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Radio has been around for decades, but the audience for digital audio has been growing rapidly over the past 10 years - to the point where it has even surpassed traditional radio for the first time this year.
Music streaming, internet radio, and podcasts are exploding in popularity and new devices like smart speakers and headphones are driving growth even more. And not only does this present new opportunities for brands to promote their products and services - but because digital audio can be targeted and tracked, it's also creating new avenues to measure the effectiveness of audio ad campaigns.
Measuring Audio Ad Effectiveness
Inside the AudioGO platform, you can view campaign metrics like impressions, unique listeners, listen-through-rates (LTR), and click-through-rates (CTR) all in real time. These metrics are there to help marketers understand the impact of their ads on their brands. When also paired with an automation platform like ActiveDEMAND, which adds additional tracking and reporting for direct response campaigns, SMBs and agencies will have even more tools to move new prospects along their buyer's journey.
However, when it comes to measuring direct response, it's a bit tougher for digital audio because it's often consumed when the listener is not in front of a screen, disconnecting them from the way we usually measure conversion. This means we need to use a few different techniques in tandem to measure impact - and to really understand which ads are bringing home the bacon.
Coupon Codes are a traditional way to measure advertising effectiveness and they have been used for a long time. A modern spin on coupon codes is using a vanity URL or landing page to measure website visits coming in off an audio ad.
"Go to MyPoolWebsite.com for your free pool cleaner combo", or "go to mywebsite.com/trial for a free 2-week trial"
Tracking Text In is an easy way for consumers to reach out to an advertiser via their mobile phone. You can collect prospect phone numbers and automatically send them coupon codes or offers they requested.
"Text #sample to us to get a free sample package sent to you"
Tracking Phone Numbers are another traditional method of measuring ad effectiveness and offers a better choice than a website if back and forth conversation is needed to start the buyer's journey. This is usually the case for plumbers, locksmiths, and other quote-based businesses.
"Call 1-888-dial-now to get started"
Tracking Link Clicks from online radio platforms, podcast show notes, and popup ads is a pretty concrete measurement and can be done easily with tracking links.
Centralized ROI on Audio
All these tracking methods must be integrated so you don't double count conversions and the ad source is connected to a real prospect or customer. ActiveDEMAND enables effective audio, internet radio and podcast result tracking because you can build campaigns inside ActiveDEMAND that include:
- Landing pages with offers to match your audio ads
- New tracking phone numbers set-up in under a minute (even search by word so you can find that "1-888-MYOFFER" style phone number)
- Tracked links inside each campaign
- Text-in campaigns to automatically respond to prospects
- Dashboard to see real-time results
- Emailed reports on KPIs of the campaigns - scheduled automatically daily, weekly, or monthly
This last piece is probably the most crucial: because ActiveDEMAND also handles tracking other advertising and attribution across multiple visits, even for anonymous users, you can see how online radio influences buyers who may need a couple of visits to convert. You won't lose the context because you're stuck with "last touch" style attribution.
Close the Loop
Many marketing efforts may see to be throwing information at the masses and hoping it brings them to your brand, but the smart marketer knows effective marketing is dependent upon customer data. When you can close the loop on marketing initiatives and final sales, you can optimize and improve. In other words, understand the customer and then use that information to better market to them, and that requires the right tools.
AudioGO makes audio advertising more accessible to those looking to extend their digital marketing. The platform allows advertisers to set up and run targeted campaigns very quickly and track results in real-time. When paired with a marketing automation platform like ActiveDEMAND, users extend their audio campaign tracking capabilities to phone calls, texts, tracked keywords, links, and more. ActiveDEMAND's range of native CRM integrations takes it one step further so brands can completely close the loop around customer behavior, sales, and audio marketing.
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About the Author
Adriel Michaud is the VP of Marketing for ActiveDEMAND. He loves the numbers side of marketing and sales: the analytics, advertising, and insights you can pull from all the data that's available today. When he's not eyeballs deep in Excel sheets, he enjoys writing articles, shooting videos, and recording podcasts.
About ActiveDEMAND
ActiveDEMAND is an integrated marketing platform built for businesses to help them easily create, execute, and track marketing engagement of their campaigns. Providing powerful features such as webinar integration, advanced appointment scheduling, and personalization tools, it is built and priced for businesses to effectively market and grow their business.
