Category: IP Geolocation

This is the fifth, and final, installment in our “Targeting and Trust” series of blog posts, dedicated to why IP-based geolocation data is well positioned to deliver both the accurate targeting digital marketers need for improved response rates and the trust consumers crave in terms of personalized promotions in a non-intrusive manner. Here we outline the many different ways IP geolocation can be applied to your marketing efforts.

As we’ve mentioned before, targeting customers by location isn’t new. But as the years have gone by, and location-intelligence technology has improved, brands are finding many new and unexpected applications for geolocation data. Here are some examples.

Find “Clusters of Similarity”

You have a group of users in mind to engage. For example, you might want to target smokers for a public-health campaign. To do this, you can find out the regions with the highest population of smokers, then geofence by IP address to direct your campaigns toward them.

Combine IP Geolocation with “Real-World” Events

When an event is local in nature, brands can factor it in to make a campaign more successful. For example, a clothing retailer could use local weather data to change its front page offers in different regions—bikinis in a heatwave; coats during a cold snap.

Run Time-Sensitive Campaigns

When a brand is running an event that travels across multiple regions, it can phase in or stagger a campaign. For example, a music label could geotarget around a band’s touring schedule.

Look at Buying Patterns by Location to Make Budgets Go Further

This is geolocation “after the fact.” Often, after a campaign has run, the metrics will reveal strong local differences in uptake. Brands can scrutinize this data to make the next round of promotions more effective. These insights can be unexpected. For instance, a company might find it sells more sunscreen in places that get less sun because residents are more likely to travel to hot countries.

Link the Real and Digital Worlds

Often, brands run campaigns to make people take actions in physical locations. IP geolocation presents the chance to connect the dots. So, a retailer might send discount codes to customers and then use IP addresses to see how many recipients responded by visiting local stores.

Target Mobile Users on Wi-Fi

It’s estimated that 80 percent of mobile users connect via Wi-Fi networks, which are generally faster and often cheaper. But these users are invisible to most mobile ad networks. Adding IP geolocation to the stack brings them back. Ad providers can offer targeting by location, without relying on software downloads or user opt-ins.

Add the Ability to Tailor Campaigns to Your Needs

Sometimes you want scale. Sometimes you want to micro-target. It depends on your campaign.

As we’ve discussed, different geolocation approaches deliver different levels of accuracy. GPS and other “lat-long” techniques can pinpoint consumers to a few feet. However, they are limited by the need to have users opt in. This is accuracy at the expense of reach.

Meanwhile, IP geolocation is almost universally available. And, it provides the ability for hyperlocal targeting down to postcode level, globally.

However, some brands have the luxury of choosing from both options. Here’s how it often works. They use IP geolocation to make broadly targeted offers. This builds trust and customer satisfaction. Having established this trust, they ask users to opt in for micro-targeting via GPS. With both IP and GPS available, companies can then run campaigns that favor reach over accuracy or vice versa. They can move the customer down the “purchasing funnel” as required.

Augment Geolocation with Other IP Data Points

In this series, you have read how IP geolocation gives marketers the ability to target effectively by geography—without intruding on privacy. This type of targeting frequently delivers much higher click-through rates. Inventory rates go up, too.

Meanwhile IP geolocation specialists, such as Digital Element, can layer on more targeting attributes besides location. The addition of more IP-based targeting parameters can make campaigns even more effective. Digital Element can give insight into characteristics such as connection speed, Internet Service Provider (ISP), carrier data, home/business types and more. It has also developed an advanced proxy/VPN database.

IP intelligence and geolocation data—and its applications—have evolved over the last several decades to address the ever-changing needs of a global digital marketplace. There’s no better time than the present for brands to explore (or revisit) the use of location-based data in their marketing efforts.

Also, feel free to review or catch up on the “Targeting and Trust” series here:

Part 1:           The Digital Marketing Crossroads focuses on how digital marketing has evolved and how location-based targeting fits in to navigating the road ahead

Part 2:           Options for Location-Based Advertising looks at the advertising options for digital marketers who want to “go local”

Part 3:           Using IP Geolocation to Overcome Marketing Challenges delves into how IP geolocation technology helps digital marketers overcome challenges they face every day

Part 4:           The Fact About Using IP Geolocation Data compares the myths and realities of IP geolocation data

We continue our “Targeting and Trust” series of blog posts, dedicated to why IP-based geolocation data is well positioned to deliver both the accurate targeting digital marketers need for improved response rates and the trust consumers crave in terms of personalized promotions in a non-intrusive manner.

