Google is looking to close the gap between mobile browser and app users in ad targeting.
Till now, advertisers were treating the same consumers as two separate individuals depending on whether they were using mobile browsers or apps owing to disconnect between the two tracking technologies. Google is going to start testing a means of targeting tablet and smart phone users by connecting the separate tracking mechanisms for mobile browsers and apps. Google is using the cookie in a mobile browser and connecting it to a mobile app’s equivalent of a cookie.
Once this connection is established, Google can show the same ads to consumers irrespective of whether they are using mobile browsers or apps. Google can also track consumers who saw an ad in a mobile browser and show a follow-up ad on a mobile app.
This test will help advertisers to run consistent ad campaigns across mobile browsers and apps by using current anonymous identifiers while users can still keep a finger on their privacy controls on Android and iOS. With this capability, advertisers can treat their target audiences as unified groups instead of treating them as separate entities and setting up unconnected ad campaigns. An added advantage is that the capability to trace consumers from mobile browsers to apps makes use of Google’s 2 million+ strong third-party site network and mobile app ad network, AdMob, which can track users and post ads across hundreds of thousands of Android and iOS apps.
Being able to track consumers as one will help marketers target them with more relevant ads and avoid repetition. Often, it so happens that consumers would have seen a brand’s ad while browsing the web on their mobile device and later when they use an app, they end up seeing the same ad. While repetition sometimes helps in better brand retention, it can also annoy consumers.
Google’s ability to show follow-up ads can contribute to more conversions since these follow-up ads are not only new for the consumer, they also prompt them to actually take action after introducing the product to them in the previous ad.
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