Concerns Over Cross Device Marketing

With the advances in technology have come advances in the way companies market their products and services. One innovation that is current getting a lot of attention is cross-device marketing. This type of marketing has come under fire due to security concerns, but it has also opened many doors and can be quite useful.

How It’s Used

Cross-device marketing involves monitoring and tracking a consumer’s activities on all the devices he or she uses to access the internet. For companies, this allows them to learn more about your activities. For example, if you see an advertisement while on your smartphone and switch to your computer to buy the item, the company will be able to see that their ad was effective. Without this type of marketing, the company would not have a way to completely track the effectiveness of the ad. Cross-device marketing enables companies to compile a marketing profile for you across all your devices.

Tracking is often done by signing into an account. This allows companies to track your activity and merge your activity on all your devices. So, if you were to put something in a shopping cart while on a site on your computer and you opened that same site on your phone, then your item would be in your shopping cart on both devices. In this way, it is actually beneficial to you, too.

UAB online notes a few things to keep in mind when engaging in cross-device marketing to make the best use of it. This includes creating good landing pages, using keywords smartly and understanding reach and frequency.

Concerns

As with any type of activity tracking, privacy is a concern with cross-device marketing. Knowing a company is always watching can be a little scary. Mainly the concern lies with tracking not related to signing in, called probabilistic tracking, where data collection helps to track consumers. Not making consumers aware they are being tracked is something the FTC has begun looking into. The main consensus is that privacy has to be kept in mind and users need to be aware when companies are using this type of marketing.

The Good News

Because cross-device marketing and tracking can be beneficial to consumer and companies, it is not likely to be abandoned despite concerns. The good news is that this open doors to new jobs in the IT field for those working in cyber security. MVU online notes some things to consider when entering this field. This area of technology is one that you’ll want to explore if you are currently getting an IT degree or you are thinking about it. Cybersecurity is likely to continue to grow, and the need for trained professionals will grow with it.

Cross-device marketing is not really all that new, but it is garnering more attention as privacy concerns are foremost in the mind of internet users. In addition, the increase in multi-device browsing is increasing the use of this type of marketing. New techniques, like probabilistic tracking, are prompting government involvement to ensure consumers are kept safe. Likely, the move will be toward a more transparent use of tracking, so consumers are aware of when their online activities are being monitored.