Location ad platform xAd rebrands as GroundTruth, expands beyond advertising

One of the pioneering location-based mobile ad platforms, xAd, is rebranding as GroundTruth. The name change signifies and coincides with its expansion of services beyond media:

The new name and positioning reflect the business’ evolution from a company focused on the advertising industry to a company empowering businesses through media and data.

 Since 2009, GroundTruth has fast become the leader in its industry thanks to its ability to build off real moments with precise and accurate data … This growth is what’s moving the company to expand from an advertising supplier to one that will power decisions across a variety of industries and pillars, whether it’s through media, small-medium sized businesses, channel partnerships, measurement or data.

The company will now be licensing its location intelligence data for a range of use cases beyond ad targeting and attribution. Not long ago, the company introduced a cost-per-visit ad model, which sought to introduce search-like intent targeting into mobile display.

As part of the rebrand announcement, xAd touted a location-accuracy study with InfoScout, a consumer-insights research firm that captures in-store consumer purchase data. The company said that InfoScout has verified that its store visits data has “a 90 percent accuracy rate.” According to the company 10,000 of InfoScout’s panelists were matched with “a sample of key retailers,” finding that in-store receipts and reported visits matched at that 90 percent level.

GroundTruth’s CMO, Monica Ho, told me that the company had been getting an increasing number of requests to use its data outside of the context of media and advertising. The company thus made the decision to rebrand and expand its offering. Example non-media use cases include real estate, retail site selection, city planning, financial analyst earnings estimates, competitive intelligence and more.

Now customers will be able to access location-based data and insights on their own. Similar moves have been made in the recent past by PlaceIQ and Cuebiq. Others in this area include Placed, Foursquare, NinthDecimal, UberMedia, Sense360 and Gravy, who, to varying degrees, also make data available for location insights.

Placed was founded exclusively as a location analytics company and has worked with xAd/GroundTruth as an independent verifier of store visits. It was just acquired by Snapchat parent Snap for between $125 and $200 million.

Location intelligence is rapidly becoming a must-have tool for real-world behavioral insights for brands, marketers and analysts around audience targeting, offline attribution and now a broad array of uses beyond advertising.

About The Author

Greg Sterling

Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog, Screenwerk, about connecting the dots between digital media and real-world consumer behavior. He is also VP of Strategy and Insights for the Local Search Association. Follow him on Twitter or find him at Google+.