi-person households and can be used by many different people. This leaves assigning a unique identifier to a distinct person all the more difficult. With one unique owner, marketers can collect a diverse pool of data about their users, all the way from demographics to behavioral data, both of which are often difficult to pinpoint when multiple users are frequenting a single device.
The Key To Personalization
The higher the level of personalization, the better the user experience and consumer retention rate. MAIDs represent a more efficient way for customizing ads based on customers’ interests and the biggest differentiator when it comes to serving users with content that is not only relevant to their needs, but also personally tailored to them. Overall, data from MAIDs comes through more rich and precise and allows advertisers to connect the pieces of a disparate and complicated puzzle.
Connecting Data Across Channels
In this day in age, it’s impossible for marketers to rely on IDs from one channel. MAIDs are the missing link. MAIDs can serve as the bases for a single individual’s online identity and through tools like identity graphs* and company CRM data, linking desktop cookies, MAIDs and other forms of data across channels can be more precise. (*When it comes to identity graphs, the only reliable way to get good cross device data at scale is through an individual level identity graph. Click here to learn more about Throtle Identity Graph and our individual based approach.)
Whether you are trying to reach a specific audience within a device or retarget an audience across other similar devices or connecting consumer identities to a larger data pool, MAIDs are the next generation of cookies that will take your marketing and advertising campaigns to the next level. Consumer are expecting more. It’s time to deliver.
Want to learn more about MAIDs and how Throtle can take your marketing and advertising campaigns to the next level? Contact us today.
