PlaceIQ released the results of an independent study it commissioned from Findyr, which concluded that location data obtained from smartphones is, on average, accurate up to 30 meters.

The various inputs that it takes to pinpoint an individual on a device can be complicated and are subject to the population and building density of your surroundings, weather, and whether the device can triangulate via WiFi, cell towers, or Bluetooth.

PlaceIQ’s new product takes this 30-meter margin of error into consideration when it reports attribution metrics. PlaceIQ CEO Duncan McCall says that the study’s findings will help marketers make sense of what accurate location data is, and why it’s important to understand the complexity of the dataset.

“Advertisers are sometimes told that things are accurate, but they might not know exactly what that means,” says McCall. “Location formerly was used to geofence stuff, and 30 meter accuracy is fine for that.

"But if you’re paying to reach a very specific audience of people who recently visited a certain type of retailer, or people who’ve been to a certain type of restaurant, or more importantly if you’re trying to understand the attribution to a location, or analytics of the types of places people visit to make business decisions, you need to understand the impact of location accuracy.”