Offline intelligence is often thought of as a way to measure foot traffic to a brick-and-mortar location driven by digital media, and for good reason. But there’s more value to be uncovered. Savvy marketers can leverage offline data holistically across their entire media buy to uncover unexpected and valued insights through the lens of verified user visitation. Here are five unexpected applications of offline intelligence that have helped marketers be more effective.
Determining the conversion window of each channel within your media plan
Marketers know that different channels engage audiences differently, which is why an intelligent mix is critical to building a successful brand story. But do you know the average conversion window of each of those channels? A leading QSR recently wanted to understand if the OTT portion of their media plan was driving people in store and how quickly it was doing so. They discovered that 37% of users converted in 4+ days, with 19% converting within a day. Afternoons were by far the busiest times compared to mornings and evenings, with the exposed group offering insights into the best time for ads on their preferred television platform. With this insight they were able to compare the uplift seen in mobile and cross-platform sections of the campaign.
Differentiating purchase intenders vs. window shoppers
Capturing the dwell time of store visitors will allow you to quickly differentiate who is there to buy, and who is just passing by the store. This is especially important for high-investment categories such as auto and luxury retail. On average, according to the 2019 Cox Automotive Car Buyer Journey study, car buyers who purchased from a dealership only visited 2.3 dealers. With such a small number of opportunities to convert from shopper to customer, automotive brands have turned to location-based insights to understand which channels are getting purchase intenders on site to amplify their on-site conversion. One luxury automotive company found that 21% of the customers driven from digital advertising spent between 48–92 minutes at the dealership, with the majority of visits happening during the afternoon on the weekend, a key indicator that the company was reaching purchase intenders.
Identifying untapped cross-vertical audiences
Would it surprise you to know that consumers who are currently looking at purchasing home furniture may be strongly correlated with automotive intenders? It is very common, especially in retail, to discover unexpected audience overlaps with seemingly unrelated segments that could improve targeting. A leading home furniture brand employed offline intelligence to determine if their geo-targeted campaign caused an increase in sales. In this case, Cuebiq data showed that converted consumers also had a strong correlation with the Auto vertical, with Auto buyers being the most popular segment for brand uplift. This unexpected insight offered the brand greater insights into how best to target future consumers strategically as well as the type of media best able to target auto intenders.
Understanding cross-channel amplification
One of the most underutilized applications of offline intelligence is cross-channel amplification. This is because many advertisers will begin testing on a single channel rather than across their entire media plan. Luckily, a leading fitness brand did not fall victim to this trend when searching for a way to more fully understand the impact of their OOH and mobile media efforts. While each channel had a positive performance independently, the combination of OOH and mobile retargeting had even greater impact with skyrocketing lift, thus proving the immense value of a multi-platform strategy. In addition to the impressive uplift the campaign generated, actual conversion was immediate for those users exposed to the advertising. Forty-two percent of exposed consumers visited a location within one day.
Measuring impact for non-brick-and-mortar brands
A common misconception is that online or mobile-first brands find less value from offline intelligence because they are not aiming to drive consumers into a physical location. A leading sports entertainment brand flipped this assumption on its head by using offline insights to understand how their OOH advertising affected downloads of their mobile applications. By tying OOH advertising exposure to app download data, they not only saw the influence of their advertising, but they also gained insights into the demographics and usage patterns of those driven to the app by advertising.
Key takeaways
- Think holistically — Measuring multiple channels may allow you to uncover trends about your advertising impact you may not have thought to look for.
- Identify the scenarios in which location is most important to you — As with the sports entertainment example, understanding exposure may be as important as store footfall.
- Consider emerging channels — Offline insights can serve as a way to unify measurement metrics across new or untested channels.
- Work with a trusted partner — Cuebiq is committed to leading the way in privacy compliance and finding new and improved ways to protect consumer privacy. Both GDPR and CCPA compliant, it follows a future-proof privacy approach, in which users can opt in or opt out of data sharing on their devices.
Offline intelligence empowers marketers to measure their most innovative cross-channel campaigns with real-world metrics. Cuebiq collects 100% first-party location data from opted-in consumers to help marketers determine whether their campaigns are actually driving store visits. Going one step further, Cuebiq’s data allows marketers to see changes in consumer behavior and understand whether their campaigns are driving incremental visits — enabling them to then decrease their cost per incremental visit.
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