The Little Black

Book of
Location Data

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Jounce Media’s Little Black Book series is your
quick reference for all things ad tech. Each book
contains fundamental concepts that underpin the
advertising technology ecosystem. Master the
content in these books, and you’ll be armed to
tackle any digital marketing problem.

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© 2020 Jounce Media, LLC All Rights Reserved

 Must-Know Concepts Must-Know Terminology
This book aims to be your location data reference guide. It Throughout the book, we use the following industry-specific
contains descriptions of the fundamental concepts that underpin terms to describe the location data space:
location data and its applications within the ad tech ecosystem.

Location Data Collection POI Point of interest data is used to contextualize

q Internet Protocol addresses, lat/long pairs, and other location
signals.
q GPS/WIFI Triangulation
q Location signals via app SDK
IP address IP stands for Internet Protocol and consists of an
q Location signals via the bid stream alphanumeric string used to identify origin of an
q Inferred location data internet request.

Auditing Data Sets Geofence A geographic area whose bounds represent a

meaningful area for targeting or measurement. A
q Location observation frequency geofence may be drawn as a circle or any other
q Data outliers geographic shape.

Contextualizing and Enriching Data

SDK Software development kit; a collection of
q Stable point of interest reusable code that developers can integrate into
their apps. Location vendors and other ad tech
q Dynamic point of interest companies distribute SDKs to facilitate location
data collection in mobile apps.
Location Data Applications
q Geofencing
Bid A continuous series of advertising auction
q Location retargeting
stream notifications sent by sell-side technology
q Footfall measurement platforms to digital marketers’ bidding systems.
q Location optimization
Internet Protocol (IP)
Internet Protocol or IP is a foundational element of the internet.
It contains information that uniquely identifies the origin and
destination of internet traffic. In this way, an IP address is
similar to a postal address.
IPv4
111.11.111.11
IPv4 was the first IP format to be used to connect
devices across the web. IPv4 with 32-bits only
creates 4.28 billion unique addresses and is quickly
nearing capacity.
IPv4 has been the most common format for distributing an IP
address to date. IPv6 is a new format that uses more bits (or
characters) to increase the total number of unique IP
addresses. Because each IP address is unique and often
static, companies have been able to map global IPs back to
specific countries, regions, and even approximate physical
addresses.
IPv6
1111:1aa1:11a1:1111:
1111:1a1a:1111:1111
IPv6 uses a 128 bit format that yields 340
undecillion (3.4x10^38) unique addresses, making
it a more scalable solution as internet-connected
devices proliferate.
Location Signals
A device’s location can be triangulated based on the signal
strength of three or more WIFI routers. Companies such as
Google and Cisco have manually mapped WIFI signal strengths
across the globe to power this capability.
WIFI triangulation
GPS pinpoints a device’s location by measuring the time it
takes for a signal to be sent to four or more satellites and
back. Because the speed of light is constant and the location
of each satellite is known, a device’s location acts as the
unknown which can be solved for using a complex equation.
GPS
iOS and Android operating systems leverage both WIFI
triangulation and GPS to continuously update an estimate of
each device’s location. This location estimate is made
available to mobile apps and associated SDKs through an
operation system location services API.
Location Data Collection via App SDK
App developers may incorporate unique features or tracking
capabilities to their apps by embedding a piece of tracking code
known as an SDK or software development kit.
Many location vendors offer attribution and analytics
services to app developers in exchange for access to the
app’s location data. Each time the app collects a user’s
location, the information may also be passed to approved
SDK partners.

Native App
SDK loads upon app open

SDK Device ID and meta data about

app activity sent to server
IDFA 456 2
App Open
App Login

Third party
data brokers
and ad buying
systems
Both iOS and Android require users to explicitly
approve location tracking for apps to access the
location services API.
Location Data Collection via The Bidstream
Some location vendors collect location signals by listening to the
bid stream. As programmatic ads become available, a bid
request, which is often enriched with location data, is sent to
potential buyers.
Buying platforms are not required to respond to each bid
request received and the act of listening to each request
allows platforms to collect valuable location data over
time.

