Real Stories from Nebraska
Last installment we outlined the targeting options for programmatic advertising and the ability to deliver specific ads to targeted users across any device in any location at any time. Among the wide range of targeting possibilities was one that was NOT cookie-based.
It’s also the only targeting method that has one provider (one we at New Plains MediaMedia know personally) and a couple of very specific and recent Nebraksa examples to share, including a campaign for a small business based in Ralston that happened just a couple of months ago.
Household IP targeting uses IP addresses, assigned to a specific geographic address, to deliver online display ads. That makes it a strong compliment any direct mail campaign. While cookies can be altered, deleted or blocked, an IP address is critical to routing internet traffic and is involved in every browser session.
Long story short, technology and relationships developed to reduce credit card fraud have been redeployed to match IP addresses with physical addresses, effectively allowing businesses to target households and buildings.
IP targeting starts with a list of addresses. Because wi-fi IP addresses can change and not every consumer can be tracked online, there is typically only a 50-70% match rate for any given list of addresses. To maintain a level of anonymity and protect privacy, a minimum number of addresses must be targeted. Both of these things also allow a healthy level of validation, by letting businesses test response rates between matched and unmatched targets.
You can also purchase a list of addresses – Omaha’s Infogroup is one of the top providers nationally for residential targeting lists – based on demographic details you want to use to target potential customers.
Only one company in the entire world – El Toro in Louisville, Kentucky — offers this type of programmatic targeting. While there are many resellers, all of them place their household IP campaigns with this one source. We’ve been a partner with this company since 2015 and briefly hosted the CEO about three weeks ago, while he was in Omaha meeting with some of the largest marketing departments in our community and looking up old friends in Omaha’s start-up community. We were able to make some good introductions and deploy some last-minute political advertising that early returns suggest delivered superior results.
Nebraska is actually a case study for El Toro’s household IP targeting and political advertising. To borrow from their own literature . . . in the 2016 election cycle, the Nebraska Civic Engagment Table used household IP targeting to get out the vote.
Of the 55,523 Nebraskans targeted, 35,141 addresses were positively matched to an IP address. Those 35k Nebraska voters received digital ads reminding them to vote starting the weekend before the election and continuing through Election Day [delivering at least 15 impressions per household].
By comparing the voting behavior of those Nebraskans who received ads to that of those who didn’t, it can be stated with confidence that this vote reminder campaign increased voter participation in the 2016 election. The vote reminders increased voting participation among those targeted by 3.14%, which calculates out to an additional 500 plus votes cast as a result of this program. In financial terms, this campaign equated to only $22 per vote. Direct mail can cost more than $80 per vote.
IP Targeting and Direct Mail
Local business Platinum Pools added household IP targeting to its annual Spring direct mail campaign to experience impressive results. This business, which cleans, services and repairs pools, targeted household IP addresses with online display ads timed to coincide with start of the pool season right before and right after a direct mail piece landed in homes that had pools.
This campaign ran about the time poolowners start thinking about readying their pools for summer. Just as the homeowner was thinking these services are needed, the solution – Platinum Pools – appeared in their mailbox and on their computer.
Good timing in the right place – that is what IP targeted marketing can do for a business. It’s cost effective and incredibly efficient. Let us help you start an IP targeted marketing campaign for your business so you can reach the people most likely to become your customers.
