How to measure the success of your TV campaign

Author
Ed French

Television advertising has long been a popular medium for businesses to reach their target audience and promote their products or services. However, with the proliferation of digital channels and increased competition, it has become crucial for businesses to measure the effectiveness of their TV ad campaigns. 

Key performance indicators (KPIs) play a vital role in evaluating the success of TV ad campaigns. This article will explore the best KPIs to measure TV ad campaign success and how to measure them effectively. By understanding and tracking these KPIs, businesses can optimise their TV ad campaigns for better results and higher returns on investment.

Measuring TV ad campaign performance

In today's highly competitive marketing world, measuring the effectiveness of advertising campaigns is critical to ensuring that a company's resources are being invested wisely. That's where analysis comes in; it enables marketers to determine what's working and what isn't, allowing them to adjust their strategies accordingly.

On the other hand, identifying the right KPIs to measure in TV advertising can be difficult. While metrics such as foot traffic, web traffic, and revenue are important indicators of success, they only tell a portion of the story. Other, more subtle signs that advertising has an effect can be detected even before an increase in traffic, or revenue is visible.

For example, increased brand recognition, improved brand sentiment, and increased social media engagement indicate a successful TV advertising campaign. Marketers can get a complete picture of the performance of their campaigns by measuring these KPIs alongside more traditional metrics. This assists in identifying areas for improvement and provides valuable insights for future campaigns.

In short, while analysis is an essential step in marketing, it is critical to look beyond the apparent metrics when determining the success of television advertising. Businesses can better understand the impact of their campaigns and make more informed decisions about where to invest their resources in the future by identifying and tracking a variety of KPIs.

The KPIs you should be tracking

By selecting appropriate metrics to measure the success of your TV ad campaign through the following KPIs, you can gain a deeper comprehension of the campaign's effectiveness.

Organic mentions

Organic mentions are when your brand or product is mentioned online without the help of paid advertising. These mentions can come from anywhere, including TV programs, social media, forums, blogs, and news articles. Beyond traditional metrics like website traffic and revenue, tracking and measuring organic TV mentions are a valuable way to gauge the impact of your TV ad campaign.

Here are some steps to find and measure organic mentions:

  • Set up a social media monitoring tool: Many tools allow you to monitor mentions of your brand or product on social media platforms. Examples include Hootsuite, Mention, and Brandwatch.

  • Use TV mention monitoring tools: Access show-level contextual data for programming across channels and find when relevant mentions are happening on TV. With the help of TV mention monitoring tools, you can leverage contextual data to inform your advertising campaign.

  • Use Google Alerts: Set up Google Alerts for your brand or product name so that you receive notifications whenever it is mentioned in news articles, blog posts, or other online content.

  • Monitor online forums and discussion boards: Look for forums and discussion boards related to your industry or product and track mentions of your brand or product.

  • Analyse sentiment: When measuring organic mentions, it's essential to count the number of mentions and analyse the sentiment. Positive mentions indicate that your TV ad campaign positively impacts your brand or product perception, while negative mentions may show areas that need improvement. Professional TV data businesses offer excellent tools to help you analyse sentiment.

  • Compare with previous data: To determine whether your TV ad campaign significantly impacts organic mentions, compare your current data with previous data to track changes.

Impact of competitor’s campaign

Competitors' TV ad campaigns can significantly impact the effectiveness of someone's own TV ad campaign. Competitors running TV ads simultaneously can lead to ad clutter, reduced audience attention, and increased ad costs. 

Measuring the impact of competitors' campaigns on one's own TV ad campaign can be done by tracking metrics such as ad recall, ad awareness, brand favorability, and purchase intent. Professional TV data businesses can help you find and leverage relevant data.

These metrics can provide insights into how the target audience responds to the competitor's and one's own TV ad campaigns. By analysing these metrics, businesses can adjust their TV ad campaigns to remain competitive and effective in the marketplace.

Organic traffic

Measuring organic traffic is a crucial way to determine the success of a TV ad campaign. Organic traffic refers to the number of visitors who visit a website through unpaid, natural search engine results. When a TV ad campaign is successful, it can increase brand awareness and generate interest in the company, which can lead to increased organic traffic to the company's website.

By tracking organic traffic during and after a TV ad campaign, businesses can determine if the campaign generates interest and drives visitors to their website. This can be done through tools like Google Analytics, which allows companies to monitor website traffic and see which channels visitors are coming from, including organic search.

Foot traffic

Foot traffic is a clear indicator of a successful TV ad campaign, and an increase in customers during slow periods is a positive sign that your ad is having an impact. You can track changes in customer behaviour by monitoring foot traffic before and after the campaign and adjusting your marketing strategies accordingly. Increased foot traffic can increase sales, a crucial KPI for measuring the campaign's success. 

Website conversion rate

The website conversion rate is an excellent KPI for measuring the success of a TV ad campaign. It measures the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action, such as purchasing, filling out a form, or subscribing to a newsletter. 

By tracking changes in website conversion rate before and after a TV ad campaign, you can determine if the campaign drives more visitors to take these desired actions. However, it's essential to consider other factors that may influence website conversion rates, such as changes to the website or other marketing campaigns.

Increase in sales revenue

An increase in sales revenue is an excellent metric for measuring the success of a TV ad campaign. Ultimately, advertising aims to drive sales and increase revenue, making it a crucial KPI to track.

 

Businesses can determine if the campaign successfully increased sales by comparing revenue before and after the TV ad campaign. However, it is essential to consider other factors that may have contributed to the increase in sales, such as seasonality or changes in consumer behaviour. Therefore, it's best to track revenue alongside other KPIs to get a comprehensive understanding of the TV ad campaign's impact.

Brand searches

Brand searches can be a good metric for the success of TV ad campaigns, as they indicate that they have created awareness and interest in the brand. When viewers see a TV ad, they may not immediately visit the brand's website or make a purchase, but they may remember the brand and search for it later. Therefore, increasing brand searches following a TV ad campaign can positively indicate its success.

Brand searches can be tracked through tools like Google Trends or Google Search Console, showing the number of searches for a particular brand over time. However, it's important to note that brand searches alone may not provide a complete picture of TV ad campaign success. They should be considered in conjunction with other KPIs, such as website traffic, sales revenue, and social media engagement.

Key takeaways

A successful TV advertising campaign can be measured through various Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). We listed several KPIs that should be measured, including organic mentions, the impact of competitors' campaigns, sales revenue and many more. Measuring some of these KPIs is made more accessible with tools provided by professional data businesses.

These KPIs can help determine the campaign's effectiveness and provide valuable insights for future advertising strategies. Advertisers must establish clear and measurable KPIs before launching a TV advertising campaign to ensure that the campaign effectively achieves its goals. By monitoring these KPIs, advertisers can make informed decisions about optimising their campaigns to achieve better results.

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