This document discusses how to optimize TV ad campaigns using web analytics data. It explains that minute-by-minute web traffic data can help determine which individual TV ads are most effective at driving people to a website. Comparing website traffic during and after a TV ad airs to a baseline level can quantify the ad's uplift. This allows optimizing spending on the most impactful TV channels, programs and timeslots for direct response ads designed to prompt immediate online action.

1. HOW TO OPTIMISE
TV AD CAMPAIGNS
usingwebanalytics

2. "Half the money I
spend on
advertising is
wasted; the
trouble is I don't
know which half.”
- John Wanamaker

3. TV Advertising is often cited
as one of the hardest
channels to evaluate.
!
And we’re talking about a lot
of money here!

4. It was reported that a 30 second
TV slot during the X-Factor final
cost £200,000!
Source: Campaign, 2013

5. That’s enough to buy
1 Ferrari 458 Spider
15 40ft by 10ft
Billboard banners in
London for a month
2 Creative Directors
for a year

6. So, here’s the problem…

7. How do we measure the
effectiveness of our
£200,000 ad spend?
(Let’s assume the ad is intended to drive viewers to a website)

8. Many TV campaigns involve
advertising multiple times on
several TV channels during the
same hour.

9. The hourly granularity offered by most web
analytics platforms isn’t enough to differentiate
the uplift of individual adverts during that hour.
There might be more than 9 adverts in any one
hour to evaluate.
Bad data

10. You need web analytics
with minute-by-minute
data to fully understand
how TV ads perform.
Luckily, there’s an app for that.

11. You need to pick the correct metric for measuring uplift.
A simple metric to start with is “number of visits that
occur in that minute”.
Next…

12. Whilst all TV ads contain creative elements, direct response ads are
designed to encourage viewers to immediately take action.
By accurately measuring the number of visits that occur during the airing of
each advert, you can optimise the TV channels, programmes, and times in
which you buy airtime.
This works great with Direct Response Adverts

13. moonpig.com sell personalised gift cards and followers. Their adverts are
an example of direct response.
During holiday seasons like Valentines Day, Mothers Day and Christmas,
direct response advertising is particularly powerful, especially when
combined with offers.

14. There are a number of ways of measuring uplift. One method is to
take a baseline of traffic before and after the TV spot and measure
the uplift from this baseline.
For example, a TV advert airs at 9:05pm during half time of a
sporting event. A baseline of normal traffic is created by averaging
the 5 minutes before and after the spot. The uplift or difference in
new visits that minute for a 5 minute period are attributed to the
impact of the TV ad slot.
The uplift created by different slots, at different times, on different
channels during different shows is used to optimise purchasing of
those that have been most effective.
How to measure uplift

15. Here’s a pretty graph so it all
makes sense…

16. Calculating Uplift from Direct Response TV Ads
TV advertisement airs at 9:05pm and
subsequently sends traffic to the
brand’s website

17. 1.The baseline of “normal” traffic during a TV slot can be averaged over
several days to mitigate unusual traffic spikes or lows on a given day.
2.Picking different metrics that better represent traffic from viewers of
the TV advert can have a huge impact. This can mean segmenting traffic
and filtering out visitors from various traffic sources such as email
campaigns. For example, you may want to only track the minute by minute
uplift of visits per minute from “direct” and “search” sources within the UK.
3.Compliment the data with additional sources. In the UK, BARB data is
the official source of television viewing figures. Combining website traffic
with viewing figures and costings can help optimise the most effective
channels and times to run future ads.
Taking It Further

18. Tablet and Mobile traffic can easily quadruple desktop travel during TV
adverting campaigns. The graph below is real data during 4 TV Ad spots.
The orange and red line represents tablet and mobile traffic respectively,
the blue line is desktop traffic. It’s hardly surprising but sometimes just
having the data to justify the impact of the second screen phenomena is
hard to come by. GoSquared’s minute by minute data couldn’t make it
clearer.
Rise of the Second Screen

19. “But the creative impact
of an advertisement can
not be judged by visits
to a website, that’s like
attributing movement in
the lunar cycle to Tour
de France winners!”
–Your Creative Director

20. As a caveat, this type of analysis should not be used as the
only determining metric of success. The creativity in
advertising is obviously one of the most important elements
of success.
Yes, Creative is Still Number 1
Minute-by-minute analysis is best viewed
as a complimentary metric to optimise TV
ad campaigns. It is most effective at
measuring the performance of direct
response campaigns.

21. Wieden + Kennedy’s
highly successful adverts
for Three Mobile
demonstrate creativity and
originality is still top dog
(or pony).

22. But if you knew that advertising on
Channel 4 during the show “The
Inbetweeners” drove 10x as many
visits to your brand’s website than
any other channel, surely you
would optimise spend here?

23. So how do I get started
with measuring and
optimising my TV
advertising?
Enter GoSquared.

24. These are just some of the companies
GoSquared helps to measure TV ads

25. GoSquared also works very closely
with a number of agencies
including MNC who can take the
analysis to the next level.

26. “GoSquared's minute by
minute data has provided
us with the
unprecedented insights
necessary to optimise our
advertising spend.”
–Jonas Erich
International Marketing
Manager, Delivery Hero (Parent
Company of Hungry House)

27. Cats, Dogs and Ponies are slowly taking over the advertising
world. Creativity and ingenuity will always be responsible for
the phenomenal success of adverts.
However, if your brand has a website (it’d be surprising if it
didn’t) and you’re looking to run TV ads that drive visits to your
site, taking advantage of this type of analysis used by agencies
such as MNC with data provided by GoSquared can
dramatically increase the effectiveness of your ad budget.
Now that is #winning
Conclusion

28. Hugh Hopkins (@hughhopkins) + GoSquared
How To Optimise TV Advertising
Campaigns With Web Analytics
You’ve been viewing
by

29. Sources
Campaign, 2013: http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/1219955/x-factor-ad-costs-soars-setting-itv-bumper-christmas/
London Banner Cost: http://directionalmedia.co.uk/products/rate-card
Images
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Wanamaker.jpg
http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/2gOlWTiuLuM/maxresdefault.jpg
http://www.happyjackson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Moonpig.png
http://fanart.tv/fanart/tv/81950/clearart/T_81950.png
http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/i-have-no-idea-what-im-doing.jpg
http://www.mccgp.co.uk/marketing-news/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/pony.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Pvkd0rutOHE/UipHIrL2ICI/AAAAAAAABcY/3GTWQRjyNug/s640/three+pug.png
http://cdn.kanyevscreative.com/_assets/img/creativedirector.png
http://www.bhmpics.com/view-success_kid-other.html
http://www.adweek.com/files/blogs/three-cat-hed-2014.jpg