LOS ANGELES/SINGAPORE – December 4, 2013 – Location data platform Factual Inc. and Smaato, global mobile Real-Time Bidding ad exchange (SMX) and Supply Side Platform, have announced a strategic partnership. Smaato will leverage Factual’s Geopulse Audience solution in order to enhance mobile ad inventory in its RTB exchange, enabling advertisers to better reach their desired audience, according to a press release.
Advertisers can now target mobile campaigns against defined audience segments similar to those used in offline and traditional online advertising. Over 40 segments will be made available at launch with more being added over time, they said. Example demographic data offered includes household income, gender, and age, as well as geographic information like zip code, and behavioral information such as business traveler, in-market auto buyer, and quick service restaurant diner.
To develop the audience segments, Geopulse Audience applies Factual’s extensive location data along with its deep data engineering and machine learning expertise to the vast amount of location data running through Smaato’s RTB exchange (SMX). Factual’s location data includes its Global Places data, covering over 65 million local businesses and points of interest across 50 countries and additional contextual data about geographic areas.
By combining Smaato’s data with Factual’s data, Geopulse Audience can better understand mobile user behavior and use this understanding to develop audience segments.
“Mobile ad targeting has traditionally been a challenge, but by collaborating with Factual, we are giving advertisers an easier, more intuitive way to reach their target audience,” said Ragnar Kruse, Smaato CEO. “Factual’s Geopulse Audience solution, with its huge depository of data and deep understanding of user demographics, makes them ideal partner to help advertisers improve engagement and boost campaign results.”
“Location is inextricably intertwined with mobile, and a proper understanding of location can be incredibly powerful if used to deliver personalized content to mobile users,” said Gil Elbaz, founder and CEO of Factual. “Smaato has established itself as a mobile leader with a strong history of innovation, and we’re excited to help them use location to create more value for their publishers, DSPs, and advertisers.”
Publishers running ad inventory through Smaato will benefit both from the increase in the value of their ad inventory driven by the audience segments as well as from the increase in relevance of the ads seen by their users. Demand Side Platforms (DSPs) and Ad Networks connected to Smaato will benefit by being able to offer their advertisers enhanced targeting capabilities. Advertisers will benefit by increasing the effectiveness of their ad spend by being able to better reach their desired audience.
