New figures from Digiday and location data service Factual revealed that 87% of US publishers surveyed had increased the amount of inventory made available to mobile channels this year. The vast majority also indicted that customer engagement levels were highest on mobile apps, outdoing both desktop environments and the mobile web.
But how can publishers improve their ability to effectively target mobile users? One obvious answer lies in generating more detailed data profiles.
Almost all publishers are already collecting first-party data on users, according to the study. But nearly eight in 10 of those polled feel that their ability to scale insights gleaned from first-party data is constrained by the very nature of its limited scope.
For example, such data doesn't provide any information about a user's past purchase behavior, or location over time.
However, the majority of publishers are working to expand their users' data profiles by augmenting their own information with third-party data. In fact, 85% of publishers said they used at least one third-party data provider.