The fourth installment of our five-part blog series digs into the realities of using IP geolocation. Though IP geolocation technology has been around for nearly two decades and is widely used across the globe in a variety of applications, there is still a certain aura of mystery around exactly what this technology is and what it can do. Further, many companies have had negative experiences with IP data providers whose data did not live up to expectations and have, therefore, become disillusioned with the technology’s business potential.

Below we examine the common misconceptions surrounding the use of IP geolocation data and discuss the facts to help you understand the technology’s value and its role in an increasingly location-based digital world.

Misconception: IP-based geolocation data isn’t accurate enough in my country

Many IP providers rely to a large extent on publicly available (free) registration data (i.e. Whois), which is notoriously inaccurate at a city level (less than 50 percent) or even at a country level―and has gaps in coverage upward of 20-to-30 percent where no results are returned.

Reality

Digital Element utilizes patented web-spidering technology and 20⁺ proprietary methods to triangulate the location, connection speed, and many other characteristics associated with an IP address. By combining this “inside-out” infrastructure analysis with “outside-in” user location feedback gleaned from a network of commercial partners, Digital Element can identify where the user actually accesses the internet down to the ISP’s end-point equipment.

Misconception: You must rely on ISPs to get IP geolocation data.

ISPs are notoriously inaccurate in keeping the location information of IP addresses updated in their registries. In fact, most either don’t report location information in the Whois registries or only report the address of their corporate headquarters.

Reality

Digital Element’s proprietary technology traces how traffic is actually routed over the Internet; how routers are connected; and the speed between routers. Then, the data-science team uses this information to triangulate where end-point equipment is located. The company’s technology does not rely solely on data-sharing relationships with ISPs.

Misconception: Because IP addresses are dynamic, it’s impossible to provide accurate geolocation information.

Since most IP addresses are dynamically allocated to some extent, this creates a problem for IP data providers that are solely reliant upon ISP/Whois registration information, as noted above.

Reality

Digital Element bases its mapping on where known pools of dynamic IPs are located. ISP dynamic re-allocations tend to be within those known pools of IP addresses, and the geographic allocation of pools actually remains fairly constant at the ISP end-point equipment level. With more than 10 trillion IP lookups per month, the company is able to pick up IP address reallocations the instant they occur.

Misconception: IP-based information is not as comprehensive as other forms of geolocation data.

Alternative, non-IP based geolocation technologies exist that may provide more granular location information―on small slices of the Internet. They often involve data-gathering techniques that rely on user-provided registration data, cookies, GPS-obtained latitude/longitude coordinates, or HTML5, etc. However, these techniques are far from comprehensive.

Reality

Digital Element’s IP Intelligence and geolocation solutions can provide a comprehensive, non-personally identifiable view of a user’s location within a 3- to 5-mile radius for virtually the entire Internet.

Misconception: Premium IP Intelligence and geolocation solutions are too expensive.

Most IP geolocation vendors simply repackage publicly available (free) Whois registration data and some supplement with user-supplied data, allowing them to offer discounted IP solutions. However, these are not reliable methods for accurate geolocation when used in isolation.

Reality

If coverage, accuracy, and granularity are important, then IP Intelligence and geolocation technology that integrates multiple methodologies, such as Digital Element’s, is the right solution for your business.

As a digital marketer, it’s important to fully understand some of the major differences between IP geolocation solutions and realize that not all IP data providers are created equal.

In Part Five, the final piece of this series, we reveal the many different ways IP geolocation can be applied to your marketing efforts.

Today, we begin our series of blog posts dedicated to why IP-based geolocation data is well positioned to deliver both the accurate targeting digital marketers need for improved response rates and the trust consumers crave in terms of personalized promotions without intrusion. Throughout the series we’ll discuss how IP geotargeting:

• Supports targeting that respects privacy;
• Does not require an opt-in and is, thus, regulation friendly;
• Is immune from the cookie showdown;
• Links physical and digital activity;
• Generates high response rates;
• Commands higher inventory prices;
• Combats click fraud; and
• Unlocks unexpected customer insights.

This first installment of our five-part blog series focuses on how digital marketing has evolved and how location-based targeting fits in to navigating the road ahead.

