As consumers engage with brands laterally across devices, digital marketers and analysts are in need of a way to track that behavior, associating individual users with sessions initiated on various platforms. Cross-device analytics makes this possible.

In its day, the cookie was the key to user identification, fueling marketing attribution, retargeting campaigns and user behavior tracking. While the cookie still has its place, it also has its limitations, the most prevalent being its limited scope.

To be specific, the cookie can only be used to identify users on a per-browser basis—a tracking method that worked well when users browsed the internet on only one device.

In today’s multi-device world, the cookie can only do so much.

Here’s why: consumers have an average of 4 devices per person, and online tasks are often completed using multiple devices sequentially. For example, a consumer may click through an ad on a phone in their mobile web browser, do more research on a desktop, and make the final purchase in-app on a tablet.

This all but makes the cookie obsolete, presenting significant challenges to attribution, advertising and user behavior analysis. The solution is for brands to link engagement across devices—a consumer-centric approach, rather than a device-centric one.

Building this link between devices makes it possible to target the users themselves, rather than the devices. This is the essence of cross-device analytics and cross-device marketing.

Implementing cross-device tracking makes essential marketing functions possible in a world that increasingly trends towards mobility and omnichannel.

Moe Kiss, Product Analyst & Digital Analytics at THE ICONIC, will be presenting “How Cross-Device Analysis Taught Us the Value of Our Apps” at the upcoming Mobile Analytics Summit, explaining more about potential use cases of cross-device analytics.

“Mobile apps can attract your most engaged customers, but these interactions are not limited to your app. Your customers interact on multiple platforms,”  Chris Baird, VP of Marketing at ObservePoint, said concerning Kiss’ session topic. “Kiss talks about how app interactions can lead to conversations on desktop. She shows how important it is for businesses to understand user interactions across platforms, illustrating the importance and value of apps.”

To learn more about how professionals and thought leaders like Moe Kiss use innovative technology and strategy to increase brand awareness and achieve growth, reserve your spot now.

About the Author

A former student and present enthusiast of the humanities, Jack Vawdrey uses his love of language to explore the role of marketing and analytics technology in business. Jack joined the ObservePoint marketing team in August 2016 and serves as Managing Editor. Adamant about automation, Jack writes to educate the analytics and marketing community about the role of tag auditing and data governance in the enterprise.

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