Marketers value insights from location data, study says

Brief:

Most marketers say location data is very important for achieving their goals and appreciate its benefits. The benefits include improved engagement and receptiveness (48%), improved ROI (48%), relevant content for consumers (37%) and measurement (35%), per survey results that location data company Foursquare shared with Mobile Marketer.
Most marketers said location data delivered excellent performance in seeking deeper consumer insights. The top metrics cited by marketers were digital campaign attribution (62%), advanced metrics (55%), retail layout (53%) and key performance indicator (KPI) forecasting (50%).
Location data can provide insights on TV media spending, with 55% of marketers saying the information is valuable. Researcher Advertiser Perceptions conducted the survey of marketers for Foursquare.

Insight:

While many people have been stuck at home during the coronavirus pandemic, they are starting to move around more often as lockdowns are lifted. While the recent flareups of infections in some regions has led Apple to shut down some of its U.S. stores again, the reopening trend is mostly intact. Location data will become more meaningful as consumers visit those reopened stores, restaurants and other businesses, according to Foursquare.

Its survey of marketers found that about half (51%) expected the importance of location data to increase, while most of the remaining half (47%) said it will remain as important as it is now. In the early days of the pandemic, marketers had expected the number of location-based campaigns to increase this year by a double-digit percentage from 2019. About half (51%) of survey respondents had expected their digital ad spend to increase, a finding that applied to budgets of varying sizes, Foursquare found.

While location data provides important insights into people's behavior, including their response to advertising, tech companies are giving consumers more control over their data. Google this week announced changes to its privacy settings that include location data for apps like Google Maps. Consumers who create a new Google account will have their privacy settings automatically set to delete data, including location information that's off by default, after 18 months. Google previously required users to turn on the privacy settings.

Similarly, Apple this week previewed its upcoming mobile operating system, iOS 14, which will let iPhone users share only approximate location information rather than an exact location with apps, among other privacy controls. Location data companies that collect opt-in information from mobile users are unlikely to be affected by the changes.