Location marketing platform xAd has launched “Marketplace,” a self-service location-campaign builder for mobile marketers. The company aims to make buying location-targeted campaigns like buying search keywords.
The company argues self-service aspect will create greater efficiency and faster time to market. “No more wasting time on proposals or cumbersome IO processes.” the company said in its release. CEO Dipanshu Sharma said the following in an email announcing the launch:
The platform will enable marketers to leverage the power of real-time consumer intent just like they can do today for search… but for the physical world. Users will be able to buy places like keywords, leveraging past trends and real-time behavioral data to make incredibly informed marketing decisions. It’s the first offering of its kind, and we think it’s going to change how brands think about mobile advertising.
The tool allows marketers to do things like set goals such as visits, loyalty, purchases, awareness. It also allows them to “create, execute and measure campaigns based on [behavioral] trends in near real time.”
Early on xAd offered white label mobile search to third parties (including Waze) and paid-search placement in results. That was before it became a mobile display platform. It was also one of the early players in mobile to build audiences using real world behaviors and location data rather than just using location for real-time geofencing.
Today’s announcement plays off the idea that locations in the real world are like keywords in terms of consumer-buying intent. For example, if “CRV” as a search keyword is indicative of car-buying intent, presence on a dealer lot is equally if not more instructive to marketers. Location is the new keyword.
In a very crowded location analytics and location-based ad market xAd’s Marketplace can help the company stand out. To my knowledge it’s unique in the industry.