What's Still Holding Marketers Back from the 360-Degree Customer View

The problems and possibilities in mobile data

Seeing a customer’s journey across all channels, online and off, and delivering the perfect, targeted message at just the right time is the stuff of marketer’s dreams.

The smartphone opened the door to making this dream a reality, offering marketers an unprecedented glimpse at the illusive 360-degree customer view. But the technology and standards needed to make that dream a reality aren't quite there yet for most marketers. Between inaccurate location data, mobile ad fraud and a Pandora's box of formats for collecting and measuring both location and mobile data, marketers are struggling to take full advantage of the opportunities mobile phones offer.

The good news is that, despite the present challenges, it's possible to use mobile data to get an all-encompassing view of the customer journey, and target and measure campaigns accordingly in order to get a jump on the competition—but it's a complex undertaking. Here are the possibilities, problems and next steps to consider before going any further.

For in-depth discussions of the topics in this article, see the eMarketer reports Mobile Measurement and Targeting, Location Intelligence 2018 and O2O Marketing and Measurement.

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