Changing Behaviors Are Influencing Targeting Tactics

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a monumental shift in consumer behavior that would have been unthinkable at the beginning of the year. Even before the pandemic struck, companies across consumer markets were experiencing converging pressures, ranging from intense competition to evolving customer preferences. 

As today’s consumers spend more time at home, their mobile devices are the gateway into their interests and shopping preferences. Understanding their interests through their journeys is a way to recognize and tailor experiences that fit with their lifestyle and purchasing decisions.

Companies need to anticipate what kind of consumer is emerging so they can make it through the current crisis and build the capabilities that future relevance will require. Location-based advertising is playing a role across several areas that retailers can adopt right away to adjust to the changing landscape.

Location and Behavior

Online actions such as a person’s search history or the brands they like on social media platforms fall short in telling the full story of genuine consumer behavior. Offline behaviors, however, prove to be more indicative of a consumer’s likes, dislikes, and hobbies. During a time when people go fewer places, where they go tells us even more about who they are.

Not only has consumers’ shift in purchase intent changed, but also the channels through which purchases are made. With shifts in behavior, intent, and action, businesses must quickly adapt in order to strategically position themselves to meet their customers’ evolving needs. Lean into behavioral data to better understand how and when to connect with the right audiences.

It is imperative that brands tailor their messages to reach key audiences based on location, from recent movement patterns to where the consumer is when they see the campaign on screen. By leveraging consumer visitation trends, brands connect with consumers based on their store visits as well as buying intention.

Types of Transactions

Covid-19 has caused more consumers to adopt low-contact services in order to limit the spread of the virus. Pick-up and delivery have been helpful and, in some cases, necessary solutions for consumers looking to limit person-to-person contact.

Understanding the ways consumers settle transactions enables marketers to garner substantial insight on these audiences and can also be used as a targeting tactic to engage existing and new consumers.

Connected TV

Households are consuming 60% more content globally, according to a Nielsen report.  

The increases in TV watching and streaming may represent the new normal. Fortunately, streaming media helps advertisers become more data-driven and flexible. 

While mobile leads and drives foot traffic, desktop delivers online sales. Desktop continues to be the platform of choice for consumers making purchasing decisions for products such as insurance, travel bookings, and high-value items. CTV ads make addressable targeting highly effective, especially among the increasing number of cord-cutters. 

The current climate does not warrant a one-size-fits-all approach. Many brands face an immediate need to modify their advertising messaging and marketing tactics to resonate with customers’ current situations and needs. By analyzing location data, brands can learn to be nimble and follow the data to open doors to reinvention and revenue.

Rosie O’Meara is SVP of sales and marketing at GroundTruth.