By Anastasiia Lushyna
Digital devices have long been a part of our lives – an average user spends over 4.5 hours on their smartphone per day. And that is not all. Additionally, people use laptops and desktop computers, tablets, smart TVs, and other gadgets that have Internet access.
To remain competitive, marketers need to reach their audience across different devices – with the help of cross-device advertising. But what exactly is cross-device ad targeting? How does it work and how to perform it correctly? Keep reading to find answers to these and other questions!
What is Cross-Device Targeting?
Let’s start with a definition. So, cross-device advertising is a marketing practice that implies delivering digital ads to the same user via different devices. For instance, a user sees your ad while checking out a news feed on their smartphone in the morning. Then, they see one more ad when purchasing some clothing via a laptop. Finally, a user is going to watch a movie on their smart TV, and, again – they see your ad.
Following this practice is a way to ensure a unified customer experience and, as a result, increase the conversion rate.
How Does Cross-Device Targeting Work?
To enable cross-device targeting, you need to leverage cross-device tracking. The two main options are as follows:
Probabilistic Tracking
Powered by algorithms and statistical modeling, this tracking method analyzes IP addresses, locations, browsing habits, and other data to identify potential connections between different gadgets.
It can be an effective approach if you lack data but it is important to remember that probabilistic tracking is often less accurate than the deterministic option.
Deterministic Tracking
This model operates on the basis of unique data: user IDs, login credentials, and so on. For instance, if a user logs into the same Instagram account on different devices, these gadgets will be linked. The accuracy of deterministic tracking is high, but the reach may be limited as it requires users to log into a website or app on multiple devices.
How to Perform Cross-Device Advertising
To ensure effective cross-device marketing, consider the following recommendations:
Prioritize Transparency and Freedom of Choice
For cross-device targeting, data is everything. You need to update your privacy policy with clear explanations of how tracking works, what data is collected, how it is going to be used, etc. Besides, you should provide users with clear opt-in and opt-out options. By the way, advertising effectively while following the opt-in consent model is possible – find actionable insights in our e-book.
Users should also be able to update their tracking preferences at any time. Additionally, we recommend you to collect only the necessary information and implement strong security measures.
Combine Deterministic and Probabilistic Tracking
Both the deterministic and probabilistic tracking methods have certain advantages and disadvantages. To ensure a higher accuracy of your data, go for a hybrid approach. Besides, regularly monitor the performance of each model. For instance, after a sufficient number of users create accounts on your website or in your app, prioritizing the deterministic method can bring better results.
Choose the Right Cross-Device Targeting Solutions
To enable effective and accurate tracking, you should choose solutions that are compatible with a wide selection of operating systems and devices. It would be helpful to prefer platforms that offer APIs (application programming interfaces) or SDKs (software development kits) to ensure seamless integration.
Utilize Dynamic Creative Optimization
To deliver a consistent and relevant experience to your audience, you need to create personalized and engaging content. Dynamic creative optimization (DCO) can help. This technology updates certain elements of ad creative (like headlines, CTA buttons, etc.) according to the context, audiences, past performance, and other factors. As a result, users are more likely to interact with your ads.
Analyze Continuously
It is also crucial to monitor the performance of your campaigns to discover how users interact with the content across different devices. This will allow you to fine-tune your strategy and increase the conversion rate.
Benefits of Cross-Device Targeting
Now, let’s take a closer look at the advantages of cross-device marketing. Here are the key benefits to consider:
More Effective Ad Targeting
First of all, with a better understanding of user behavior, you can segment your customers according to their interactions on different devices. For instance, one of the groups may consist of people who prefer to make purchases via a mobile app, while the other one – of users who buy products in-store but make research via their desktop browsers in advance. As a result, you will be able to target different segments with more personalized messages tailored to their habits.
Secondly, launching cross-device campaigns allows you to reach your existing and potential customers regardless of the type of device they are using. The audience will have more opportunities to engage with your brand, which increases the chances for conversion.
Improved User Experience
With cross-device analytics, you gain insights into user experience across different devices. With this data in mind, you can customize your message for every specific platform, ensure a seamless experience, and identify both the opportunities and weaknesses of your campaign.
Cross-device advertising enables greater personalization in general but it is important to remember that your marketing message should be consistent. For instance, ads for smartphones and desktops should look like they were designed and launched by the same company. Otherwise, your brand recognition may be affected.
Enhanced User Behavior Analysis
Cross-device tracking allows you to discover how a user interacts with your brand at different touchpoints like engaging with social media posts, browsing products in an app, etc. Analyzing this data is a way to gain insights into the entire customer journey, identify the moments that impact the decision-making process, and improve your strategy.
Greater Campaign Relevance and Higher ROI
Cross-device targeting helps you deliver relevant ads to users regardless of the type of gadget they leverage at the moment. The increased level of relevance and personalization ensures greater ROI as users are more likely to convert.
Future Trends in Cross-Device Advertising
What awaits cross-device marketing in the future? Keeping an eye on trends is crucial to be able to adapt promptly and remain competitive. Currently, there are three key things to keep in mind:
Privacy First
Users are getting more and more concerned regarding their online privacy, and international regulations and data processing standards are evolving in response to these concerns. In the future, we can expect them to become even stricter, which will impact cross-device targeting.
Therefore, you will have to balance your need for data with user privacy – follow the recommendations we provided above and monitor the standards. This is a way not only to respect the privacy of your audience. Being compliant with regulations allows you to avoid penalties and issues with your reputation.
The Elimination of Cookies
Third-party cookies are still in use, however, at some point, they will completely fade away. Tracking methods like universal ID solutions will be in greater demand, and new tracking options can enter the market. We recommend you to get ready for the cookieless future well in advance – this will provide you with a competitive advantage.
The Growing Adoption of AI and ML
Artificial intelligence and machine learning have revolutionized the digital advertising industry, and new applications can come into play very soon. For instance, AI can be leveraged to identify behavior patterns across different devices with greater precision. In turn, ML can speed up the process of data processing.
Consider Attekmi Your Trusted Partner
Creating an effective cross-device marketing strategy can be a complex task, especially if you have never done this before. Fortunately, at Attekmi, we are always ready to give a helping hand.
First of all, we offer AdTech and Ad Ops team training services. We would be pleased to share our knowledge and help you enhance your skills! Secondly, you can count on Ad Ops outstaffing services – we can train an expert specifically for your business so that you will be able to focus on your core tasks while your ad operations will drive results.
In addition, if you need a custom AdTech solution, we can build it for you and help your business grow.
Conclusions
In the modern highly digital and extremely competitive environment, implementing cross-device advertising has become a must for marketers. Reaching your target audience via different gadgets is a way to build brand awareness, increase recognition, and create a consistent and personalized experience across the entire customer journey.
With programmatic advertising, this task becomes much simpler. Demand-side platforms (DSPs) enable you to reach users via diverse channels: desktop, CTV, in-app, mobile web, digital out-of-home, etc. And thanks to automation capabilities, the process of media buying is accelerated and optimized.
Does Attekmi seem like the right partner? Contact us to discover how we can help!