Even before the pandemic, online activity was booming. However, as COVID-19 forced lockdown after lockdown across the world, more consumers turned to the internet for, well, just about everything—from shopping to entertainment to work and education.

Understandably, ad budgets have taken a collective hit in the last year. However, while traditional media suffered, digital ad spend grew in 2020, up by 6 percent year over year. Even with any lasting effects from the pandemic, the latest estimates predict the global online advertising market to reach $517 billion by 2023.

Yet, for all the good news, digital marketing has come to a crossroads.

Adtech is facing challenges on multiple fronts: privacy issues; falling response rates;  click fraud; regulation; the power of the tech duopoly; and more.

The industry needs to find ways to send targeted messages that give customers real value, while respecting their privacy.

Location-based advertising offers some compelling solutions to the impasse. Geolocation offers a powerful model for targeting. It lets a brand know where its customer is now, and allows for the delivery of more contextually relevant advertising and content.

Many mistakenly believe location-based advertising is only possible when a (mobile) user turns on GPS and gives consent to a brand to access it. But there are other options. This is a relief given how few people choose to opt in to GPS.

The main alternative is IP geolocation. It uses the IP address as the basis for determining location. With the help of additional techniques, IP geolocation is good for targeting users at scale, down to a postcode level—worldwide.

IP geolocation is also entirely anonymous. The IP address reveals nothing personal about the user. This preserves trust and makes the method regulation proof.

Even better, an IP address can say more about an internet connection than its location. It can also identify characteristics such as connection speed and type (mobile or Wi-Fi), the identity of the Internet Service Provider (ISP) and mobile carrier, as well as business insights such as a company name. Brands can use these additional attributes to build even better targeting profiles.

IP geolocation is more than two decades old. It’s well-established. And, it provides the flexibility for marketers to scale—or micro-target—to meet their specific campaign goals.

With conventional targeting techniques coming under pressure, it feels like the start of a new era for IP geolocation technology.

In Part Two of this series, we’ll take a look at the advertising options for digital marketers who want to “go local.”

Today’s marketers need to show how their products and services are relevant to consumers―at different times and in different places throughout the day. However, creating that relevance requires data―and lots of it―many times from multiple sources. The “State of Marketing Report 2020” indicates that the median number of data sources used by marketers in 2019 was 8, is expected to grow to 10 this year, and projected up to 12 by 2021. Sourcing, aggregating, integrating and applying data from different providers can be a monumental challenge.

However, 51Degrees is an innovative company that has literally created a “one-stop shop” for real-time data with its Pipeline API. Founded in the United Kingdom, 51Degrees is the only commercial open-source, device-detection solution available. Leaders in ad tech, publishing, content management platforms, digital agencies and more than 1.5 million* websites, including global brands such as eBay, Sitecore, Opentext, Tencent and HSBC, use 51Degrees.

51Degrees is using reverse geocoding technology to convert the raw coordinates from latitude and longitude data derived from mobile devices into more useful geographical intelligence such as postcode, city, region, and country information. This “translated” data can then be used to provide more contextually and locally relevant advertising and content for on-the-go mobile interactions.

“We were delighted to integrate the Digital Element GeoMprint location solution for the launch of our new real-time data pipeline. Digital professionals can add location data to analytics, address capture and targeting systems.” said James Rosewell, CEO and founder of 51Degrees. “Setup takes a matter of minutes using the free-trial options. The permissively open source APIs make enhancements and audit super simple.”

Read the full press release to learn more about how to improve insights into online user preferences and device-specific behavior with geolocation technology…or jump right in and sign up for a free trial of the 51Degrees pipeline here.

*Numbers accurate at time of publication, but may be higher.

Travel behavior has evolved dramatically over the past few years. While the height of the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted global mobility, the long-term impact has been a shift toward more regional, flexible, and digitally coordinated travel. Today, travelers move fluidly across borders, switch devices constantly, and rely heavily on online research before booking.

For travel, hospitality, and retail marketers, this makes accurate IP geolocation and location-compliance intelligence more critical than ever, especially for brands trying to reach travelers at the right moment without accidentally blocking legitimate users or misdirecting spend.

Below, we explore how modern IP intelligence helps businesses target regional travelers, prevent abuse, personalize experiences safely, and protect campaign accuracy in an increasingly dynamic digital landscape.

