6 min read
What is Ad Tracking?
Advertising campaigns are a significant investment for brands. Measuring their effectiveness through market research is critical to quantify the return on the campaign investments and determine if it meets the desired expectations.
Depending on the objective of the advertising research and the moment of the development of the ad campaign, one or another type of ad testing can be carried out:
- Pre-test advertising to measure the impact and quality of the advertisement before the campaign’s launch.
- Post-Test advertising measures the impact and quality of the advertisement after the campaign has ended.
- Or advertising tracking consists of taking continuous measures by monitoring or tracking the different communications over time. If you are interested in finding out how to track your advertising campaigns, read on!
Advertising tracking, also known as Ad Tracking, is a tool for continuous monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of advertising. Ad tracking measures the effectiveness of advertising campaigns and their contribution to brand health. In this way, ad tracking allows understanding the evolution of crucial brand indicators, including product consumption and purchase or service usage and trial, as well as the attitudes of the target audience towards the brand and its competitors.
Did you know? Advertising tracking can happen continuously or in waves.
Types of ad tracking
Depending on the maturity of the category and product, as well as the start date of the campaign, its investment, and time on air, two types of ad tracking methods can be carried out:
1. Continuous tracking
Advertising tracking that measures the target audience weekly or monthly.
It is a continuous and detailed image that allows total control of the variables that may be affected by advertising activity: brand awareness, consumption, brand image, advertising impact, messages transmitted, attitudes towards the ad, the brand, and the product.
2. Pulsed tracking
A form of advertising tracking that consists of carrying out punctual measurements spaced out over time, i.e. surveys are carried out, for example, every three or six months.
As in Continuous Tracking, each wave measures the impact and effectiveness of advertising at both campaign level (recall, engagement, message, and attitudes) and brand level (awareness, consumption, and image).
The main difference between the two types of advertising tracking is that Continuous tracking collects and displays constant and continuous data on the correlation between the advertising investment and the effects achieved. In contrast, Pulsed Tracking collects and displays evolutionary data from images that are more distant in time.
What are the benefits of advertising tracking?
- Advertising tracking provides insights into the effects of advertising in the short, medium, and long term. It provides evolutionary data on advertising effectiveness (impact, linkage, message, campaign assessment, etc.) and how it affects brand health (awareness, consumption, purchase, image, etc.).
- It monitors competing brands that are active simultaneously with your campaign.
- It allows you to establish the relationship between the advertising actions and investments made based on the changes observed in the key variables using evolutionary graphs and with a greater possibility of identifying what each campaign and media used to contribute to the brand.
In short, advertising tracking offers insights into the correlation between the investments made and the objectives achieved. It is a very powerful tool that allows us to make a follow-up to optimize and adjust future investments.
Critical aspects in the monitoring of an advertising campaign
When measuring advertising effectiveness and efficiency, it is essential to analyze the campaign’s effect and impact on the brand. Including the main competitors at the time your investment is done.
For effective advertising tracking, it is advisable to take into account the following KPI’s:
- Impact: Do consumers remember the ad?
- Linkage: is the ad associated with the brand? Companies such as Coca-Cola and Unilever are increasing their marketing efforts to create a stronger brand feeling amid price increases. Collecting spontaneous recall (top of mind and total recall) and suggested recall is essential.
- Understanding: is the advertising message remembered? What does the consumer decode?
- Diagnosis: how is the ad perceived? Is it perceived as credible? And is it perceived as different?
- Brand image: are the brand attributes of the advert the desired ones?
- Consumption and purchase, as well as attitudes towards the brand: does the advert encourage investment, and does it influence consumer attitudes?
- Habits and lifestyles: What are the most consumed communication channels? Activity on social networks?
All these variables can be measured more or less continuously depending on your needs. Do not hesitate to contact our team of experts through the Zinklar platform; they will recommend the best solution to monitor your campaigns effectively.