Native App

SDK Bidder stores location

IDFA 456 events and device ID
collected from bid
1 App Open request in server
App Login
Ad serving SDK loads
upon app open
4
2
Bidder
Ad server calls ad
exchange to conduct
auction

Ad Exchange

Ad exchange sends bid request

This approach to data collection has been on the containing placement and device
decline due to recent privacy regulations such as details to bidders
GDPR and CCPA. Collecting and managing privacy
preferences from bid stream data is more difficult
than collecting and managing via app.
Inferred Location Data
Because location data is sparse, some companies use advanced
analytical techniques to infer location data. There are two
common inference techniques:

Inference By Shared IP Address Inference By Velocity

When a device with a known location shares the same WIFI
connection as others devices with unknown locations, the
location of the unknown devices is inferred as all devices are
likely located within a small geofence.
When a device with persistent location tracking is observed two
or more times, its velocity can imply location data points that
were not explicitly observed.
Known input

Known User User 123

IP: 111.11.1111 Time: 9:05:24
Time: 9:05:22 Lat: 23.528
Lat: 23.523 Known input
Long: 99.2345
Long: 99.2345
User 123
Time: 9:05:22
Lat: 23.523
Unknown Users s
Long: 99.2345 on
cat i
IP: 111.11.1111 lo
d
te
o la
Manufactured Lat: 23.523
e rp
Manufactured Long: 99.2345 Int
Location Observation Frequency
In a location data set, reach refers to the total number of Because single data sets rarely achieve both high reach and
observed devices, frequency refers to the number of location high frequency, marketers often rely on different data sets
data points collected for each device. for different use cases.

Low Frequency / High Reach High Frequency / Low Reach

Data collected from the bidstream typically achieves high reach Data collected from app SDKs typically achieve high frequency
but low frequency. This data is most useful for audience but low reach. These data sets are useful for audience analytics
targeting. and attribution.

User 456
User 123
timestamp lat long

2019-05-01 10:31:12 13.5 132.9 timestamp lat long

2019-05-02 07:23:03 23.1 88.1 2019-05-02 09:01:33 10.4 93.1
2019-05-02 09:01:53 11.4 92.0
2019-05-02 09:01:53 10.8 91.3
User 789
2019-05-02 09:01:53 11.1 92.1
timestamp lat long
2019-05-02 09:02:04 11.2 94.0
2019-05-13 12:03:41 20.1 112.4 2019-05-02 09:02:43 10.18 90.3
2019-05-02 09:02:54 10.2 91.2
2019-05-02 09:03:12 11.2 94.1
User 111
timestamp lat long

2019-05-13 12:03:41 20.1 112.4

Data Outliers
All data sets, location or otherwise, contain anomalies that
require cleaning. Location data, however, has two unique
characteristics that can indicate unreliable data collection.
Superman Effect
When two data points indicate that a device has traveled a
very long distance in a very short period of time, the
underlying data source may be unreliable. In some cases,
this “Superman Effect” requires scrubbing isolated cases of
suspicious data. In other cases, the underlying data set
must be disregarded entirely.
Most location data vendors check for these data outliers and
either remove or correct suspicious data points.
Centroids
When an app does not have user permission to access the
operating system’s location services API, advertising SDKs may
estimate the user’s location based on IP address. In these
cases, the most common estimation is the geographic centroid
of a country or region. Some location data sets show an
abnormally large number of observations at these geographic
centroids, suggesting unreliable data collection.
Stable Point of Interest
Location signals are typically received in the form of latitude + Some businesses will develop their own proprietary POI maps,
longitude coordinates. As a standalone signal, latitude and but most location data vendors purchase POI maps from a
longitude provide no useful information for decisioning. Point of third party.
interest (POI) data translates lat/long signals into meaningful,
real world locations.

latitude longitude category name address city State country

40.7769 -73.8740 Airport LaGuardia Airport Queens, NY 11371 Queens New York USA
40.6895 -74.1745 Airport Newark Liberty International 3 Brewster Rd, Newark, NJ 07114 Newark New Jersey USA
Airport
40.856700 -74.063680 Airport Teterboro Airport 111 Industrial Ave, Teterboro, NJ Teterboro New Jersey USA
07608
40.655849 -73.794281 Airport John F. Kennedy International Queens, NY 11430 Queens New York USA
Airport
40.739050 -73.973060 Airport New York Skyports Inc-6n7 2430 Fdr Drive Service Rd E, New New York New York USA
York, NY 10010
40.946700 -74.318230 Airport Lincoln Park Airport 425 Beaverbrook Rd, Lincoln Park, Lincoln Park New Jersey USA
NJ 07035
40.796660 -74.421330 Airport Morristown Airport 8 Airport Rd, Morristown, NJ 07960 Morristown New Jersey USA
41.068531 -73.704178 Airport Westchester County Airport 240 Airport Rd, White Plains, NY White Plains New York USA
10604
40.725632 -73.418419 Airport Republic Airport 7150 Republic Airport, Farmingdale New York USA
Farmingdale, NY 11735
41.375830 -73.474040 Airport Danbury Municipal Airport 1 Wibling Rd, Danbury, CT 06810 Danbury Connecticut USA
40.600310 -74.732880 Airport Peters Airport Chambers Brook Rd, Whitehouse Whitehouse New Jersey USA
Station, NJ 08889 Station

Point of interest data is relatively stable, changing

only when businesses open, close, and relocate.
Updating POI data on a weekly or even monthly
cadence is sufficient for most advertising use cases.
Dynamic Point of Interest
While POI data is typically stable, some characteristics of a
location can change quickly. Marketers who want to match their
advertising to weather, traffic, or cultural events need to
leverage dynamic point of interest data.
Dynamic point of interest data is information about what is
happening in an area at a specific point in time. The most
commonly used triggers are based on weather, traffic, and
events such as festivals or concerts.

