Theory of Evolution - Mobile is Broken...

When the Internet gained popularity in the mid 90’s, businesses rushed to stake their claim in the Internet marketplace. Over time, the level of sophistication for targeting and tracking developed to make it possible to anticipate what we want before we consciously knew it.

Mobile’s dominance has created many problems that need to be solved. Mobile targeting and tracking is a large problem still waiting to be solved. The current solutions attempting to make mobile targeting and tracking more effective have only addressed symptomatic issues resulting from an improperly structured ecosystem.

the difficulty of targeting is one reason  mobile revenue is growing more slowly than mobile traffic

The current problem is the result of a set of evolutionary changes. This first began when we attempted to push commerce from the physical world into the digital world.

This latest tectonic shift occurred with the advent of the smartphone and resulted in a “new world order” when three primary factors converged to become our present reality. The continuously connected consumer; the adoption and growth of smartphones; and the app stores that changed the distribution of mobile software direct to the consumer.

Once developers were able to deliver their software directly to the consumer the mobile app economy exploded. The subsequent download of billions of apps, is an indicator of the success to be achieved when the consumer is allowed to personalize their experience. The success of this distribution model is further punctuated by the consumer’s allocation of time in mobile apps, instead of the mobile browser.

the "world of mobile” is made up of devices having a finite number of apps that change on a daily basis

In response to the shifting landscape and newly developing marketplace, the sophisticated targeting and tracking systems that had been built on the desktop were brought to mobile. When it was discovered that mobile devices lacked “cookies” for targeting and tracking, companies were formed that developed expertise in various “solutions” designed to bring more clarity to the mobile device. This group of companies developed out of necessity to address the shortcomings found while adapting the web based system to mobile. These companies launched a subset of specialty niches as the primary solution providers for mobile within the Ad Tech sector. This Cheat Sheet from Appsflyer provides a quick and easy summary of the types of companies, as they exist today. While none of these sector companies offer a complete solution, there are clear leaders in each sector.

This Wall Street Journal article states “the boom in desktop Web advertising over the past two decades was helped along by advanced tracking and targeting mechanisms that don’t work anywhere near as well on smartphones and tablets. That means it is often hard for publishers to convince marketers that mobile advertising actually benefits their businesses…Time Inc. said the difficulty of targeting is one reason its mobile revenue is growing more slowly than its mobile traffic.”

The article continues to state that Facebook has more data on its users. “Facebook…also knows which desktop or mobile devices people use. The Facebook login is essentially a replacement for ‘cookies.’” Targeting on mobile is difficult on mobile for publishers other than Facebook. Despite this, some companies are skeptical of handing over their data and future to Facebook.

While Facebook may have part of a solution, targeting and tracking on mobile is largely unsolved and will remain so until the industry collectively decides it needs another option to improve the results for anyone who participates.

To further illustrate this evolving problem take a look at this picture of AltaVista from 1996.

AltaVista was essentially a catalogue of infinite possibility, in that it made it possible for the Internet user to access a seemingly endless number of websites.

By contrast, mobile is different. The “world of mobile” is made up of mobile devices from around the globe, each device having a finite number of apps. In addition, the apps change on a daily basis.

To extract greater value from their businesses, companies should adopt a fully integrated system that merges all their data onto a centralized platform and allows access to 100% of the data, all the time, enabling real time views of behavior and event data, the most important and difficult data set of all.  Once the unified platform is achieved the benefit will lead to the next evolutionary change.

Mobile affords the opportunity to connect with people around the globe unlike any technology in our history. It also offers companies an opportunity to reach the consumer where they spend the majority of their time.

It is readily acknowledged that targeting and tracking on mobile is not as effective as it could be. In the last several months, greater emphasis on the need for higher quality data has become a top priority. The industry acknowledges challenges exist as companies have dedicated themselves to address each of the respective problems.  Unfortunately none of them fully address the root cause of the problem. They have only treated the symptoms caused by adapting a system not designed for mobile.