Swirl Unveils Industry's First Direct Integration with Facebook for Automated Beacon-Powered Online to Offline Attribution

BOSTON, Feb. 9, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Swirl Networks, Inc., the leading Mobile Presence Marketing platform provider, announced today that it has completed the integration of its Mobile Presence Marketing platform with Facebook Ads Manager. With this integration, retailers using the Swirl platform can automatically connect verified store visits to Facebook ad impressions, allowing them to quantify the impact of specific Facebook ad campaigns on driving store and departmental visits.  Swirl is the first company to offer an online to offline attribution solution based on a direct integration between retailer-owned beacons and other in-store location signals with Facebook's advertising platform.  The new capability is available today to all Swirl platform customers.

Solving The Online to Offline Attribution Challenge
Understanding the impact of online advertising on physical store traffic has been an ongoing challenge for retail marketers, brand advertisers, agency media buyers and digital publishers.  Existing attribution solutions that rely on GPS-based mobile phone location, data algorithms, or self-reported consumer panel data to identify store visits suffer from a number of shortcomings, including data accuracy and reliability issues, as well as a lack of timeliness and transparency of results.  The integration of Swirl's platform with Facebook provides a number of benefits to Facebook advertisers including:

• 100% verified store visits – Because beacons work indoors and their broadcasting range can be tightly controlled, they are particularly valuable for retailers with mall-based locations, since GPS doesn't work effectively indoors.
• Precise location insight – For multi-category retailers or brand advertisers who wish to understand whether their Facebook ads drove people to a particular aisle or display area, short-range beacons can be configured to verify a shopper's precise location within the store.
• Reliable first party data – Because retailers own and control the beacons in their store, they have complete visibility into the location data that is being used to validate foot traffic. As a result, they no longer have to rely on reports from third parties or media owners.
• Real-time results reporting – With the Swirl Facebook platform integration, retailers have real-time access to attribution results, allowing them to monitor and optimize Facebook ad campaigns on an ongoing basis.

Swirl's new integration leverages Facebook's Offline Conversions API to automatically match in-store beacon interactions captured by the Swirl platform with Facebook ad impressions delivered online. The Swirl platform calculates the incremental lift in store or department traffic generated by the Facebook campaign, based on comparisons with a control group that was not served ads.

"With this integration, retailers are able to take advantage of the most reliable, accurate and precise set of location data for more efficient and effective online to offline attribution," said Hilmi Ozguc, Founder and CEO, Swirl. "This new capability provides marketers with greater visibility, confidence and control of their online advertising investments, powered by a new set of tools for measuring and optimizing the full impact of their Facebook campaigns.  We are excited to be working with Facebook to bring this new capability to market and to deliver yet another way for retailers to generate value from their in-store digital location signals."

About Swirl Networks
Swirl offers leading retailers the industry's first complete mobile presence management and marketing platform. By leveraging GPS, WiFi, VLC and Bluetooth Low Energy beacon signals in their brick and mortar stores, large-scale retailers rely on Swirl to generate greater value from every shopper visit. Swirl works with industry leaders including Lord & Taylor, Urban Outfitters, Timberland, Samsung, Oracle, Google, Facebook, Cisco and many more. Swirl is backed by top-tier investors including Twitter, Simon, Hearst, SoftBank and Longworth Venture Partners.

Contact: Rob Murphy, [email protected]  

SOURCE Swirl Networks, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.swirl.com