TV advertising campaigns can cause up to an 80 percent increase in brand searches, according to research by performance marketing specialist, Efficient Frontier.
Dr Siddarth Shah, Efficient Frontier’s director of business analytics, analysed the impact of an eight-week TV campaign on brand searches, and found a direct correlation between TV ad spend and an increase in the number of searches performed on the brand, in both the short and medium term.
Searches during an eight-week TV ad campaign will typically jump between 60 to 80 percent on the brand name, and between 40 and 60 percent on generic terms related to the brand.
The research showed that a well-established brand with a high degree of awareness will experience a smaller jump in online traffic during a TV ad campaign than a small brand.
Dr Shah also analysed the impact of a high-profile but short TV campaign (for example, the Super Bowl ad spots in the US- arguably the most high profile slots in the world) on search performance. This shows that a particularly large increase in TV advertising spend (for example, Super Bowl in the US, or a high-profile slot such as the X Factor in the UK) can result in increased search traffic for up to six weeks after the initial campaign.
As a result of this research, Efficient Frontier advises companies to prepare for the increase in search spikes around TV advertising campaign, by taking the following steps:
1. Anticipate a spike in traffic volume on your website both from paid and organic searches. Ensure that both your brand and non-branded search terms are at high positions to capture all the traffic
2. Expect better than average conversion rates. While you may be worried about spending beyond your allocated search budget straight after the TV advertising campaign, you will also see much better than average conversion rates, which means lower acquisition costs
3. Ensure that your Facebook campaigns are aligned with your TV efforts and link your Facebook pages to the video of your TV ads. Measure the effectiveness of your Facebook campaign using metrics such as average time spent and engagement, and less to lower metrics such as conversions
4. Measure the effectiveness of your TV ad on your online marketing efforts right after the ad runs, then again after a week, a month and beyond. In most cases, the performance of your search campaign will last much longer than the period of the TV advertising campaign.
The research follows a recent Forrester Report “The case for a dedicated online ad management platform” (commissioned by Efficient Frontier) which revealed that some of the worlds largest brands are failing to integrate their online and offline advertising campaigns and that they lack the tools to measure effectively the impact of cross-channel campaigns.
The impact of a TV ad campaign on online traffic
The impact of TV advertising on click-throughs
www.efrontier.com
