Though it’s been covered since its release yesterday, we wanted to give a nod to xAd‘s latest Mobile-Location Insights Report for Q1, and dive into some of it’s top findings.

The report follows closely behind the Nielsen administered Path to Purchase report which xAd had a key part in, along with Telmetrics. As that study focused on user behavior, this latest report adds another dimension with location targeted ad metrics.

One of the biggest takeaways was the growth in geo-precise ad targeting seen on xAd’s network. Increasing from 27% to 58% annually, it’s supportive of a trend we’ve been chronicling for the past 5 years: advertiser evolution to the location targeting capabilities of mobile devices.

xAd takes this a step further by delineating between different types of location targeting — a key factor as we’ve said. Geo-precision ads include geo-fencing and targeting based on geo-behavior. Standard Geo is conversely more about traditional targeting such as zip or DMA.

It should be mentioned that the growth in location targeting — especially geo precision — is directionally relevant to the market’s evolution. However, the absolute adoption shares are probably higher than the broader market because of the location-centric nature of xAd’s offering.

In addition to the emphasis on location targeted ad placement, xAd continues to push the ball forward with respect to the other aspects of  location targeting. This includes having location-centric ad copy and calls to action that are proving to boost performance.

Proof Points

Joining its past figures for things like post click activity (calls, directions) xAd adds a bit more color in this quarter’s report with a case study.  It tracks the success of a Pinkberry campaign that showcases campaign best practices, from creation to targeting to analytics.

When I say creation I mean inception of campaign goals. It can only be successful if the right targets are set. And most advertisers measure the wrong things — the reason for the unclear ROI holding back many brand advertisers who shoot for desktop KPIs (good counter-example here).

On that measure, the Pinkberry campaign set goals that were well aligned with mobile user intent, and targeting capabilities. It was simply to drive foot traffic into Pinkberry stores and generate awareness of current promotional offers to try the new Pinkberrygreek yogurt.

For starters the campaign set a geofence within 1 mile around Pinkberry locations. This interestingly was a scientifically devised radius for distance the average consumer will travel for this particular product. That brings xAd’s SmartFencing utility into play.

xAd’s SmartCreative then placed one of two promotional offers based on how far away users were. These included a $1 off promotion and a buy-one, get-one. Both ads led to a landing page with closest location, details and ability to save the promotion for in-store redemption.

The result of all of this was a 2x increase in the benchmark used by Pinkberry for measuring performance. And this was achieved in the first two weeks of the campaign. It’s important to note the holistic strategy that drove the results — from inception to measurement.

There’s a lot more included in the report such as top advertising categories and cities where mobile local ad targeting is happening.  This will of course continue to be a big topic we’ll cover here and in our longer reports. Meanwhile download the xAd report for free here.