• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, August 31, 2020

InMarket executives say the company has become the first to integrate Location Sciences verification services into its platform. The idea is to enable buyers to purchase audited location data audience sets before they make the purchase, rather than after the campaign.

“Before a media buyer can ever press buy on an audience InMarket sells, all the attached location data will be audited,” said Jason Smith, chief business officer at Location Sciences.

Michael Della Penna, chief strategy officer at InMarket, which offers location data, said the goal is to set a new standard for transparency and trust in programmatic data, from fees to viewability and inventory.

“It hasn’t been done before because a lot of providers are leveraging different data sets with a varying levels of accuracy and precision,” he said. “To put those data sets under a microscope could potentially expose a mix of quality within the composition of that data set.”

The companies want to give media buyers the choice to choose accuracy rather than scale, or precision combined with performance rather than less precision.

Dynamics in the market, such as economic pressures around the COVID-19 pandemic, prompted this change. Brands must understand the precision around the data. They want to see the numbers.

Della Penna said InMarket committed to auditing 500 location-based segments that Location Sciences will review. Each quarter, the segments will be audited again.

Brands want to see the radius and accuracy of the data. They want to know that the data helps to provide the consumer with value at their moment of need in real-time. They also want to see results.

Della Penna said InMarket sees brands with 18% click-through rates because the ad hits consumers as they walk into the store.

STIHL ran a campaign of consumers walking into mom-and-pop and large home improvement stores during the first half of 2020 that produced 18.17% click-through rate, which is 30 times Google’s benchmark for mobile advertising. Contadina saw a 10.42% click-through rate, 17 times Google’s benchmark. Fresh Market saw a 9.7% -- about 16 times Google’s benchmark, according to Della Penna.

“This partnership is about making quality matter to buyers,” he said.