Contributor: RC Williams, Account Manager, AnalyticOwl
In an increasingly competitive and evolving media landscape, and with growing advertiser demand for tangible, measurable responses, radio has never been more ready to meet the challenge.
The game-changer has been attribution. Radio advertisers can now measure response to broadcast advertising in the same way they measure response to digital advertising. And within this reporting are key components that help advertisers understand how, when, and why customers respond, and how to effectively lean into those trends to drive even more engagement and response:
- Website Traffic Attribution
We all know that website traffic is an excellent indicator of media response – devices are always within reach, and when a listener hears a spot that resonates, it’s quick and easy to search and find the advertiser’s website. Radio can now take credit for the role it plays in this natural response path by measuring traffic increases immediately after a spot airs.
- Foot Traffic Attribution
We also know that radio broadcast advertising drives foot traffic, and it can now be measured to show advertisers increases that occur in the days, weeks and months following the airing of spots.
Enhanced Measurement, ROI Maximized
With these powerful new tools, radio can effectively connect the dots to help advertisers maximize the potential ROI for every dollar spent on radio.
- Creative Optimization
Via attribution, radio can show which creative messages resonate most with audiences, turning every ad spot into a gigantic focus group with a sample size of the entire listening audience. People vote with their attention, essentially telling us what they want to hear and when they want to hear it. This allows for the A/B testing of creating and constant testing and optimization of campaigns.
- Schedule and Daypart Optimization
Radio can now also see which dayparts, stations and days of the week are most effective for advertisers, and can tweak messages or increase frequency to take advantage of data-driven opportunities.
- Measuring Key Performance Indicators
Understanding the amount of traffic that can be attributed to radio ads within a certain time frame, and how much radio is contributing to website and foot traffic is a simple and efficient way to show the impact of radio advertising, and how it correlates with physical visits to a location.
What does all of this add up to? Radio stations that tap into the power of broadcast attribution are seeing more success in attracting, retaining, and winning back business while at the same time delivering additional value to their advertisers and driving traffic, sales and growth for them. It has become table stakes, for radio to, not only remain competitive with other forms of media but delivering it to advertisers because advertisers are demanding it. And that is just what radio is doing.
I liked the article very much, but I was wondering, are you talking attribution for streaming radio. or terrestrial radio also, and how do you do the attribution? I can see Facebook and web-site being able to track, but is there some where we in terrestrial radio can go to help us with attribution, or do we work something up that works for us? I’m the Sales Manager for our stations, but I am not as savvy in the tech world, but we have staff on board that is, and we can see how beneficial this would be for our clients, and future clients. We would like more information! Thank-you so much!!
For terrestrial, the AnalyticOwl platform works by matching post-log spot times with a clients Google Analytics website traffic data by the minute.
We then measure an 8 minute window after each commercial airs and look for spikes in website traffic to determine directional insights – what creative or schedule tweaks can be made to make the campaign better.
The 8 minute window is by design, and on purpose. We tested different time intervals, but now can confirm, via measuring 3 billion responses to broadcast ads, that it provides data that can help optimize a campaign while providing response benchmarks for predictive success.
For streaming, if there’s a timestamp (like the date/time on terrestrial post logs), we can track and provide attribution as well