Piaggio Group Americas, the North American importer of Vespa and Moto Guzzi, has seen a click-through rate of 0.75 percent for retargeted mobile ads, showing a 4.69x increase over untargeted mobile ads.

Additionally, the company?s interstitial retargeted mobile ads reached 2.33 percent CTR, a 14.56x increase over untargeted mobile ads. PGA worked with Sense Networks to roll out the retargeted ads in order to reach a more specific and interested audience.

"The overall goal for our Vespa and Moto Guzzi digital campaigns were, at the end of the day, to increase sales," said Melissa R. MacCaull, vice president of marketing at Piaggio Group Amercas, New York. "Since the purchase cycle for a motorcycle or scooter is 2 ? 3 months, we had an immediate goal measurement of success based on the number of dealer look-ups, which is when a shopper entered their zip code to find their nearest dealer. 

"In the case of mobile, the immediate measurement was hitting the ?get directions? button," she said. "Of the shoppers who clicked on the Vespa or Moto Guzzi ad, 9% hit the ?get directions? button, a number we were very pleased with.  

"Even though 38% of our website visitors come from mobile this was our first test of mobile. Since mobile advertising is still in its infancy, we were hesitant to deploy it for fear of wasted budget. The only reason that we utilized mobile was because of Sense Networks ability to highly target who the ads were served-up to, which meant little budget waste and a high probability of reaching an engaged shopper."

Piaggio Group Americas imports Italian motorcycle and scooter brands Vespa and Moto Guzzi.

Motorcycle enthusiasts
Retail retargeting analyzes the shopping behavior of a consumer to target shoppers based on location, behavioral and lifestyle attributes.

Sense Networks rolled out retail retargeting about a year ago, and 85 percent of its clients use the technology.

The company looks at its 165 million user profiles to roll out the retargeting campaigns. Each profile has more than 1,000 lifestyle and behavioral attributes.

PGA used the technology to identify shoppers that had already been to Vespa and Moto Guzzi dealers in the United States. The company then retargeted those shoppers with timely and relevant mobile ads.

By analyzing shoppers? behaviors, Sense Networks was able to identify attributes such as motorcycle enthusiasts, mobile users who had visited other motorcycle dealers, and high household income. The idea was that these consumers would be more likely to make a luxury purchase.

Relevant ads
PGA is not the only company that is trying to deliver more relevant ads by finding out more information about its consumers.

Earlier this summer, Quiznos leveraged historical location data to deliver mobile ads with an offer to users who were likely to purchase a sandwich for lunch. The ads reached consumers who had visited a similar quick-service restaurant in the last 30 days (see story).

Location-based targeting has long been a known tactic to provide relevant offers (see story).

By adding more variables, such as consumer behavior and income data, companies like PGA are expanding on the basic geolocating technology to create even more relevant ads.

?Retail Retargeting was the right decision for PGA because their customers aren?t making purchase decision on a whim, or simply because they were located near a retailer?the geo-fencing approach,? said David Petersen, CEO of Sense Networks, New York.

?Typically, there is a lot of forethought that goes into a big purchasing decision such as buying a motorcycle or motor scooter,? he said. "We analyzed our 165 million user profiles to target consumers who had already visited a PGA location, thus showing potential purchase intent.

"We also analyzed behaviors, lifestyles and demographic attributes to determine who are motorcycle enthusiasts and who has higher income to make luxury purchases. The two groups were targeted for the campaigns - PGA shoppers and high income motorcycle enthusiasts. These targets who are most likely to be interested, were sent the ad."

Final Take
Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York