Digital audio advertising provides benefits far beyond traditional broadcast ads. One of the most exciting benefits is the way you can use tracking and data analysis to measure the effectiveness of your ad campaigns.
Some of the best ways to measure ad effectiveness include:
- Engagement and performance metrics
- Conversion tracking
- Brand lift studies
- Location analytics
- Creative testing
- Audience segmentation analysis
There's no need to rely on guesswork when data-driven decisions are possible. You can measure success scientifically so you'll know what works and what doesn't. That knowledge can make a big impact in running a successful ad campaign.
Let's take a detailed look at how to measure audio ad campaigns and how to use advertising metrics to optimize your campaigns.
Why Measuring Audio Ad Campaign Performance Matters
A non-performing audio ad wastes your advertising dollars — but it's far worse than that. It wastes time as you try to build brand recognition and wastes opportunities to boost sales. Before we turn to the best ways of measuring ad campaign success, let's review what's at stake if you don't.
Measuring audio ad campaign performance enables you to:
- Maximize ROI. Return on investment is the bottom line. You put a lot of effort and expenses into your ad campaign. If your ads don't produce positive, demonstrable marketing responses, then your ROI is suffering. For optimal ROI levels, you'll want to see immediate responses while also building long-term brand recognition.
- Improve ROAS. Return on ad spend (ROAS) is an even tighter way to look at ROI. For each dollar spent specifically on ad time, what is produced? Leveraging your marketing data will help you get the greatest returns.
- Optimize campaign performance. Real-time performance data enables businesses and ad agencies to adjust ad content, time slots, and other elements. For example, data like listen-through-rates (LTRs) and audio completion rates reveal audience engagement. Tweaking different elements helps you pinpoint the highest message resonances.
- Demonstrate impact. The marketing department has to compete for resources within the business. It's easier to get the marketing resources you need when you can demonstrate with facts and figures that your ad campaigns are effective.
Essential Audio Advertising Tracking
There are many ways to measure the effectiveness of a digital audio advertising campaign. When you are deciding which ones best apply to your circumstances, remember what your goals are for the campaign. You could be looking to define and analyze:
- Direct response goals. Sign-ups, downloads, purchases, calls, clicks.
- Brand awareness goals. Increased recall, recognition, and favorability.
- Engagement goals. Boosting time spent with your brand or social media interactions.
Here are some ways to use digital audio data and metrics to your advantage.
Engagement and Creative Performance Metrics
Any ad might connect with at least some of your listeners. But that's not good enough — you want maximum engagement for the greatest ROAS. LTRs and completion rates are key metrics to consider here. They will help you answer questions like:
- Which script produces the best results?
- Does one announcer voice work better than another?
- Does changing ad length, music selection, or sound effects have an effect?
- Will reducing or increasing brand mentions in an ad improve results?
Conversion Tracking
There's a great way to find out how effective conversions are: the AudioGo Pixel. This little snippet of HTML code, when added to your home page or any webpage you are promoting, can track and measure clicks and visits from listeners. With it, you can:
- Track website visitors from your ad campaigns.
- Track immediate clicks as well as delayed direct visits.
- Measure leads and new customer acquisition.
- Monitor and optimize campaign performance.
- Understand the customer journey from audio ad to conversion.
Brand Impact Measurements
It's important to know if your ad's creative content has a positive effect on listeners. One way to find out is with a brand lift study. These studies compare control groups with ad-exposed audiences. Your control group is targeted listeners who haven't heard your ad. The test group has heard your ad.
After both groups are surveyed, several things can be discovered. Awareness of your brand, favorability toward it, and willingness-to-buy are a few of the important metrics.
Location Analytics and Foot Traffic
Knowing how audio ads improve foot traffic to brick-and-mortar businesses can be tricky, but digital audio makes it possible.
Digital audio enables you to measure physical conversions in several ways. You can include specific promo codes or discounts in your audio ads that customers can use only in your physical store locations. Having clerks simply ask "How did you hear about us?" is another way to collect conversion data.
Then there's asking for an email address or phone number. That information can be cross-correlated with digital campaign data to analyze ad effectiveness even further.
Audience Segmentation Analysis
Audience segmentation allows you to target select groups with ads that will be relevant to them. It's the opposite of broadcasting! Segmentation also can give you valuable campaign performance data so you can see how targeted groups respond to audio advertising.
Here are some different ways to use audience segmentation data:
- Examine performance from demographic segments—age, gender, income, location—to see which audiences deliver the strongest engagements and conversions.
- Device-specific insights reveal what produces better results—mobile phones, desktop, smart speakers, connected cars. That knowledge helps refine ad placement strategies.
- Analyzing audio genre preferences reveals how listener taste impacts engagement, enabling you to match creatives and offers with the best environments.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of behavioral targeting by analyzing interests, lifestyle indicators, or purchase intent. This helps determine the audience traits that align with campaign goals. Then, you can focus spending to get the best results.
How to Optimize Campaigns Based on Audio Ad Measurements
Now let's take a look at ways to use this data to improve your campaign and ROAS.
Data-Driven Campaign Adjustments
You no longer have to wait for a campaign to end and do a post-mortem examination to assess the results. Use real-time reporting of data to adjust in real time.
You have the power to modify ad content and do A/B testing. Using demographic breakdowns, you can refine your audience targeting to find more favorable listeners.
Scaling Successful Campaigns
Performance data can help you reallocate your resources to get the maximum returns in different ways.
- Once high-performing audience segments are uncovered, focus or increase ad spending toward them.
- When creative modifications prove effective, expand and test them on other segments.
- Location analytics can guide you on inflating or deflating coverage in different regions.
- Gently test other markets and targets for favorable responses, even if they don't appear the best match at first.
Long-term Performance Improvements
In addition to improving the performance of an ongoing campaign, measuring audio ad results can help you plan for future activity. With the right audio advertising, success builds on success.
Measuring audio ad campaigns can help you:
- Identify which messages, tones, and placements drive the overall highest recall.
- Use your data to refine strategy, reinforce elements, and phase out underperforming approaches.
- Track conversion data for attribution modeling—first-touch, last-touch, or multitouch.
- Create feedback loops for continuous optimization and turn every campaign into a learning opportunity.
A Tool for Measuring Audio Ad Campaigns
AudioGo provides everything you'll need to measure your digital campaign's effectiveness. Your personalized reporting dashboard displays real-time metrics, anytime you want to see them, 24/7. With up-to-the-minute analytics, you'll get comprehensive tracking from impressions to conversions. And much more.
Your dashboard also provides campaign start/end dates, your allocated budget, plus total and daily ad spending. You'll gain other valuable insights, too. Advanced segmentation and dimensional analysis let you view listeners by age groups, gender, content genre, interests and statuses, and location. You can see what device listeners stream on, the content publisher they use, what podcast show they're listening to, and even which podcast app they use.
Sign up now and explore AudioGo's advanced measurement tools with even more features, templates, and report scheduling options. Don't let another day slip by without taking advantage of what AudioGo offers. Create a free account today.