Regional Travel Continues to Drive Engagement & Requires Smarter Location InsightHome

Domestic and near-home travel still represents a major share of trip volume. People planning weekend getaways, reunions, or short-haul business trips often search for travel options within driving distance or regional flight paths.

To capture these high-intent users, marketers rely on precision geolocation, particularly city- and postal-level accuracy, to deliver highly relevant experiences. This includes timely hotel and lodging promotions, offers for nearby attractions, retail and restaurant deals close to key points of interest, and regionally tailored travel messaging such as “Book your long weekend escape” or “Explore your nearby national parks.”

Brands that align their targeting radius with real traveler behaviors consistently outperform those taking a broad national approach.

Using Geolocation in Today’s Travel Marketing: What’s Different Now

Modern geolocation strategy is no longer just about identifying who is nearby.

Instead, it focuses on recognizing legitimate users even as they travel, detecting anomalous or mismatched regional signals, and personalizing content without exposing personal information. At the same time, it helps reduce ad waste caused by location spoofing and ensures compliance checks are met before high-risk actions like logins, transactions, or bookings occur.

This is where premium IP data, like Digital Element’s NetAcuity®, directly supports both marketing performance and security posture.

Key Challenges Travel Brands Face & How IP Intelligence Solves Them

1. How can companies detect mismatched region settings without blocking legitimate travelers?

Travelers frequently hop between hotel Wi-Fi, mobile networks, airport hotspots, and VPN-enabled workplaces. This leads to mismatched device region settings.

By using IP-level signals such as:

• Connection type (mobile, residential broadband, corporate network, public Wi-Fi)
• IP address persistence and recent geographic consistency
• Carrier identification and mobile roaming indicators
• Network type classification (e.g., proxy, VPN, hosting provider)
• Autonomous System Number (ASN) and network owner context

…travel brands can flag suspicious discrepancies while still allowing legitimate travelers through.

Example: A user’s device time zone is set to Germany, but they appear on a U.S. airport Wi-Fi. NetAcuity can validate that the IP belongs to an airport AS (Autonomous System) and treat this as expected traveler behavior, not fraud.

2. How do you stop region bypass via residential proxies without banning actual travelers

Residential proxy routing is a growing challenge because it mimics “normal” user behavior.

The solution is layered IP intelligence:

• Proxy and VPN identification
• Network type and address context (residential, hosting, mobile, corporate)
• Contextual IP address history and observed usage patterns over time
• Velocity of IP location or network changes
• Connection method indicators (mobile vs. fixed broadband vs. data center)

With this combined view, brands can differentiate a real traveler on hotel Wi-Fi from a user intentionally spoofing their location through a residential proxy or VPN exit node.

This prevents misuse (like circumventing regional pricing or booking restrictions) without harming good customers.

3. What’s the best way to pre-screen location compliance before login or checkout?

A standardized approach often includes:

• Identify country + region via IP
• Check for anonymizers or proxies
• Validate expected travel corridors (e.g., mobile carrier roaming)
• Serve region-appropriate login or product options

4. Which IP fields help personalize homepage content safely?

Brands want dynamic content, but must avoid personal data.
IP geolocation remains one of the strongest privacy-friendly ways to do this.

Useful fields include:

• Country and region for compliance and language settings
• City/postal code for local offers
• Connection type to adjust content for travelers vs. residents
• Point-of-interest proximity for hotels, attractions, retail, etc.

Because IP data is non-PII, it helps create personalization without relying on cookies or user accounts.

5. How do you validate geo for campaign measurement and avoid off-target impressions?

When campaigns rely solely on self-reported location (GPS permissions, browser settings, etc.), impressions often land far outside the intended region.

Marketers use IP intelligence to:

• Verify that an impression truly came from the campaign’s target region
• Detect impressions delivered through VPNs or proxies
• Identify fraudulent or mismatched location claims
• Reduce wasted impressions and improve ROAS

Example: Accurate pre- and post-bid geolocation ensures that a Denver hotel is actually reaching users in Colorado, and not someone appearing to be “in Denver” via a misrepresented IP route.

Why NetAcuity® Outperforms Publicly Available IP Data

Not all IP datasets are equal.

