What is an API and Why Marketers Should Care About It?

What is an API and Why Marketers Should Care About It?

With the rapid evolution in technology, marketers must upgrade their advertising prowess. The newly explored arena of APIs has redefined the business structure. Advertising APIs has introduced automated designs, easy programme communication, and data collection. An overview of marketing APIs is presented below.

What does API do? 

API stands for Application Programming Interface, and it can be explained better by using an example from everyday life. API does not refer to a database nor a server. It is like an access point. It allows access to data or functionality of another app.

An API is similar to a waiter in a restaurant. If the kitchen is considered a system and the customer needs access to the food from the kitchen, the waiter acts like an access point. Likewise, hotel booking websites let people make reservations and collect information. Often there are hotel booking services that collect information from a number of databases. These services communicate with the hotel’s API. Therefore, API is an interface that is used to get information about hotels.

API can be used to improve client satisfaction by customizing features and performance for the specific users. API transfers a website’s software to other platforms to enhance its usability. Some notable API examples include the following:

Facebook Canvas

Marketing agencies can use the Canvas API for ads and promotion activities on Facebook. It assists advertisers by providing a wide range of tools to work with.

Google AdWords

Google uses this API to assist creators who work with large advertising agencies. Google AdWords API aids the developer in designing applications that give access to the Google Ads server. This API aids in generating keywords, reports and other statistics. It is user-friendly and allows users to develop customized features for smooth account management.

MailChimp

MailChimp aims at email marketing. It helps with email campaigns, organize contact details and also, to keep a check on results. The MailChimp API uses third force ad-on that allows developers to experiment with the link between MailChimp and other faculties.   

Importance of Marketing Data API

Wholesome Technique

 Each click online is a statistic. These statistics make for valuable data. Data is a representation of online trends. It is this data that reflects what material people prefer to click on.

In layman terms, it is easy for everyone to see how many times a particular video has been viewed; likewise, it is easy to have this count for everything that exists online. This abundance of data is as precious as gold for marketers.

The proper utilization of this data can make advertising more productive. All platforms must be used to collect data. API assists in synchronizing all this data.

All-Inclusive Advertising

Some platforms get more attention than others. The most viewed web pages are misunderstood to be the focal point for advertising. But, that is not true. Advertising is more about finding the audience from whichever platform they are at. It is important to utilize the advanced tools to find out where the audience is. Marketers must develop strategies to get information about people from all channels.

Know Your Audience

Data reveals patterns that can be used by advertisers. Advertisers must work on building a close bond with users. Their work should reflect that they know each of their customers personally. Creating relatable content gets the attention and people find it easy to trust a business firm when users can feel a level of understanding developed between the two.

Learning about people is important to shape up a personalized marketing strategy. API makes it easy to collect and use that information.

Manage Data

Data is everywhere. The problem is the systemization of this data. All marketers need proper management of data to understand the trends. In order to study the results available, it is important to categorize the data. All platforms must be taken into consideration while collecting data. This brings disarrayed information to the organization. It is hence, essential that data is managed properly. API makes data interact with each other. This facilitates the marketers in studying the data efficiently.

Internet Dynamics

The Internet is evolving every day. The changing dynamics of the internet may bring new approaches or technological advancements. With each development, there will be an increasing need for API so as to help in communicating the data. 

The intense competitive dynamics of the market require developers to make use of APIs.

Useful Links:

-       https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/8341/a-marketer-s-guide-to-apis.aspx

-       https://www.mulesoft.com/resources/api/connected-business-strategy

-       https://medium.com/@ettrics/why-you-should-be-using-apis-in-your-marketing-strategy-aa706becccf0