O2-owned data company, Weve, launches location verification tech for advertisers
Weve, the O2-owned provider of telco-driven data offerings, has announced the launch of Weve Locate, the UK’s first proprietary location verification technology.
This solution compares app publisher GPS signals against O2’s cellular network, benefitting both advertisers and target audiences as advertisers reach and attribute against target audiences better, so reducing ad spend wastage. Meanwhile, customers will receive more relevant advertising, the company stated.
Location-targeted mobile ad spend will account for over 42% of total mobile ad spend in 2018 [BIA/Kelsey 2017], with 96% of marketers saying they consider location data to be important [MMA Mobile Ad Buyer Survey 2016].
However, 65% of marketers have also expressed concern around the quality of location data available in the market [LBMA 2017 Global Location Trends Report], and it is widely perceived that up to 80% may be imprecise or fraudulent. For example, an agency could be running a mobile advertising campaign to target audiences from London, but actually find they were delivering impressions against audiences from the north of England, due to the inaccurate and unverified nature of GPS-based app data available in market.
To address this problem, Weve is working with anonymised and aggregated O2-owned audience data and location specialist partner Axonix, to compare aggregated scores for app publisher GPS signals with the location of phones connected to any of O2’s UK cell towers to verify location accuracy.
Aggregating millions of location comparisons enables Axonix to index the sources of location data and score the quality of their location signals. This then enables Weve to eliminate bad data and unreliable sources, ensuring the verified location behaviours of audiences are reflected in campaign delivery and attribution.
Martin Weller, MD at Weve, commented: “Marketers have for some time heralded the importance of mobile location in their ad campaigns, alongside a rising industry trend of mistrust in the accuracy and efficacy of location based data sources. Other location providers rely on probabilistic modelling and pattern recognition to address this, whereas Weve has an actual telco truth set to verify against.
“The launch of Weve Locate means we can deliver location-specific campaigns on behalf of advertisers with the most accurate location data in market, providing the only truly comprehensive view of audiences, in terms of profile, preferences, behaviour and location.”
Simon Bailey, CEO, Axonix, added: “By comparing GPS co-ordinates with signals from cell towers, we can identify instances where an app publisher’s GPS signal tells us one thing but the devices’ cell tower location, its true location, tells us another. The value of telco-verified data is becoming ever clearer, giving assurance in the ability to verify audiences and real-world behaviour.”
