As per Statista, TV Spending in the United States is expected to be grown by 4% in 2021 which is expected to be $65.15Bn compared to the 2021 spending of $62.54Bn. TV Advertising is a medium trusted by advertisers for decades hence brands depend on TV advertising to communicate their message to the audience which is making TV advertising stand out even in the digital marketing era. TV is able to maintain constant spending over the period of time.
It is easy to measure the effectiveness of Digital Marketing for the brands spending their marketing dollars in digital due to the availability of various tracking methods against the Defined KPIs’s, However, all of us know that TV adverting impacts consumer behavior and adds a lot of value to the brand building and sales, it is very difficult to measure what and how the TV Ad campaigns are actually impacting.
In the absence of any direct measurement metrics, Below are the ways that help advertisers to measure the impact of their TV advertising campaigns, these are useful for any TV Advertisers irrespective of the locations they are advertising or located.
- Use Search Trends: In this multi screen world, lot of users will be browsing on the 2nd screen while they watch TV it can be either laptop/mobile/tab. It is found that 88% of Americans use a second screen while watching TV. There are lot possibilities for people to search in Google when they are curious about the TV advertising they have watched in TV. those Searches are recorded in Google trends. Google trends is a free tool and gives realtie insights and historical data too whcich helps you to easure the impact of TV advertising for a short and long term. For many brands, I have seen huge increase in search trends index values as soon as the TV campaigns are aired.
2. Non Paid Traffic changes: As users search in search for the product/brand that they have seen in TV advertising, the brand’s website will show in majority of the time hence people will click on it and land on the brand’s website. which will record an increase in organic traffic, it can happen immediately or later point in time, but it is definitely a metric worth considering while measuring the impact of TV advertising campaigns. It is again free data, you just need to ask the analytics team who has access to the google analytics account. Even a lot of people remember the brand names after watching the TV ad and enter the URL in the browser which will result in direct traffic which is again recorded in the same analytics tool.
3. Business Improvement: It is also important to measure the impact of TV advertising on business metrics such as i ) how the sales trends are before and as after the TV campaigns, how long the trend continues to post the campaign ii) increase in the store visits(for retail brands) iii) Changes in the average order values iv) If the brand is doing any promotional activities in TV campaigns, it is an important metrics to track the coupon redemption happened as a KPI.
4. Track App Installs: Lot of brands these days are doing App install campaigns in TV advertising, it is an important metric to track new installs the brand’s app is getting during and after any TV campaign as a measurement of TV campaign effectiveness.
5. Implementing Omnichannel Marketing Attribution: TV advertising impacts the long term and short term consumer behavior hence it is important to track how the TV spending is attributed to the final brand metrics. It can be the brand baseline impact, impact on sales, etc. There are few companies measuring the impact of TV campaigns using AI-based solutions which are called Omnichannel Marketing Attribution platforms. These Marketing Attribution platforms give the real ROI generated from Tv campaigns split by channel names, campaigns, time of the ad aired, creative performance, etc.
6. Track Social Media Engagement Metrics: Consumers tend to engage with the brand’s social media platforms as soon as they see any TV advertising, so tracking the changes to the social media platforms such as engagements, new followers, engagement rates, messages to the brand, etc are also very critical to measure the success of any TV campaign.
7. Monthly Changes to the Brand and Category Searches: Though google trends give the index of the number of searches that are happening. It is important to know the exact changes in the number of searches that are happening with respect to the brand and category searches, which actually tells who the TV campaign is impacting the brand and how the brand searches are aligned with the category searches.
With just a little bit of effort 6 out of the above 7 recommendations can be measured for free while measuring the impact of TV campaigns. How do you and your organization measures the impact of TV campaigns in your company? please comment below.
