Tracking and Analytics for your Radio Advertising Campaign

If you are managing your own direct response radio advertising campaign, it is imperative that you have a tracking service and analytic service to back up your strategy and investment. Without this, it’s like taking money and tossing it out the window. I’ve heard many clients tell me that they “know,” that they are getting leads from X radio station, or X T.V. day part or from a specific paper or magazine. My next question to them, is “how do you know this?” And many times they will be basing their conclusion on 1 or 2 clients and customers mentioning something as general as one of the mediums they are using. For example, a new client or patient will say, “I saw you on TV.”

Study The Numbers!

With tracking phone numbers and URL’s, the client or their advertising agency can easily look up the contact information to see if their memory is accurate. And as you may imagine, human error is common. As an advertiser, you need to be educated and seasoned on this so it doesn’t burn you and your bank account by spending and investing your money in the wrong direction….time and time again. There are many different vendor options for purchasing a small account package that allows you to set up multiple tracking phone numbers from all your marketing sources, ie: Radio Stations, TV Networks, Print or Magazine Ads, Direct Mail and Paid Online Search. Often this few hundred dollar investment per month (depending on how many numbers you are using) is the best and most efficient money you will spend to get new customers. Tracking measures also allow direct response advertisers to make changes to their campaigns at a quicker more efficient pace, because they are more in tune with the trends of their phone calls and web hits. So with radio advertising for example, if there is station that is trending downward from a call volume standpoint, you have 3 options, 1) Change the creative (to see if this creates an uptick in response) 2) Change the placement strategy or 3) Eliminate the station, test another and evaluate whether to revisit it down the road.