Despite the technological advancements that have been made, out-of-home advertising is still one of the most influential and effective mediums for advertisement campaigns. It is visible from various parts of the landscape, increases brand identification (as well as recalling) and can become a brand symbol as well. While most prefer direct avenues like emails, flyers and newspapers, others recognize the effect that billboards have on the general population. The best part is that they encourage creativity –something that is left to foster in the minds of viewers, thus more likely to be appreciated. You have just one glance to make an impression and when you do, its something that can never be forgotten.
However, there are some concerns regarding how you can transform the viewership of the out-of-home advertisement into quantifiable data. Many believe this to be a challenging task, and thus refrain from exploring this platform, when in reality it is quite easy. Here are a few ways through which you can gauge the return on investment:
Investigating message decay statistics
Message decay rates will allow you to determine the amount of time it takes for an individual to forget about the company and its promotions. The idea is to compare two levels of statistics; the first being the brand recalling rates obtained through online and television advertisements alone and the second a combination of the online, television and out-of-home advertisement. More often than not, you will observe that when combined with outdoor influences, recalling rates are prolonged to as much as 4 days.
Determining the degree of viewership
In order to understand if your out-of-home advertisement has truly been effective, you need to determine the amount of views the billboard will get. You need to get a figure of how many people on foot or in cars observed the advertisement. This can be done through surveys, GPS systems of survey participants and traffic rates near the billboard.
Observing sales figures
One of the easiest way to determine the efficacy of the billboard is through observing sales figure before and after the ad was displayed. IF you see that there has been active growth in sales, then you can be assured that the out-of-home advertisement is proving to be fruitful. However, this is the most basic method and more strategic ways should be employed to get a fairer idea.
Run specific codes
One of the best ways to measure the viewership of your outdoor advertising is through the use of codes. These can pertain to sales, particular discounts, lucky draws, coupons or even events. The level of participation, or foot traffic, you receive will help you quantify the return on the investment you put in.
Make use of social media
One of the best ways through which you can measure the success of your out-of-home ad is through social media. If you have a particular hashtag, you can expect people to use it promote your product or service through social media. More often than not, you can even find yourself to be ‘trending’, meaning that you will have become the most used hashtag. The number of times your hashtag is used is the reach your outdoor advertisement campaign had. People may use it on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or YouTube even. This is a great way through which you can quantify the data.
Create specific URLS
Another method you could adopt is the creation of a specific URL or landing webpage that is specifically, and only, advertised on your outdoor advertisement. The number of times that webpage or URL is visited will represent just how effective your ad was in creating a long lasting impression.
Look through search engines
Another way, similar to the use of social media, to determine the success of your billboard ad is through sifting through search engines. If you have a particular slogan or catch phrase, you can simply find, through the process of analyzing, the number of times those keywords were used. Additional methods like Call to Action phrases on billboards will also help highlight keywords that are used to search for your brand. There may be times when people will not be able to remember the URL advertised on your billboard. In such a situation, they are more likely to search for keywords in the hopes of reaching the page on their own. This is why backing the count up by going sifting through search engine keyword popularity is so important.
