TV used to be hard to measure. It isn’t now, as long as you set the tracking up before the ad goes on air.
Track the direct response
- A dedicated phone number. Only used in the TV ad, so every call to it came from TV. Match the call times to when the ad aired and you can see which channels and slots work.
- A dedicated web address or landing page. Something easy to remember. Visits to it are TV visits.
- A promo code or offer only shown on TV, if your business suits one.
Watch what happens around it
Plenty of people who see your ad won’t call the number on screen. They’ll search your name later, or type your web address from memory, or mention you to their partner and look you up at the weekend.
So watch:
- Branded search. Searches for your company name in Google Search Console usually lift while the ad is on.
- Direct website traffic. People typing your address straight in.
- Minute-by-minute spikes. Website visits jumping in the few minutes after each spot is the clearest sign the ad is being seen and acted on.
- Sales and enquiries overall, compared with the same weeks last year and the weeks before the campaign.
Ask your media buyer for the post-campaign report
They’ll report how many of your target audience saw the ad and how often. Set that against your response numbers and you get cost per call, cost per lead and, eventually, return on ad spend.
Give it time
Judge a campaign over weeks, not days. The first week of a new campaign is often the slowest. TV builds as people see the ad for the second and third time.
Then use the numbers
The point of measuring is moving money. Put more airtime into the channels, days and times that pay back. Test a new opening line if calls are flat. Refresh the offer when response tails off. A campaign that’s tracked properly gets better every month it runs.