What a True Cross-Device Campaign Looks Like

A Successful Cross-Device Campaign Should be Account-Base & Deterministic

New devices bring new challenges for marketers — not only for managing device targeting and data collection, but for linking device ownership to consumer profiles for targeting and attribution. For marketers, the multi-device consumer is a reality that needs to be integrated into the marketing stack in a transparent way.

Ad tech has been using terms such as “cross-device” or “device-independent” to explain mobile targeting technologies. The problem, however, is that many marketers consider mobile to be a channel all to itself. Instead, marketers need to think of mobile cross-device targeting as an integral part of an audience-based targeting strategy.

The trouble starts with audience transparency.

An effective cross-device campaign needs to be able to identify ideal targets across multiple channels and multiple devices. It has to treat audience targets as “target accounts” — defined and transparent audiences with varied points of engagement — in and out of the home or business. That is why much of today’s programmatic marketing is based on onboarded offline lists, though cookie onboarding doesn’t provide the scale or device compatibility necessary for multiple data channels.

Cross-device should be equally effective for account-based B2B marketing and for retail B2C trade campaigns. A device-independent solution has to be able to cross over between home Wi-Fi and carrier-based mobile network signals. Linking these providers creates a deterministic map of your audience across all Internet-connected devices and makes cross-device work at scale. This connectivity layer is constructed by building a map that combines IP targeting at home, work, and in between. ISP delivery points at home and work are layered with postal codes and known addresses.

Semcasting Smart Zones® is a twice-patented targeting technology that incorporates all of these elements into an omni-channel data layer. Smart Zones links consumers and businesses to the delivery points of mobile carriers and the ISPs that supply service to the modem. All signals are in turn linked to home and device-IP addresses. By creating audiences based on deterministic offline intelligence about homes and businesses, Smart Zones can support cross-device campaigns at scale.

For more information on what Smart Zones can do for a cross-device campaign, download our data sheet.