Marketers and advertisers know that many of their customers are now shopping through their mobile devices. Hence, advertisers are incorporating mobile advertising IDs or MAIDs in their advertising strategies. These unique identifiers help advertisers reach the right audience on mobile devices.

What is an MAID? And how does it work? Is it only used by advertisers? These questions are natural. Let’s understand about MAIDs in detail!

What is Mobile Advertising ID or MAID?

Mobile advertising ID is a unique alphanumeric code that is assigned to a mobile device. Think of it as a name tag for your mobile phone that helps advertisers track and target users with relevant ads. 

There are broadly two types of MAIDs:

1. IDFA (for iOS) – This is Apple’s version of MAID for iOS users. 
2. GAID (Google Ad ID) – This is designed for applications that are running on the Android operating system. 

So, is it similar to cookies?

MAIDs and Cookies, both help in tracking user activity but MAIDs have been specifically designed for mobile devices. This helps in tracking users more accurately within mobile applications. On the other hand, Cookies are generally used on websites and are less effective in a mobile app environment. Cookies also depend on sessions, hence they are shortlived while MAIDs have a longer lifetime so they stick around. In short, MAID is a better alternative to Cookies when it comes to advertising. 

What about the IMEI Number?

The IMEI or Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number is completely different from MAID! IMEI is a unique code assigned to mobile devices for hardware identification and MAID is a software-based identifier. While IMEI can help to find your device in case you lose it; it isn’t related to tracking user activity.

Use Cases of Mobile Advertising ID

Targeted Ads

MAIDs are primarily used by advertisers to show personalized ads to users. The MAID helps to track user interactions within apps, enabling advertisers to understand preferences and behaviors. For instance, if a user frequently explores fitness apps, advertisers can leverage the MAID to show targeted ads for fitness gear or health products. The result is a more relevant and engaging ad experience, as MAIDs empower advertisers to tailor their campaigns to specific user interests, enhancing the overall effectiveness of digital advertising strategies.

Locate Defaulting Customers

In the banking and finance sector, MAID can have an interesting use case. According to a report by CIBIL, the amount of money involved in wilful defaults has increased by almost Rs 50,000 crore, reaching Rs 353,874 crore in March 2023. Tracing defaulters and recovering money is a challenge for financial institutions as they can lead to financial losses, impact the overall health of the banking sector, and may result in increased non-performing assets (NPAs). 

DS Collect uses the MAID technology to help banks trace defaulters. MAIDs tend to capture the location of the mobile device when the user starts interacting with any mobile application. This helps banks or financial institutions to know the likeliness of finding the defaulters out of their given addresses or discovering new locations to find them. 

Want to know how you can use mobile advertising ID and DS Collect to trace defaulters? Book a demo with team Data Sutram!