It is essential to discover new ways for receiving a great amount of data from your users but you also need to be aware about certain methods which are built into the system. We discussed about mobile targeting which means to use different techniques from advertisers’ point of view, based on segmentation. On the other hand, personalization refers to customers’ needs and their desire to be treated like individuals. Because users can change their goals anytime, personalization engines adapt the content served according to the new landscape. So, what tools allow you to obtain the necessary information for creating a more impressive connection with your users? You will be glad to know that there are some little keys which open the doors for personalization in a more sophisticated way, called mobile device IDs. Let’s talk about them.
What is a Device ID?
Let’s start with the question of ”What are IDs?”. IDs devices have are basically mobile device identifiers. They are unique strings of letters and numbers. These identifiers connect apps with specific servers and they are obtained after the app was installed on customers’ gadgets. Using them you can track users based on the data sent by their smartphone or tablet. Obviously, due to customers’ privacy regulations you can do that if and only if they allow you to access that data. For a better description of this term we want to make an analogy between mobile device IDs and push notifications. When users opt in for being followed by marketers, great things can happen for both parties implied in the process. The difference is that push notifications are messages sent by app owners to users, while device IDs send the information from users towards apps. The only condition in both cases is to use them in a smart way.
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Types Of Mobile Device IDs
Usually advertising platforms generate certain registration IDs but these should not be confused with mobile device IDs which are provided by operating systems. In this case we have two types of identifiers.
Identifier For Advertising (IDFA) – it is used for iOS devices. Before iOS 6, it was called Unique Device Identifier (UDID). You should know that users are able to reset it anytime and in case they enable Limit Ad Tracker (LAT) advertisers can’t use it for marketing purposes.
Google Advertising ID (AAID) – it is provided for Android devices (as you probably guessed!). This identifier acts similar to IDFA and it can be reset by device’s owner
How To Track Device ID And How To Use Device IDs For Mobile Marketing?
One of the major disadvantages of these identifiers is that they require users’ approval for gathering data. But for those who offer their consent, mobile IDs represent a very efficient way for customizing ads based on customers’ interests. You can discover more details about the possibilities offered by device IDs when users don’t enable all three options referring in – app ads, data collection, remarketing and interest – based targeting in the documentation about Google Ad Exchange. Meanwhile, assuming that users don’t opt out of this activity, there are many benefits when you track those identifiers.
Get To Know Your Users
In today’s mobile ecosystem, smartphones are vital for their users, almost like the air they breathe (well, it is a little exaggerated, but you get the point). Due to this fact it became a lot easier to understand what they do or what they are looking for. And because device IDs can be tracked inside apps, they allow app owners to learn more about their users’ preferences when it comes to analyze their creation. This information is also very important whenever they want to update the app. Let’s put it this way. It gives you a considerable advantage over your competitors who don’t pay attention to this technique. For maintaining the highest standards and to impress customers while they complete the activities inside your app you can benefit of this real time opportunity.
Associate Each Device To A Specific User
While a computer can be used by many users, a mobile device usually has a unique owner. When you use web cookies there are big chances to gather ambiguous data from multiple users. With smartphones it is almost impossible for this situation to happen. Also, it is worth mentioning that for tablets which can have multiple owners it is possible to set unique identifiers for each customer. This could be considered a good reason for using device IDs when you want to be sure that the information received corresponds to a single customer. Because each device generates a unique identifier you should observe that device IDs are also a great tool for minimizing ad fraud. And it is crucial to remember that in case you are dealing with ad bots you risk losing time and money without even knowing what happens.
Personalize Your Ads
We arrived in the most important point of our discussion. We want to highlight that ads served inside apps have a huge advantage. They can’t be blocked with ad blocking tools as easy as the ones delivered inside browsers, which means advertising on mobile devices are more efficient with mobile device ID. Keep in mind that annoying users with intrusive ads could have disastrous effects. Of course, the point is to offer relevant content for your users no matter the weapons available for them to fight against ads. After all, this is the purpose of using device ID. Following users’ behavior provides a great amount of accurate data and helps you to delimitate different activities according to the information received. This is a valid reason for eliminating assumptions when you build your strategy. Reaching higher level of personalization means to offer a better user experience and to increase retention rate.
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FINAL THOUGHTS
If customers allow you to collect data this doesn’t mean that all problems are solved. It is your turn to make the best of it. That being said, the advantages presented above won’t be visible unless you pay attention to the techniques adopted for impressing your users after obtaining these unique identifiers. As a conclusion, we can say that mobile device ID represents an additional solution for improving the relationship between your brand and your customers.