In this competitive B2B and B2C marketing landscape, many brands make substantial investments in concept testing.
Why? While there are many benefits of ad concept testing with surveys, perhaps the most influential is it's ability to deliver resounding success and increase return-on-investment.
As one of the greatest market research services for advertising and marketing efforts, concept testing is a mission-critical growth method for most organizations.
Below, Drive Research reviews the benefits of producing high-quality, data-driven advertising messaging when concept testing with surveys.
For a quick recap, watch this video produced by our market research company.
Do Ads Need Data to Succeed?
Depending on your brand’s reach, it has the potential to be seen by millions of people.
Because of this, you’ll want to make sure the campaign resonates with viewers, makes an impression, and causes them to take action.
As a marketer, you probably already know that achieving all of these things is easier said than done. That's where surveys can help.
Before the ad concept testing survey template is even created, it’s essential to have an understanding of how data will influence your ad campaign process as a whole.
When we refer to “data-driven decision-making,” we mean using various metrics to ensure that your ad idea is relevant, accurate, and clear. And this can only help an ad campaign!
Gathering a good amount of actionable data will let you know for sure just how well a campaign will perform.
In marketing and advertising, data equals knowledge and confidence.
This not only refers to having confidence in the actual data but having confidence in the quality of your ad campaign.
With the data gathered via the concept testing survey, you can relax and know that your ad is already approved by your target audience.
In other words, having a data-backed marketing campaign assures the ad will make an impact on consumers who see it.
This can lead to increased business and an overall good reputation for your brand.
💡 The Key Takeaway: Using the data gathered from an ad concept survey will ensure your ad campaign features legitimate information. This has a whole host of benefits, from creating a trustworthy public image to feeling secure in your brand’s message.
Why Use Surveys for Concept Testing?
Whether your brand is promoting a new product, advertising to a new market, or just debating between multiple different designs, concept testing surveys are never a bad idea.
This type of market research provides exclusive, quality insights directly from your target audience.
If you've been in the marketing or advertising industry for a while, you know many questions are asked before launching a campaign.
- Will the ad copy and design resonate with our buyers?
- What advertising channels should we utilize?
- Does the ad draw people's attention?
- Will it be memorable?
Sure, you can make assumptions based on past campaigns, but concept testing with surveys eliminates any guesswork.
It promotes data-driven decision-making, so you know you are investing in the right messaging.
💡 The Key Takeaway: Ad concept testing with surveys gathers important data on how well the public would respond to an ad. Before you spend all that money on your campaign, consider the potential impact a poor ad could have on your brand.
Benefits of Concept Testing with Surveys
1. Improve Marketing ROI
What better way to predict the return on investment of a marketing campaign than directly asking target consumers if the advertising concept would drive them to make a purchase?
Stop A/B testing. Do this instead.
Ad concept testing is similar to a common marketing best practice: A/B testing. Essentially, marketers launch two advertisements with a slight difference.
For instance, Ad A is pink, and Ad B is blue. After a short time in the field, marketers analyze which ad resulted in more clicks, form fills, purchases, etc. It is deemed a superior advertisement.
But ask yourself this...
- How can marketers know if the pink or blue ads are the best possible concepts?
- What if they conducted a survey and saw that the same ad but in green resonated more with their audience?
Even if your advertising campaigns result in 3X or 4X your investment, conducting concept testing with surveys could be improved by 10X your investment.
Recommended Reading: Understanding the ROI of Market Research for Advertising
2. Cost-Effective Market Research Methodology
There may be no more cost-effective market research methodology than online surveys. Because they are often administered via email, market research panels, or social media advertisements, there are fewer necessary costs compared to focus groups.
Focus groups, while beneficial for concept testing, can be out of some brands' budget.
They require qualitative recruiting services, a focus group facility rental, a trained moderator, and higher incentives for participants.
On the contrary, ad concept testing surveys are simple in design yet still full of value. The only costs of outsourcing online surveys are related to design, programming, fielding, and analyzing.
If you are interested in receiving a quote or proposal for concept testing surveys, use our free market research RFP template.
3. Rely on Feedback from Target Audiences
Oftentimes advertising and marketing concepts are presented to a team of internal stakeholders before launch.
Feedback gathered from the presentation is used to make edits and adjustments to the messaging or design.
While this is customary practice, brands must include an additional step before spending their budget on these concepts. You guessed it, concept testing with online surveys.
The stakeholders reviewing these ads likely do not match your target demographic - and even if they do, they are too close to your organization to provide unbiased opinions.
Ad concept testing surveys rely on insights collected from people who match your buyer personas.
Market research companies, like Drive Research, field surveys to specific respondents such as:
- Gender
- Age
- Income level
- Location
- Other qualifiers
In short...
Your target audience's likes, dislikes, and recommendations will prove to be more influential than internal leadership teams.
4. Receive Quick, Actionable Insights
In addition to ad concept testing surveys being cost-effective, they also provide businesses with quick, actionable insights.
In some instances, our marketing research firm provides our clients with final results after 24 to 48 hours of being in the field.
If you are looking for something even faster, our team provides live reporting links. Brands have access to survey responses as soon as each respondent answers a question.
Here is an example of a survey reporting link.
What is the benefit for you?
You don't have to wait weeks or months to launch your marketing campaigns based on consumer feedback. Quick, actionable insights allow you to start earning a return on your investment in as little as days.
5. Stay Relevant with Changing Trends
If there is one thing consistent about consumer trends, it's that they are always changing. How's that for an oxymoron?
Especially with the impact of COVID-19, it is now more important than ever for brands to measure shifts in consumer behavior. For instance, there is expected to be a 15% to 30% growth in people who shop online in most industries.
Additionally, consumers are switching brands at extreme rates, with 75% of people trying new shopping behavior. This is likely a result of store closings, economic difficulties, and changing priorities.
Concept testing can include questions that identify these changing trends, so your marketing and advertising copy stays relevant and competitive.
6. Understand Drivers to Purchase Before Launching
The goal of many marketing initiatives is to push people to act. Perhaps this is a form fill for an eBook or making an online purchase.
Regardless of your objectives, concept testing with surveys can identify factors that drive your audience to take an intended action.
Online surveys reveal key performance indicators of the ad concepts such as:
- What is the likelihood of purchasing the featured products/services?
- What are the perceived strengths of the products/services?
- What are the perceived weaknesses of the products/services?
- How much would you be willing to spend on the product/service?
This insight can also help create customer segments for specific demographics that are most interested and likely to convert to a sale.
💡 The Key Takeaway: While testing an ad concept with market research is similar to A/B testing, the key difference is that concept testing gets down to the core of what will make an ad successful.
Reap the Benefits of Ad Concept Testing with Surveys
Drive Research is a full-service market research company that partners with B2B and B2C brands across the country. Our team of senior market research professionals executes ad concept testing surveys to deliver actionable insights from key target audiences.
To learn more about our market research services, contact Drive Research today.
- Message us on our website
- Email us at [email protected]
- Call us at 888-725-DATA
- Text us at 315-303-2040
Emily Rodgers
A SUNY Cortland graduate, Emily has taken her passion for social and content marketing to Drive Research as the Marketing Manager. She has earned certificates for both Google Analytics and Google AdWords.
Learn more about Emily, here.
