In association with Taptap Digital.

As advancements in the ad tech ecosystem leave the landscape increasingly fragmented, and consequently harder to navigate, we examine how advertisers can leverage location to unify their ad campaigns and facilitate a true omnichannel approach. 

As the ad tech ecosystem evolves, advertisers are exposed to more precise data, more cutting-edge tech, and more advanced solutions to aid them in their marketing efforts. Yet, despite all this progress, has the advertising landscape actually become easier to navigate? Most advertisers would say no – it certainly hasn’t. 

An increasingly fragmented ad landscape

As ad tech advances, the landscape has become increasingly fragmented, creating difficulties for marketers, vendors, and the wider industry. While advertisers grapple with long-existing industry challenges, such as adhering to consumer privacy regulations, new issues continue to arise. Among the newer complications, is figuring out how to best implement the wide-ranging and ever-expanding array of AI solutions on offer. 

Of course, through new developments, old challenges also take on a new face. Measurement, an area once considerably simpler for advertisers to navigate, has grown more complicated as new channels, with ever disparate metrics, earn their place in marketers’ omnichannel media mixes. Channels such as OOH and audio have never had much in common when it comes to measurement – but even less so as advertisers increasingly branch out to include additional categories within channels, fragmenting channels even further. An advertiser whose audio efforts once may have simply relied on radio, for example, now may find themselves splitting ads between radio and podcasts.

Most advertisers are familiar with executing omnichannel campaigns which span across multiple different channels, from social media to CTV. But how omnichannel are these campaigns really, if the channels are not actually working in synchronisation? 

Leveraging location to unify omnichannel campaigns 

Achieving a true omnichannel approach is about more than simply having a number of separate channels working separately, as most channels are already siloed by nature. A true omnichannel approach finds a way to connect channels where possible, so they are working together in unison despite their differences. 

Location can offer a solution to partly remedy the high level of fragmentation in omnichannel campaigns, acting as a channel alignment tool. As put by Nigel Clarkson, global CRO at Taptap Digital, location is the key to unified, smarter advertising campaigns. “In a digital world that is looking for privacy respectful planning, location is transforming targeted advertising by connecting disparate data sets into a cohesive, insights-driven strategy,” he explains. This unification can help advertisers to move away from the siloed nature of modern day advertising. 

An array of benefits for advertisers

Firstly, advertisers need to look beyond the pervasive myth that location targeting is based solely on real-time location. Targeting consumers in real-time is one of location’s capabilities, but it is certainly not limited to this. Most data commonly used by marketers – whether socio demographic, social interest, or purchase behaviour, among others – can be understood by where it occurred. This geospatial context of data can be harnessed by marketers to make much smarter advertising decisions. 

In this way, location can become a unifier of different datasets, allowing marketers to combine whatever data they wish to build rich audience profiles and understand where consumers are geographically in concentration for activation. 

Serving ads based on location, relevant messages can be displayed to consumers at the opportune moment. Clarkson expands: “It allows brands to deliver contextually relevant messages at the right time and place, driving deeper engagement and higher ROI. By using location as a unifying force, marketers can turn raw data into actionable insights, ensuring campaigns resonate across every touchpoint.” 

Chris Keenan, managing partner, global solution design and development at GroupM, emphasises how location data can be used alongside other insights to help advertisers reach their target audience: “Location isn't just about where a customer is, but what they're doing and when – offering a level of granularity that fragmented channels often lack. This diversified approach allows advertisers to reach their target audience across multiple touchpoints with relevant messages, driving stronger engagement and ultimately, better results.” Additionally, Clarkson adds that by bridging online and offline behaviour, advertisers can enhance precision targeting, cross-channel integration, and personalised messaging. 

Examining other benefits, location also allows privacy-conscious targeting. The industry has long been moving away from the cookie, looking to other more privacy-forward solutions. Despite Google’s cookie deprecation U-turn last year, the point of no return had already been crossed for many advertisers. At the point of collection, data can be aggregated by location rather than at an individual level, fundamentally making it privacy-first, as well as a scaled alternative to certain individual identifiers. Effectively, location can become a unifier of data – like cookies were in the past. Geotargeting allows advertisers to target their campaigns in specific areas of relevance without using consumers’ personal data, while also displaying ads based on certain collective behavioural attributes.