How to Measure the Reach of TV Advertising
Businesses both large and small are presented with a growing number of options in the digital age in which to spend their advertising dollars. In advertising terms, the reach of an ad is defined as the percentage of the target audience viewing the ad during any given time frame. Beyond that, the number of people who respond to an ad after viewing it provides the measure of the ad's overall effectiveness. By determining the reach of your company's TV advertisements, you can better decide how to adjust your ad strategy to maximize your investment and connect with the widest number of potential customers.
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Instructions
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Ask your customers where they heard of your business (or a specific aspect of your business, such as any current sales specials). Ask them face-to-face with in-store purchases, or through the use of a survey for Internet and telephone orders. Take note of what percentage mention your TV ads, though keep in mind that this method of gathering data may not be completely accurate, as many people may also be browsing your company's website either before or after viewing your TV ads (and even viewing your TV ad online) before purchasing.
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Obtain detailed program ratings information for the channels and times a specific ad or series of ads is running, either from the advertising representative for those channels or from The Nielsen Company, a media research company that compiles the ratings. Nielsen not only measures the estimated number of viewers for a particular program/channel, but also provides in-depth information outlining the demographics of those viewers, which is vital for determining which channels and time slots to place an ad to reach the specific types of people your business is targeting.
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Divide the total number of viewers as determined by the ratings information by 1,000 to estimate the number of people who viewed the ad and responded to it on some level. TV is a passive medium for viewers, as they do not get to choose the ads they are exposed to (unless they choose to skip the ads altogether by viewing via DVR or similar technology). This gives TV ads an average response of 0.1%, or one response per every 1,000 viewers.
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Monitor the number of hits your company's website generates for a period of time during and after an ad airs, to measure the impact the ad is having in driving traffic volume to the site. Also check the click-through rates for any ads that may be linked on the TV station's site.
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Take note of both the gross sales and the net profitability of your business or any particular products mentioned in the ads in the periods before and after the ads air, to determine the difference the ads may have played in driving up sales. Do the same during periods of other types of ad campaigns, such as Internet and/or print media (if these periods are separate from TV ad cycles) to gauge the effect the TV ads may be having.
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