Advertising takes many forms, especially in 2022. From sponsored social media ads to web banners ads, in-app ads, influencer posts, and video ads, advertising is everywhere, and it isn’t cheap. It is not uncommon for a business to spend 2% to 5% of annual revenues on advertising. However, the last three years have made many brands waver their enthusiasm for advertising. 

Businesses feel the pain of the pandemic, supply chain disruptions, worker shortages, and now sky-rocketing gasoline prices. Staying in the green is becoming a daunting task with no end. As business owners trim overhead costs to accommodate these economic challenges, advertising is often the first thing on the chopping block. 

While advertising can seem like a luxury during tough times, it’s crucial to remain resilient in the face of adversities. For brands to get the most out of their advertising budget and resources, they must conduct advertising research and begin measuring advertising effectiveness. This article will answer the question, “What is advertising effectiveness?” and show you how to get there.

What Is Advertising Effectiveness? 

Advertising effectiveness is how well a businesses’ advertising campaigns perform based on pre-selected metrics. At a basic level, advertising can inform customers about a product or service, persuade them to take action, or remind them to complete an action. Within these segments, there are metrics that allow marketers to measure the effectiveness of each ad.

The metrics that matter will vary based on the campaign’s goal; however, some common metrics include referrals, social visits, organic visits, paid search visits, reach, impressions, engagement, click-through-rate (CTR), cost-per-click (CPC), conversion rate, return on ad spend (ROAS), social media sentiment, and earned mentions. 

Measuring Advertising Effectiveness 

Advertising alone isn’t a guarantee of business growth. Many companies throw money out the window with ineffective advertising, i.e., targeting the wrong people or advertising to them in the wrong way. Advertising must generate positive results month after month. Without an established plan to measure campaign results, you can’t prove your ad’s performance. Here are a few powerful metrics to track by channel.

Website 

A website is the foundation of any good marketing campaign. In most cases, businesses want people to end up on their website to learn about their company and perform some kind of action, like purchasing, calling, or filling out a form. There are several advertising metrics you can look at to determine if your campaigns are driving people to your website effectively. 

  • Referrals: Visitors who find your website by clicking a link from another website. 
  • Social visits: Visitors who come from social networks.
  • Organic visits: Visitors who come from search engine queries.
  • Paid search visits: People who visit from search ads at the top or bottom of engine searches like Google.

Social Media

Social media has transformed the way ads are delivered to customers. Businesses can reach customers far more directly than TV, radio, or newspapers. Social media brings brands to where their customers are. Metrics to track advertising effectiveness on social media include:  

  • Reach: The total number of users who have seen your ads on social media.
  • Impressions: The number of times your posts were seen.
  • Engagement: The number of times a user took action on your ads or sponsored posts, i.e., clicking on the link, sharing the post, leaving a comment, and/or a reaction.
  • CTR (click-through rate): The percentage of people who see your ad and click through to the post-click landing page.
  • ROAS (return on advertising spend): The percentage of total campaign revenue over total campaign cost. Essentially, the amount of revenue you earn for each dollar spent on ads.
  • Cost per click (CPC): How much you pay for each click or action (i.e., conversion, sale, etc.).
  • Conversion rate: The percentage of times your ads lead to the desired action (i.e., a sale or a subscription).
  • Social media sentiment: People’s attitudes and feelings towards your brand on social media. 
  • Earned mentions: The number of brand mentions and links from social media users. 

How To Resonate With Target Audience 

A great ad with crystal clear metrics is useless without the proper targeting. You can’t target everyone because your product isn’t for everyone. You can’t be all things to all people. A target market is a specific, defined segment of consumers that a company plans to serve with its products or services. 

A “target audience,” on the other hand, is more granular than a “target market.” It refers specifically to the group of consumers targeted by marketing messaging. For example, stationary bicycle brands can serve large markets, like mothers in their 30s making $100,000 per year. However, each marketing campaign should target a niche within those larger markets, such as mothers in their 30s making $100,000 per year who don’t have time to go to the gym but want to stay fit at home. 

With a clearly defined target audience, every marketing campaign and advertisement can be customized to their needs and desires. If you know how to create marketing messages that truly resonate with your target audience, you’ll achieve higher conversion rates and build a more powerful brand. The best way to understand which messages are best? 

With customer personas and advertising research. Buyer personas represent who your ideal customer is based on data and market research. The persona is like a marketing baseball card with a breakdown of who your customer is. Additionally, ad and message testing, with the metrics listed above, will allow you to ensure that the ads you are investing in will resonate with your customers.

Wrap Up

Clearly defined target audiences and advertising research are the key to any business’s long-term success. But remember, testing is the only way to truly know who you should target, how to talk to them, and if it’s working.
Fuel Cycle provides brands with a complete set of media research tools to survey and respond to the audience’s needs, taking the guesswork out of content ideation. Click here to learn more about our media and advertising research solutions today.