October 29, 2018

New Survey Shows More Than 50% Of Digital Marketers Concerned With Data Exhaust

Majority of respondents say using an extra 25 per cent of the data their companies throw away would result in increased revenues.

As data has become increasingly important in today’s business world, marketers have become very aware of the value it presents in terms of generating additional revenues for their companies. However, the majority of marketers are concerned about the valuable data their companies may be discarding, according to a recent ‘Digital Data Exhaust Survey’ conducted by Digital Element, the global geolocation data and services provider.

The survey, conducted in partnership with the Location Based Marketing Association, showed that digital marketers recognised data exhaust as a growing issue for their companies. Data exhaust is a term used to describe the data that companies toss out because they feel it provides little or no value to their core business.

The majority of respondents ― regardless of company type ― were either very (39 per cent) or somewhat (29 per cent) concerned with data exhaust. Almost one third of digital marketers did not know the percentage of data their companies actually threw away. Another 18 per cent indicated they were throwing away at least 25-50 per cent of their data.

“This survey was designed to explore whether or not companies were throwing away valuable information that could ultimately help them generate additional revenues. Our company’s technology and services are built around non-invasively extracting and synthesising data points for advertising, personalisation and analytics as well as other business applications. There is a wealth of intelligence contained in an IP address that many companies overlook ― and which, if used, would allow companies to confidently produce the necessary one-to-one digital marketing experience that more closely resembles the real world.” Rob Friedman, co-founder and executive vice president, Digital Element

While almost 40 per cent of respondents said they were fully leveraging the types of IP data that were available or that they needed, 61 per cent of digital marketers left plenty of room for improvement because they were not utilising all the different data points available to them or were not aware of the different types of data associated with an IP address.

Among the survey’s other findings:

  • With an opportunity to use an extra 25 per cent of the data they currently discard, 60 per cent of respondents said it would definitely result in increased revenues
  • 71 per cent of digital marketers ranked location data as very important:
    • 55 per cent were currently using location-based IP data
    • 32 per cent planned to add it in the next 12-18 months
  • 78 per cent of respondents ranked accuracy as their top concern when specifically related to IP data

“As we approach a projected 20-billion-plus ‘connected things’ by 2020, data ― in particular location data ― will become more and more vital to business’ success, and the methods and strategies for visualising and analysing that data will become equally complex. Companies that can mine and analyse the data, effectively closing the gaps, will become the leaders in location intelligence and be the biggest beneficiaries in today’s digital marketplace.” Asif R. Khan, founder and president, Location Based Marketing Association

The Digital Data Exhaust Survey represents responses from 100 digital marketing professionals from around the world. The survey was primarily administered to the LBMA’s global membership, online and through phone calls during July and August 2018. Responses were also elicited from digital marketing executives outside the LBMA membership, augmented through email and social media outreach.

An executive summary and a full downloadable version of the survey results are available here.