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Home Services Ads on Radio: What’s Working Best

Contributor: Rick Kestenbaum, General Manager, AnalyticOwl

Is a homeowner ever truly done with repairs and projects? Most homeowners will tell you no, and that creates constant opportunity for businesses in the home services category.

An AnalyticOwl Industry Insights report for the home services category, based on response measured between February 1, 2022 and January 31, 2023, reveals a number of opportunities that advertisers can use to better understand the impact of radio on website and foot traffic, and they can also use this to understand where and how to optimize to even better response.

One key finding is that during this date range, 77% of website visits occurring immediately after commercials aired came from search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.), while only 19% of website visits came from users who entered a specific website address. Why is this important? In Google Analytics, the “Referring Source” metric identifies the last website a visitor saw. That can give the impression that all of that traffic should be attributed to search engines, when in reality, many visits are from people who had just heard a commercial and then used a search engine to get to the site. Understanding that people will overwhelmingly behave this way no matter what call to action is used is key to understanding the full impact of radio. Hard-to-remember website or landing pages addresses, dedicated phone numbers and response codes all attempt to create a narrow response path that most people simply won’t go down.

Four days were tied for best response days – Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. The other three days were not far behind. In this case, the best strategy is a consistent presence throughout the week in order to leverage that steady flow. The best daypart overall was midday, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., but afternoon was close behind. Morning drive airings often drive this “halo effect” later in the day, and evenings and overnights often prove to deliver good value given lower rates. And :30 was the best performing ad duration, driving 3% lift in web traffic. This is an important consideration for those using :15s and/or :60s.

Radio visitors also drove quality visits. Session durations averaged one minute, 42 seconds with an average of 2.2 pages viewed, indicating serious interest and response. Bounce rates were on the lower side, 39%, indicating that fewer people just visit a single page before leaving the site. And 61% of site visitors used a mobile device, a great reminder that radio audiences can easily respond anywhere and everywhere. Radio reaches consumers on-the-go.

Radio has proven to be an excellent way to not only keep listeners thinking about home improvement projects, but also to get them to act. According to Scarborough data, radio reaches 86% of adults who plan to do any home improvement within the next year.

Not only does radio have high reach, it also has the ability to drive consumers to home service business websites. Advertisers in this category who use radio and follow these insights will build upon their current service sales.

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