What kind of advertising works

In our research, we quantified the impact that each dimension has on sales. Although all of them had a positive impact, elaboration had by far the most powerful one 1. Trailing behind were originality 1. Yet the study shows that ad agencies use originality and artistic value more than they use elaboration.

Possibly, companies think primarily of originality when trying to be creative. We also looked at campaigns that scored above the median on at least two dimensions and found that the variation in sales impact among the combinations was even greater than the variation between individual dimensions.

When used in combination, creativity dimensions had widely varying effects. Relative effectiveness here shows the sales uplift a particular pairing enjoyed relative to average effectiveness. Despite the disparities, however, companies in our study used the 10 combinations in roughly equal proportion shown here as a percentage of total usage , suggesting that many firms are not getting the most out of their advertising investments. The most-used pairing, flexibility plus elaboration, is one of the least effective.

The most effective pairing, originality plus elaboration, had almost double the impact. Flexibility is one of the least effective dimensions, whether used alone or in combination. Although originality has little impact on sales on its own, it appears to play an important enabling role, appearing in three of the four most effective pairings.

Interestingly, originality is often part of the most effective combinations, suggesting that this type of creativity plays an important enabling role. In essence, being original is not enough—originality boosts sales only in the presence of additional creative dimensions.

Levels of creativity vary significantly across product categories, with the overall scores ranging from 2. In categories such as cola and coffee, advertisers and customers tend to favor higher levels of creativity, whereas in categories such as shampoo, body care, and facial care, campaigns focus on showing the actual use of the product, albeit in an idealized environment. One reason could be that it is still important in certain categories to deliver factual proof points of performance features.

When products are functional and oriented toward clear consumer goals cleaning garments with detergents, protecting skin with body lotion , unorthodox approaches are less preferred.

In contrast, when products are easily understood, similar, and tied to personal preferences quenching thirst with a soda, for instance, or enjoying a cup of coffee , an out-of-the-ordinary approach can be more effective in stimulating sales. We also looked at whether investing in additional creativity pays off and found that it depends entirely on the category.

We see variation across categories with high levels of creativity. If creative ads can inspire consumers to buy, does amping up the creativity level drive even more purchases? Not necessarily. According to our study of German ads, the relative effectiveness of adding creativity to a campaign can vary significantly. Categories usually associated with highly creative ads —such as coffee or cola—do not always get a big boost when more creativity is added to campaigns….

Our research has big implications for advertising agencies and the companies that engage them. Advertising professionals can use methods like ours to identify where to direct their creative energies to best effect.

Companies can use the models to estimate the financial impact their creative investments will produce. In many—indeed, most—cases, companies will find that they are underinvesting in creativity. Our research clearly shows that the conservative approaches adopted in many product categories are leaving money on the table. Increased investment will usually pay for itself: More-effective creative ads will allow other parts of the ad budget to be significantly reduced.

Campaign B has a rating of 3. The company establishes creativity ratings by asking consumer panels to evaluate campaign drafts and storyboards along the five dimensions. After feeding the scores and budgets into a hierarchical sales response model for this hypothetical example, we used data from our study , the company estimates that the sales impact for Campaign B will be 1.

In the subsequent weeks, the gap increases to 1. That means that diverting money from the airtime budget to creative will in this case result in a more effective ad. Companies can also use a survey approach to estimate the impact of particular creative choices.

Television advertisements have the advantage of sight, sound, movement and colour to persuade a customer to buy from you. They are particularly useful if you need to demonstrate how your product or service works. Producing a television advertisement and then buying an advertising slot is generally expensive.

Advertising is sold in units e. Directories list businesses by name or category e. Yellow Pages phone directories. Customers who refer to directories have often already made up their mind to buy - they just need to decide who to buy from. The major advantage of online directories over print directories is that if you change your business name, address or phone number, you can easily keep it up to date in the directory.

You can also add new services or information about your business. If your target market uses print and online directories, it may be useful to advertise in both, although print directories are being used less. There are many ways to advertise outside and on-the-go. Outdoor billboards can be signs by the road or hoardings at sport stadiums. Transit advertising can be posters on buses, taxis and bicycles. Large billboards can get your message across with a big impact.

If the same customers pass your billboard every day as they travel to work, you are likely to be the first business they think of when they want to buy a product. Even the largest of billboards usually contain a limited amount of information; otherwise, they can be difficult to read. Including your website address makes it easy for customers to follow up and find out more about your business.

Outdoor advertising can be very expensive especially for prime locations and supersite billboards. Direct mail means writing to customers directly. The more precise your mailing list or distribution area, the more of your target market you will reach. A direct mail approach is more personal, as you can select your audience and plan the timing to suit your business. A cost effective form of direct mail is to send your newsletters or flyers electronically to an email database.

Find out more about direct mail. Catalogues, brochures and leaflets can also be distributed to your target area. Including a brochure with your direct mail is a great way to give an interested customer more information about your products and services.

Learn more about leaflet marketing using letterbox drops and handouts. Being on the internet can be a cost-effective way to attract new customers. Manipulated language AI can write manifestos that appear human and radicalize automatically. Sentryc stops product piracy on the internet.

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Thycotic deploys advanced machine learning to control dangerous applications on endpoints. How and especially why do human beings select or decide against a product or service? Category: August What key figures are relevant in performance marketing? There are four common pricing models used in the online performance advertising market.

Display advertising is commonly sold on a Cost-per-Lead pricing model. The problem with CPM advertising is that advertisers are charged even if the target audience does not click on the advertisement. CPC Cost-per-Click advertising overcomes this problem by charging advertisers only when the consumer clicks on the advertisement.

In recent times, there has been a rapid increase in online lead generation - banner and direct response advertising that works off a CPL Cost-per-Lead pricing model, where advertisers pay only for qualified leads - irrespective of the clicks or impressions that went into generating the lead.

CPL advertising is also commonly referred to as online lead generation and are therefore regarded as most advertiser friendly. However, be careful when choosing between CPL and CPA pricing models as there are important differentiators to take into consideration: CPL campaigns are advertiser-centric, so that advertisers remain in control of their brand, selecting trusted and contextually relevant publishers to run their offers.

On the other hand, CPA and affiliate marketing campaigns are publisher-centric. Advertisers cede control over where their brand will appear, as publishers browse offers and pick which to run on their websites.

Advertisers generally do not know where their offer is running. CPL campaigns are usually high volume and light-weight, where consumers submit only basic contact information.