• by Eric Hastings , January 15, 2014

The strength of a DMP (data management platform) is in its core -- the technology that processes and organizes vast amounts of data on behalf of clients, and presents it in an easily manageable fashion. This allows online publishers and marketers to focus on what is important for them: understanding their users, gaining insights into their behaviors, and ultimately profiting from these insights.  

Mobile is just another source of this data, and a good DMP provider already possesses technologies to enable mobile data collection for your business. 

From a data perspective, we are still in the very early stages of mobile audience targeting. Many publishers and marketers have essentially been riding on the outskirts of the mobile revolution. Yes -- your customers may be coming to you from mobile devices in ever-growing numbers, but this is just a result of a consumption pattern change enabled by the progress of mobile technology. Mobile devices have evolved to play by the same rules as the desktop computers before them -- TCP\IP, HTTP, HTML and Javascript. Aside from some formatting to account for the change in screen real estate, your customers could still reach you, and your technologies would continue to work.

Life is more complicated for marketers and publishers that dove into the mobile app world. While native apps vs. mobile Web initially appeared to be a VHS vs. Betamax showdown, the choice has seemingly dissolved to more of a Facebook vs. LinkedIn co-existence. There are great uses for each of these engagement mechanisms, and for the foreseeable future you can win in both. For certain businesses, having an app is a necessity, but very few do not also provide a unique mobile experience when accessed via mobile Web. Other businesses -- think social games -- have been built entirely in the app domain, and opportunity exists to help them as well. 

Given all the options you have to engage your mobile users, how do you ensure you can manage all the data generated by users across all platforms? A powerful DMP provider should bring what you need to better manage your mobile universe. To determine whether a DMP can do this for you, be sure to ask the following questions:

1.  Will your technology allow me to collect data from my mobile Web site, even when users access it through browsers that suppress third-party cookies?

2.  Can your technology organize my mobile and desktop data in a meaningful, useable way?

3.  Do your analytics reach across these different platform universes, to allow me to gain audience insights for my entire user base? 

Activating mobile data can literally open a treasure trove of insight about your business, your customers and their behaviors. As you continue to keep up with ever evolving mobile advancements, the right DMP can quickly unlock more opportunities to beat your competitors to the punch.