What is signal loss in advertising
Everyone, by now, is aware of the data challenges facing ad agencies. Given the growth of privacy laws worldwide, the decline of traditional advertising signals, and ongoing legal difficulties for the likes of Google and Meta, agencies that have built their business models around programmatic and addressable audiences are concerned about their future. However, as the adtech ecosystem evolves, there’s every reason to think that agencies can emerge from these pressures and find themselves in a much stronger place, with more accurate, better-performing, and cost-effective campaigns.
The reason for this optimism is simple: the scale of the challenges facing the digital marketing sector is acting as a catalyst for innovation. New data sources and integration infrastructure are emerging which promise a more privacy-centric approach to programmatic advertising at scale, but one that is also higher performing. In this mix, one data source stands out from the others in terms of its promise to agencies: telco network intelligence.
Advertising use cases for telco data
Derived from mobile network operators, telco data encompasses a wealth of information about users’ locations, device types, and browsing habits, among other attributes. The granularity of telco data allows for more precise segmentation, leading to highly targeted advertising campaigns. As telco data reflects real-time consumer behaviour across diverse contexts and locations, it provides advertisers with the unique advantage of tailoring their messages to the right audience at the opportune moment, thereby increasing the relevance and effectiveness of their ads.
In addition to providing raw data, telcos are increasingly offering verification services to brands and agencies that enable everything from identity resolution and audience addressability to audience activation. Telco verification services leverage network intelligence to verify users by using verified pseudonymised users, with no personal data being exchanged. The approach can also be used to associate requested audiences to IDs generated by publishers and send specific responses to each buy-side platform for audience activation.
No more false dawns
Of course, the value of telco data has long been understood. Historically, however, the reality has often fallen short of the promise. Weve is a case in point. This joint venture by several UK telcos was intended to give the industry a role in mobile ad delivery, but it failed to expand beyond its initial SMS/MMS offering and declined as a result. Another example is Telenor’s acquisition of cross-device adtech company Tapad in 2016. Less than five years later, Telenor sold Tapad stating that the company was no longer part of its core business.
Today, however, things are different. From the demand side, agencies around the world are already experimenting with telco verification, both to improve campaign optimisation through the integration of high-quality, accurate, and granular audiences, and as a means for agencies’ holding companies to improve their data-service propositions. Historically, these data / insights services involved the transfer of personal data, which is obviously now problematic. Telco-verified data provide a way for agencies to maintain and improve their won data propositions while remaining privacy compliant.
Telco-verification in action
On the supply side, leading telcos around the world are already making their data available to agencies for everything from audience addressability and campaign optimisation to measurement. In Japan, for instance, KDDI is partnering with Supership on a next-generation digital advertising platform, the first privacy-safe, end-to-end solution in the Asian advertising market. The platform will enable Supership’s publishers and advertising partners to serve relevant messages to web visitors, even when they are browsing anonymously.
KDDI is far from alone. This October, MTN, Africa’s largest mobile operator, integrated user recognition and audience addressability into MTN Ads. Currently live in South Africa and Nigeria, MTN Ads leverages MTN’s data to provide brands and agencies opportunities to connect with their target audiences through precise, data-backed campaigns that enhance customer experience and drive business growth.
Elsewhere, brands and agencies are already experiencing significant, quantifiable benefits from telco-verified data. In the Middle East, for example, e& UAE has verified its own audience data for use in campaigns. The telco was thereby able to invest in programmatic display environments that vastly improved its targeting capabilities. As a result, it experienced a 68% cost reduction compared to previous benchmarks, 12% improvement in engagement rates, and a 6% reduction in bounce rates.
Leveraging telco data in the UK
Although the UK currently lags some global markets in telco data adoption, the tables are turning. For example, recently acquired by T-Mobile advertising platform provider Blis uses telco data to support more precise targeting and to better measure and optimise campaigns. The platform maps website and app usage behaviour against geolocation and other data types, producing a single and accurate metric for omnichannel measurement against key KPIs such as brand awareness and sentiment, online conversions, app engagement and utilisation.
Despite several false dawns in the past where the potential of telco data for digital advertising did not fully materialise, the landscape has dramatically transformed. Today, telcos are not just ready; they are actively integrating advanced technologies to harness this valuable data more effectively than ever before.
For UK advertisers, this evolution represents a brave new world—an untapped opportunity rich with accurate and actionable insights. With urgency, agencies and brands alike should explore the opportunities on offer with telco-verified data. With telcos prepared and the clear, present need for rich data, there has never been a better time to leverage this resource to drive precision and efficiency in digital advertising strategies.
