Multiple Approaches for Measuring Advertising Reach

Brand USA has consistently deployed post-wave consumer survey studies to measure advertising effectiveness since its first campaign in 2012. Over time, however, an increasing percentage of Brand USA marketing efforts are falling outside of concentrated brand campaigns, often in the form of smaller promotions or cooperative marketing. To effectively measure a wider breadth of advertising effectiveness in a cost-efficient way, Brand USA will begin to supplement its large post-campaign studies with consistent monthly consumer awareness surveys in primary target markets.

The Challenge of Measuring Reach

Smaller promotions are difficult, if not impossible, to measure individually with random-sample consumer studies because the audience is narrow and reaching sufficient sample sizes is often difficult and cost prohibitive. Cooperative marketing is also challenging to measure because the media is often concentrated to a certain media partner (e.g. BBC), the creative content often has multiple iterations and/or the buys are relatively small.

To effectively measure a wider breadth of advertising effectiveness in a cost-efficient way, Brand USA will begin to supplement its large post-campaign studies with monthly random-sample consumer awareness surveys in primary target markets. The objective of these studies is to provide more comprehensive metrics on our overall advertising reach and effectiveness, including cooperative marketing campaigns and evergreen efforts such as search marketing and social media, rather than individual campaigns. Though these studies will not tie awareness to any specific campaign, they will track the overall reach Brand USA has achieved through the full range of its marketing activities.

In addition to understanding Brand USA’s performance, monthly tracking allows us to keep a finger on the pulse of seasonal trends. When approaching a target audience with an annual study, questions typically cover the whole year and rely heavily on the respondent to remember details such as when they planned their trip. With a monthly fielding approach, the question can be simplified to – “Are you currently planning a trip?” The overall objective is the same, but it is easier for respondents to indicate what they are doing right now rather than remember when they took specific actions in the past.

The ability to field questions more frequently opens a myriad of possibilities, but it does clearly come with a price. To balance the frequency with depth of results, Brand USA will be utilizing an omnibus survey vendor to field brief monthly questionnaires as well as continuing post-wave research for large advertising campaigns. The monthly surveys will provide breadth, including what percentage of our target audience has received any form of Brand USA messaging. The post-campaign studies provide depth, such as what degree our advertising has influenced their desire to visit the USA.

Brand Lift and Behavioral Options

In addition to post-wave surveys, Brand USA has also tested survey-based brand lift studies when possible with certain digital ad campaigns. The objective of these studies is to measure the differential between a test group and an ad-served group along several parameters, most importantly regarding their intent to visit the U.S. On the whole, however, the results tend to be unreliable as they have not been able to achieve robust sample sizes (400+) with regularity. Results often fall within the margin of error, essentially rendering the studies inconclusive. Brand USA will continue to explore opportunities to leverage brand lift methodologies, but will not establish these studies as a regular operating practice until a more reliable sampling method is secured.

Some of the most exciting developments in measuring ad effectiveness move away from survey research to leveraging behavioral data. One methodology utilizes website pixels to enable brands to capture and analyze later behavior. Brand USA’s objective is to eventually utilize this technology to correlate website visitation with subsequent bookings. The challenge with this methodology is the time lapse that can occur between early phase travel planning (the phase Brand USA seeks to impact) and booking. For travelers who take multiple trips a year, it can be difficult to connect the dots, particularly when data providers have incomplete coverage. Nevertheless, the development of behavioral tracking creates new capabilities on a regular basis and Brand USA will continue to seek ways to leverage technology to better quantify ad effectiveness.