Weather Targeting Contextualizing Locations / Events

Geofencing Audience Targeting

Bid Request Bid Request
Drug Stores People who go to the
when below 30°F IP = 111.222.333.444 IP = 111.222.333.444
park for Concerts
Lat/Long = XX˚ / YY˚ Lat/Long = XX˚ / YY˚
Bidder Ad Exchange Bidder Ad Exchange
Bid Response Bid Response
Bid = $X.XX Bid = $X.XX

Weather API Events API

Temperature/Zip Central Park –
Phish concert
29° / 10014 08/10/2018
34° / 10012
34° / 10011
31° / 10010

Dynamic point of interest data can be used for both

targeting and dynamic creative messaging. A coffee
shop may want to advertise its mobile app with an
order ahead feature to people while they are stuck in
traffic. That message may change to promote a cold
drink on a hot afternoon.
Geofencing
Geofencing, aims to reach people who are in a certain area or
near a certain location in real time. A café may want to message
people who are near their shop at lunch time. They can achieve
this by defining a radius around their café and only serving ads
to users while they are within that circumference.
Geofences are typically circles with a set radius but can
be any geometric shape. When ads become available, the
marketer’s bidding system determines whether the user’s
latitude and longitude fall within the targeted geofence to
determine whether to participate in the advertising
auction.

Geofencing
Bid Request
123 Main St, NY 55555
IP = 111.222.333.444
Lat/Long = XX˚ / YY˚
Bidder Ad Exchange
Bid Response
Bid = $X.XX
Corresponding Lat/Longs

XX/YY

Address: 123 Main St, New York 55555

Lat/Long: XX, YY
Radius: 0.50 miles

Because geofencing requires real-time decisioning,

location vendors pass geofence data to the bidding
system (DSP or ad network) in advance of the campaign.
The bidding system caches this data locally and
refreshes it on an agreed cadence with the data vendor.
Location Retargeting
While it can be useful to target users who are currently in a
geofence, these opportunities are rare. To achieve greater scale,
marketers are also able to retarget users after they leave a
geofence.
Similar to website retargeting, marketers can determine
the frequency and recency of location behaviors that
make a user eligible for targeting. For example, a pet food
company might bid aggressively for a user who has been
observed at multiple pet food stores in the last week and
more conservatively for a user whose location history
contains less obvious intent signals.

IDFA 1234

Pet Grooming Pet Supplies Audience Targeting

Bid Request
Location Segment:
Pet Owners IDFA 1234

Bidder Ad Exchange
Bid Response
IDFA 1234
IDFA 5678 Bid = $X.XX

Dog Park Dog Spa IDFA 9999

IDFA 2222
Footfall Measurement
Location data can be leveraged for campaign attribution and More sophisticated measurement techniques also quantify
performance measurement. Typically, location data is used by footfall incrementality. For more information on
marketers with a brick and mortar presence to quantify the incrementality measurement, refer to our Little Black
impact of digital advertising on driving “footfall” to retail Book of Attribution.
stores. Attribution vendors track both ad exposure and store
visits with a common user ID and then report the success rate
with which ads are followed in time by store visits.

User Profile

User 123

• Browser ad exposure
• App ad exposure
• Location history

Similar data collection mechanisms can also support

measurement of out of home (billboard) ad exposure.
Out of home displays are geofenced to identify which
users were exposed to advertising at which times.
Location Optimization
In addition to providing summary reports on footfall outcomes,
location measurement companies can provide real-time
feedback data to bidding systems to support in-flight campaign
optimization.
When a location data company observes a user cross a
geofence that indicates a store visit, it sends a notification
to the marketer’s bidding system. This notification is treated
by the bidding system as a conversion event, similar to a
checkout page on a website, and the bidding system learns
how to optimize ad delivery to maximize footfall outcomes.

Bid Request
1
Bid Response
2
Ad
Bidder Win Notification
3 Exchange

Ad Creative
4

Foot traffic

For more information on advances techniques for

optimizing campaign bidding behavior, read our “How To
Train Your DSP” whitepaper at howtotrainyourdsp.com
Vendor Landscape
Location Data Vendors Location Applications

Device Level Location Data Geofencing

Location Retargeting

Point of Interest Data Footfall Measurement