Advertisements are a main source of revenue for many businesses. We see brands focusing on creating ad campaigns every day to increase reach, generate leads, and make more sales.
But, on the contrary, many consumers are opting out of advertising they don’t want to see.
So, with this challenge coming up, you need to ask yourself one question; ‘How do I determine if my ways of marketing are working or not?’
This is where measuring advertising effectiveness comes into play. You need to ensure that your marketing strategy is hitting the mark with the right mix of reach and relevance.
In this blog post, we’ll explain more about advertising effectiveness, its benefits, and how to run campaign evaluation surveys with market research.
Looking to measure your advertising effectiveness with surveys? Contact our market research company by filling out an online form or emailing [email protected].
What is Advertising Effectiveness?
Advertising effectiveness refers to the extent to which an advertising campaign or strategy achieves its objectives and successfully communicates its message to the target audience.
It is a measure of how well an advertisement or marketing effort influences consumer behavior, brand perception, and ultimately, the success of a product or service.
Our Reasons To Measure Ad Effectiveness
Ad effectiveness is a crucial strategy that helps brands understand the influence of their ads on the audience they want to reach.
Below are some of the reasons you should start measuring your ad effectiveness with surveys:
1. Data-driven marketing to make informed decisions
The goal for any brand wanting to measure ad effectiveness is to move beyond the use of behavioral and vanity metrics towards a more holistic solution.
Brands can understand how their message resonates with their target audiences, allowing for more informed decisions when it comes to deciding what kind of data-driven marketing strategies and materials to launch.
It's likely why 40% of marketers are using consumer research to drive decisions.
2. Improve Advertising ROI
Measuring ad effectiveness helps you to analyze customer data and use it to predict their needs, desires, and future behaviors.
These insights help you develop personalized marketing strategies to increase return on investment.
3. Make adjustments for future campaigns
Measuring ad effectiveness is important to know how your brand is doing, which elements were successful, and how to apply those elements in your future campaigns.
The insights revealed during the survey process help your brand understand how to steer future advertising activations.
You can also make changes to the running campaigns.
If an ad is not well received with digital advertising, it is possible to end the campaign or make real-time changes to deliver the message more effectively.
What Impacts the Effectiveness Of An Ad
Several factors can influence the effectiveness of an ad. These factors vary depending on the nature of the ad, the target audience, and the overall marketing strategy.
Here are some key elements that can impact the effectiveness of an ad:
1. Creativity and quality of the ad
While the ad equation involves many factors, creativity is the most critical element in ad effectiveness.
With the breakthroughs in data and technology, the elements of quality, context, creativity, and ad concept can significantly affect the outcome of a campaign.
An ad that is concise, well-written, relevant, and visually appealing attracts a wider audience. It's also essential to ensure you format it properly for the right placement.
Since their main goal is to increase sales, effective ads must convince consumers that a product can meet their needs or improve their quality of life.
2. Targeting
Radio and television were used in the past to reach as many people as possible, but now things have changed.
In today’s digital world, effective advertising means targeting specific segmented audiences. According to research, response rates can also fall below 2% when the respondent population is less-targeted.
Advertising can be more effective if you target your ideal consumers, therefore your advertising messaging must be personalized and tailored to the requirements of your target demographic.
It's important to consider factors such as age, gender, location, and interests when choosing a target audience.
Just another way you can use market research to learn more about your target audience and how to reach them.
3. Timing
The timing of the advertisement is very critical. It refers to when the ad is shown.
For instance, you may choose to show ads for your seasonal products before the specified period to increase visibility.
Showing your ad when your target audience is most likely to see it increases its effectiveness.
How to Measure Advertising Effectiveness with Surveys
Brands will always have different ways of determining what to measure, how to measure it, and what constitutes effective advertising.
Most brands rely on analytics to measure their campaigns, but with so many ad formats to implement and measure, is this even enough?
First, ask yourself the following questions:
- Were my ads placed on the right channels?
- Did the ads show for the right amount of time?
- Was the ad messaging convincing enough to the target audience?
- Was the ad shown to the target audience in the first place?
The truth is analytics alone cannot fully answer these questions. You can’t base your assumptions on data that reflects devices as opposed to people.
This is where campaign evaluation surveys come into play.
The step-by-step process our advertising market research company follows when conducting campaign evaluation surveys includes three steps:
Step #1: Run a survey before the marketing campaign
By running a survey before the ad campaign, you can get a baseline on how recognizable your brand is.
This could be:
- Determining if people know about your brand
- Identifying and leveraging the sources of brand awareness; which could be social media, Google, recommendations, etc.
- Finding out how people perceive your brand
- Identifying your target audience
- Identifying buyer decision-making criteria
This survey will allow you to get blind perceptions of old ads before exposing respondents to new ads.
Taking this step offers more insight into choosing the best marketing strategies to improve the effectiveness of your ad campaigns.
Read more about the pre-campaign survey on our Ultimate Guide to Ad Concept Testing Surveys.
Step #2: Launch the marketing campaign
After gathering clear pre-campaign metrics to use as a baseline, you can fix what didn’t work in your previous ads and launch your new marketing campaign.
Step#3: Run a post-campaign survey
The post-campaign survey includes testing the impact of the ad campaign.
It helps the company determine if the campaign was successful in communicating the message and creating an emotional connection with the audience.
When you conduct a post-campaign survey, you can ask specific questions that help you:
- Know if your ads are reaching the right audience
- Find out what viewers thought of the advertisement
- Determine if your ads are having the desired effect on your audience
- Find out if your ads are shifting attention in the right direction
- Determine the most effective attributes of the campaign
- Uncover new audiences you may not be aware of
Following these metrics, you can measure your brand’s advertising effectiveness and find better ways to improve it.
Types of Advertising Effectiveness Projects
Brand Tracking
Through ongoing brand tracking, companies can get a dynamic view of their brand health.
In the brand tracking studies we have done at Drive Research, it typically involves regular measurement of key performance indicators such as brand awareness, brand equity, and purchase intent.
Market Research Expert Tip
Often a brand's perceived value can fluctuate based on factors not directly related to advertising campaigns, such as viral social media moments or competitor movements, making continuous tracking invaluable when changes do happen.
Ad Concept Testing
Before ever airing an ad, it's crucial to test the concepts.
This is one type of advertising effectiveness project that always helps clients either save money on their advertising or make much more.
Usually, ad concept testing uses focus groups and/or surveys to gauge consumer reactions to different ad iterations.
Surprisingly, in practice sometimes the most simple and straightforward concept outperforms a more sophisticated and higher-budget alternative. It’s just another reason why testing is so important for brands that use advertising.
Recommended Reading: Ultimate Guide to Ad Concept Testing Surveys
Contact Our Advertising Effectiveness Research Company
Drive Research is a full-service market research company that partners with brands and agencies to provide data-driven marketing insights.
We can help you design, conduct, and analyze campaign evaluation surveys to measure your advertising effectiveness.
To learn more about our case studies and pricing, contact us today through any of the four ways below.
- 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 Senior Marketing Manager. She has earned certificates for both Google Analytics and Google AdWords.
Learn more about Emily, here.