Public or low-cost IP sources often suffer from:

• Stale updates
• Sparse location coverage
• Inaccurate or unavailable city-level data
• Poor detection of proxies, VPNs, and hosting networks

Digital Element’s NetAcuity® stands apart with:

• Postcode-level granularity, globally
• Advanced proxy, VPN, and residential proxy detection
• Support for Carrier-Grade NAT (CGNAT) detection
• Unparalleled IP address and network context
• Industry leadership with more than 25 years of IP geolocation expertise

For travel, hospitality, retail, and tourism brands competing for attention, this level of accuracy enables geotargeting that is both effective and trustworthy.

Geolocation Is Essential to Today’s Traveler Journey

Travelers expect regionally relevant experiences whether they’re researching at home, browsing on the move, or logging in from multiple networks. With advanced IP geolocation and location-compliance intelligence, businesses can deliver precise regional messaging, personalize content without compromising privacy, detect spoofed or mismatched locations, and avoid unnecessary blocking that erodes trust.
As domestic and regional travel continue to grow, geolocation remains a critical tool for reaching travelers in authentic, compliant, and measurable ways.

Ready to strengthen your location strategy?

Explore how Digital Element’s IP intelligence can help you deliver more accurate targeting, reduce risk, and improve customer experiences across every traveler touchpoint. Contact our sales team for a personalized consultation or browse our resource library to learn more about geolocation, compliance, and data-driven traveler engagement.

Key Takeaways

• Accurate IP geolocation is essential for reaching local and regional travelers, enabling contextually relevant marketing without relying on personal data.
• Location signals help distinguish real travelers from users spoofing their location, reducing fraud while preserving access for legitimate customers.
• Pre-screening location before login or checkout improves compliance and user experience, allowing brands to catch inconsistencies early without adding friction.
• IP-based fields—like region, city/postal code, and connection type—enable privacy-safe personalization, making homepage content more useful without tracking individuals.
• Advanced IP intelligence prevents wasted ad spend by validating that impressions truly come from the intended geography and not from proxies or mismatched settings.
• Premium datasets like NetAcuity® deliver higher accuracy, reliable proxy detection, and continuous updates essential for real-time decisioning.
• Geolocation remains one of the strongest tools for understanding traveler behavior, especially as users move across networks, devices, and regional contexts.

There is no doubt that online shopping has become firmly entrenched in our daily lives. In fact, according to a recent poll by Marist College and National Public Radio (NPR), 76 percent of all adults in the United States shop online. Online shopping platforms have also opened a plethora of options far beyond the physical location of the shopper.

Consumers now have more shopping choices than they could have ever dreamed of and seem to gravitate toward brands providing a positive and pleasant shopping experience. And, with what seems to be shorter and shorter attention spans from consumers, teamed with fierce competition, retailers are faced with the need to quickly attract their attention, anticipate needs, and provide an engaging, seamless shopping experience.

ShopRunner, a unique subscription service that matches savvy online shoppers with top retailers and brands, decided to focus on developing an innovative ecommerce presence so its retail partners could stand out in the crowded online space. Key factors to reaching this goal included identifying customers’ locations and effectively leveraging data science to make the shopping experience more personalized.

Because the fashion industry is very heavily influenced by geography, the company’s retail partners were looking for help in accurately deciphering trending data to help them establish filters based on attributes to enhance the shopping experience and provide recommendations for shoppers’ specific areas.

Due to the need to accurately identify and leverage shoppers’ locations, the company made the decision to incorporate IP geolocation technology. To that point, the company selected NetAcuity^® Pulse Plus which combines device-derived data with reverse-geocoding data to determine members’ geographic locations and provide that information to its retail partners. An added benefit was this information was gained in a non-invasive way.

“We sometimes know very little about our shoppers, but with location we have a starting point that enables us to empower our retail partners to provide a meaningful online experience for them,” said Michelangelo D’Agostino, vice president of data science and engineering at ShopRunner. “This requires extremely accurate data so we were in need of an IP geolocation provider who could ensure reliable data as well as ease of use.”

With the use of NetAcuity Pulse Plus data, ShopRunner now helps its retail partners determine shopping trends by more pinpointed locations, allowing them to adapt and present products to consumers on the fly, whether on a website or via a mobile app.

“Today, we are using trend data to drive product innovation as well as leveraging latitude and longitude data in large metro areas for better targeting,” said Ali Vanderveld, director of data science at ShopRunner.

Read the full case study to better understand the importance of using accurate IP geolocation data to help your retail company identify potential customers, enhance the online shopping experience, and help your brand stand out in the ultra-competitive digital marketplace.