Half (51%) of marketers think that location-based marketing is extremely important to their business, according to The LBMA’s Global Location Trends Report [download page] for 2020, which surveyed almost 900 companies, the vast majority (95%) of which use location-based services. The report details clear benefits of and uses for location-based marketing but finds a less clear-cut picture when it comes to investment in – and accuracy of – data.
Marketers at the 871 companies surveyed in 2020 largely agreed that ad targeting data from location-based services (LBS) is valuable and actionable, but they weren’t so sure about its accuracy. Some 8 in 10 global respondents agreed that the data is valuable, with a similar share seeing it as actionable (81%). However, a notably smaller percentage (57%) labeled LBS ad targeting data accurate.
In any case, nearly half (46%) of all respondents reported that they are engaging in local targeting via location services. This was seen as the most beneficial feature of location-based marketing by some margin, with increasing brand recall (21%) and driving sales at POS (17%) also showing up as benefits for some respondents.
Last year, respondents to a Foursquare and Advertiser Perceptions survey reported using location data to identify new consumer markets (73%) and measure and quantify ROI (65%), among other applications. Accuracy was also a concern for respondents to that survey, though privacy emerged up as their top concern.
Based on their reported investment in LBS infrastructure and internal resources, not all companies are necessarily seeking out the benefits of location-based services. About 3 in 10 (29%) claimed to be not investing at all in LBS, after a 10% increase in this figure year-over-year, which the report links to COVID-19 budget suspensions. A further one-third (33%) reported minimal investments in 2020. That said, the largest share made some investments, moderate (25%) or significant (13%).
Overall, respondents did seem to agree on the importance of location-based marketing. Half (51%) of global respondents thought it was extremely important, with around a quarter seeing it as somewhat important and fewer than 1 in 10 considering it not important.
Specifically, respondents thought that location-based advertising was a topic incredibly important to location-based marketing in 2020. This most-cited topic was followed by other areas like location analytics, social location services, internet of things, merging mobile and digital out-of-home and augmented/virtual reality.
Read the full report here.
About the Data: Findings are based on a survey of 871 companies, 95% of which are using location-based services.
