04 Sep Five Benefits of Multi-Channel Ad Testing

Multi-channel ad campaigns have their own challenges

It doesn’t take a genius to know today’s customer is always connected and that audiences consistently have their finger on the social pulse through social media and the internet. And, let’s face it, getting honest feedback about your company, your product or your advertising can be especially difficult.

This is the reality most advertisers are working in today, especially those working in multi-channel campaigns.

With the desire to get messages out to as wide an audience as possible, many creative professionals can be quick to launch a multi-channel advertising campaign without putting effort into understanding how the overall message of the campaign is about to be received. 

When advertisers (or marketers for that matter) are executing their digital campaigns this way, without employing ad testing methodologies and being unaware of how their messages are going to be received by their audiences, it is usually to be quicker than the other guy, or to avoid the dreaded, “Why did you spend money on that?”

These micro-marketing moments can have a major impact on your brand, and if your audience does not respond well to your campaign, the backlash can happen as quickly as a comment on social media can be posted.

Not employing creative testing can come at the cost of your brand’s reputation

While marketers and advertisers want to be quick and efficient, what they need is to be credible and relevant. This is even more relevant in multi-channel campaigns, in which messaging can change depending on in what location and on what medium it is being seen, and who the intended audience will be. 

There are simple tools that can help deliver customer feedback on your advertising at the same pace your target audience is connecting with you.

Feedback tools like advertising testing offer real value when it comes to seeing how your creative will be received, and are a great alternative to the more traditional (*ahem* not-as-quick) forms of evaluation.

What follows are 5 benefits of advertising testing in multi-channel campaigns

1. Find out what will work next time, and the time after, and the time after that…

When you put an ad testing methodology to work on your creative, you are benchmarking – gathering data on what works best and what was less successful, what audiences engaged with most, how different channels engage with your advertisement, etc. By testing and adding to benchmarks and established norms about your creative, you will accumulate data on how to create great ads again and again based on what worked best before.

2. Your creative is good – It could be better…

Want to turn out creative that will succeed in the audience you intend it to speak to? By testing your ad, you can make sure not only that your messaging is exactly how you intend it, but also that the message speaks exactly to whom you intend it to reach.

New developments in methodologies have even made it possible to measure the virality of an ad before it is launched. Sure, the original messaging in the ad may have fallen short at first – but through ad testing, you can be sure to change it up before that creative ever hits the streets.

3. Money! Of course!

A terrible ad costs the same to produce as a great one. At least, it can unless ad testing is put in place to catch that bad ad before it sees any large investment.

Most of the spend on creatives will happen during the final phase of their production. Ad testing is usually done in the very beginning phases of the creative, using storyboards, animatics and other pre-production materials. Testing at this phase allows for your audience to get an idea of where a creative is going before it gets there, but saving the investment it would take to get that creative all the way finished and presented to them – a potentially sizeable savings. 

4. We could all be a little more customer-centric…

Providing what your customers want out of your organization is key in today’s marketplace. By employing ad testing with your customer base, you are listening to your customers and possibly co-creating with them. With data about your ads coming directly from your customer base, you can develop creative that speaks directly to them.

5. Protect your company’s reputation!

Not employing creative testing can come at the cost of your brand’s reputation. While marketers and advertisers want to be quick and efficient, what they need is to be credible and relevant.

Communicating with any audience involves some level of risk. Testing advertisements and their messages can help brands remove some of the risk by showing how messages will be received before they are visible to everyone, allowing for the gauging of opinion or reaction to your creative – potentially saving a brand from harm or embarrassment.