The Analytics, Measuring, & Advantages of Radio Advertising
A short story I just made up, entitled I went to the store, told two ways.
I made it to the store as quickly as I could have, while burning the least amount of fuel possible.
I made it to the store, but only after a tire (that I’d neglected) blew, I ran out of gas, and then the timing belt needed repair, after all. Then, I had to wait in my car (with my perishables spoiling) because my battery died, and my neighbor Kim was coming to give me a jump.
These scenarios are the reasons the expression “under the hood” is so important in all walks of life - not just automotive maintenance.
If by some chance you’ve not heard it, it just means what’s really happening underneath the surface. Relationships, work, diet, mental health, and yes, your vehicle - benefit immensely from occasional under the hood inspections.
Your advertising can also be assisted by a tune up from time to time, thanks to modern technology - like the collection listed below!
Let’s analyze the tools you can use to up your marketing and advertising efforts, and better grasp what consumers and web visitors.
Google Analytics
Yes, Google Analytics is primarily about website performance, but with a few handy tidbits of knowledge, you can use it to trace back how your radio campaign did.
Within Google Analytics, you can determine whether traffic to your website came from direct search, meaning if you’re a plumber named Bob with your own self-titled business, someone typed in “Bob’s plumbing”. Alternatively, you can see if it came organically, meaning your website appeared from a query not including your business name.
With this, you are able to see spikes in web traffic at any given point in time. Correlate this to when your radio ads air, and you’re left with a strong sense of how well your ads are capturing listeners.
Tip:
From the Google Analytics home page, select “Acquisition”. Then look for the “Annotations” Menu, where you can select a date for which you can apply notes. (Hint: use radio campaign start dates).
Landing Pages
These are often the simplest way to gauge the reach of your radio ads. The lone downside is that it requires arguably the most work (the actual act of building a landing page).
Let’s start from square one - in case you are brand new to the business world; a landing page differs from a homepage or any set webpage in that it’s meant for a temporary but precise call to action, like a promotion. The page needs to have a clear, concise, and linear goal with the page.
Of course, on top of the writing and the building of a landing page, you have to have the promotion. You can’t simply end your radio ads with “Visit this link so we know you did, thanks.”
Assuming you have a worthy reason for a listener to visit the landing page, this is as informative as it gets. To really strengthen success tracking, have your radio campaign alone include the landing page as a call-to-action, so you know that every visitor who found it, was a result of your business being heard on the airwaves. Either that, or a specific code that you only use from that one promotional source, be that radio or other, so you can create quality data to pull insights from.
Rumple
You’ll see Rumple’s homepage header reads “the most loved CRM for media companies”. There are two things to know off of that.
They are 100% correct.
It’s a reason to work with the right media company if you are a small-medium business.
Their Media Driven Traffic reports reveal how a business’ media elevated the number of new visitors, web-searched visitors, alongside pages viewed and time of session spent.
They also can sync with your Google Business listing and the subsequent post-ad visits, helping optimize the best-performing time, days and target audiences for your product or service.
Good Ol’ Fashioned Geography
*Skip if your business operates in 1-2 counties*
Okay, perhaps it’s not a technology, but regions themselves can be a superweapon for identifying radio advertising success - or lack thereof. And it’s due to the simple beauty of the process of elimination:
How are your sales and web visits in regions airing ads, compared to those not airing them?
Again, some data could always be attributed to coincidence. So be sure to record at least two months’ worth of preceding data to ensure a sound baseline against which you can compare the upcoming, radio-influenced numbers.
You will want to make sure the regions aren’t selected completely randomly. Having similar demographic and media exposure will ensure you have equal footing for comparison.
The Best Radio Advertising in Boise: Get Under the Hood to Get More Sales
You know the ending of Cast Away when Tom Hanks is
*spoiler alert*
On his makeshift raft just…meandering in the ocean, hoping for the faintest sign of help?
That’s advertising without the incredible tracking and analytics tools available. We know their impact, because we use them every day for every client.
So whether it’s your business or someone’s you know, getting ahead of competition can start with the right usage of the right tools. So let’s chat and make it happen, especially since we’ll make a custom radio schedule to fit your needs, because being heard matters.
