The growth of mobile traffic is exciting news for all businesses, but with device fragmentation and an increasing variety of mobile user contexts, it may be difficult to reach out to the right mobile audience at the right time. To tackle this issue ad platforms utilize device detection, boosting their performance and capabilities in terms of ads sent to mobile audiences.

More targeting options allow you to sell more ads

It goes without saying that fine-grained ad targeting options boost the quality of online advertising. With a device intelligence platform you can determine the context of the user. Businesses are then able to serve precisely targeted mobile ads detecting crucial device properties, such as the make and model of the mobile device, the OS, the age of the device, etc. You can combine these properties to come up with targeting tailored for your clients’ needs.

Here are 5 simple examples of better targeted ads using the power of device intelligence.

1. Ads suitable for the device’s make and model

Accurate device detection can enable your ad platform to zero-in on owners of selected smartphones or tablets. If the target audience are affluent city dwellers, targeting the iPhone 7 may be the right choice, while targeting OnePlus 5 owners would be more suitable if the audience are tech-savvy early adopters.

Instead of guessing the users’ device preferences in a particular market, you may also delve into our mobile traffic data to verify which makes and models are the most popular in a given country, or among a given group of users. You can do this by utilizing the DeviceAtlas Data Explorer.

2. Location targeting

Location-based targeting opens up opportunities for displaying ads related to the user’s current geographical position. This is especially important for bricks-and-mortar businesses, which might, for example, send mobile coupons to people only in the local area.

The most precise location targeting involves the device’s GPS receiver. Alternatively you can also utilize cell tower and WiFi hotspot triangulation.

You can read more on geolocation in an article on mobiForge.com.

3. Targeting using mobile sensors

Mobile devices are used both on-the-go and at home. A device’s accelerometer and compass can tell you if the user is on the move or not. Marketers can utilize this knowledge to choose the most suitable set of ads.

Device detection solution will allow you to determine the presence of mobile sensors, and assuming the user’s consent, to determine the users’ whereabouts to better understand the users’ context and circumstances.

4. The current available bandwidth and WiFi on/off

While mobile data prices continue to drop, the cost and availability of mobile bandwidth is still an issue for many mobile subscribers, who may depend on their connectivity conditions as much as their data plan. An ad platform with device detection allows you to send hefty graphic ads, videos and other downloads only to devices either on WiFi, or using a strong mobile bandwidth such as LTE.

5. HTML5 and Flash support

With DeviceAtlas you can target up to 22 different HTML5 properties, as well as browser capabilities such as flash support. This allows you to come up with power-hungry banner and video ads, but with the ability to display them only on suitable devices. As a result you don’t aggravate your users with battery intensive, data-consuming ads where not suitable to their conditions.

You can find out more about ad targeting in a multi-screen world in our free whitepaper.