The Off-Line Impact of Online Ads, and Vice Versa
A recent Harvard Business Review article maintains that "online campaigns increase sales more at advertisers’ retail cash registers than on their websites." While it's relatively easy to measure the online sales impact of a Internet ad campaign, analyzing its offline impact on sales requires more complex techniques, such as utilizing surveys or loyalty program data.
A study quoted in the article shows that the US sales of a major retailer "increased by 40% online and by 50% off-line among people exposed to an online search- and display-ad holiday campaign. Because its baseline sales volumes are greater in physical stores than on the internet, this retailer derived a great deal more revenue benefit off-line than the percentages suggest."
Specifically, search ads create a more positive impact on sales compared to display ads, although they're more expensive per impression. A combined (search and display) ad campaign is even better as it increase sales more than the combined results of two separate campaigns.
A related Google/NAA study (covered by MediaPost and MarketingVox) showed that the opposite (sort of...) is also true - newspaper ads drive consumers to research and buy (offline and online). 30% of Internet-using newspaper readers went online to research a product they saw in a newspaper, and 70% of them (21% overall) subsequently made a purchase. Of this group, 47% went directly to the URL in the ad and 31% used a search engine.
The study also found that "consumer confidence is boosted by newspaper ads". 48% said they would trust the product more if they saw it in the newspaper after seeing it online, and 52% would be more likely to purchase that product. Additionally, 68% said newspapers are more useful than the Internet to learn about promotions and 54% said they were more useful for deciding when and where to buy.
These results require marketers to create more "holistic and integrated advertising campaigns that take advantage of each medium's strength, including branding and direct response for newsprint."
Posted by Universal Ad
Comments