Key findings
· Radio can have a profound effect upon online search behaviour.
· Short term attribution measurement did not pick up on the strength of radio’s effects at driving responses.
· Our research suggests that radio campaigns should focus on achieving a sufficient high level of weekly reach to optimise response.
Introduction
New research undertaken by Colourtext on behalf of Radiocentre Ireland reveals that there is a very strong relationship between radio advertising and website visits. The primary aim of the research was to establish a concrete, direct link between the transmission of radio ads and response, both classic short-term response (within a 0-15 min direct response peak) and longer-term delayed response (15min to 24hrs post-transmission).
For TV, website visitor traffic tends to peak sharply at around 50-60 seconds after a TV spot is broadcast. This clear response spike is usually over after c. 10 minutes and is generally understood as the classic short-term direct response window. This is what direct spot attribution measurement and campaign performance metrics tend to focus on.
Our hypothesis was that, due to the often passive and secondary nature of radio listening, radio effects would be more likely to manifest as ad responses over a longer period after exposure. For example, people don’t usually break away from a primary task like driving, cooking or working in order to respond immediately to a radio ad by going online, but instead, respond at a time that is convenient for them.
Using analytics data for a Sky TV and Broadband campaign that was active in Q1 2023, we were able to measure the link between radio activity and website visits. The Sky activity was a tactical, offer-led campaign - ‘Sky Sale - €38 a month’ that used a ‘Search Sky Sale’ call-to-action to drive traffic to a campaign-specific landing page.
Analysis of Short-Term Ad Response
When we focus on organic and paid search traffic (64% of total visits to the campaign landing page) a measurable increase in ad response does occur but responses do not spike within c. 10 minutes which is generally understood as the classic short-term direct response window. We found that during the first 30 minutes after ad transmission, there is not a strong response. However, during the second half hour (30 mins to 60 mins after radio ad exposure) we do see an increase in web response, which is about 4% above baseline for organic and 7% for paid search referrals.
The conclusion is that while there is some short term website traffic stimulated by the radio campaign in this test study, the response is relatively small and responses do not fit the classic short-term direct response window. This probably explains why standard attribution methodologies that focus on very short-term attribution windows struggle to capture all of radio’s ad response.
So therefore, we needed to look at a methodology for measuring a longer delayed ad response.
Analysis of Delayed Ad Response
We began by aggregating both the schedule radio ratings and website visits into daily 24-hour periods. We could then compare the weight of daily schedule ratings with the volume of web traffic and see if a relationship existed between the two. We saw an immediate visual fit between visit numbers and the radio schedule laydown. This was confirmed by the regression model, which concluded that 30% of the increase in daily website visits was attributed to the Sky campaign radio activity.
When we combined organic search referrals and paid search referrals, the relationship between weight of daily radio ratings and 24-hour search behaviour strengthened even further. The analysis concluded that 54% of the increase in daily website visits that arrived via search activity can be attributed to the Sky campaign radio activity.
The relationship between radio ratings and online search referrals becomes even stronger when we use a 3-day moving average baseline. The results show that 72% of website visits that arrive via search is attributed to the 3-day moving average of daily radio ratings. The results of the research show that radio ad response tends to be delayed, and that the response to the ad campaign tested was highly significant when captured over a 24 to 72hr period. The full effect of radio only became apparent as we zoomed out to a broader 24-hour attribution window. We believe this is a significant finding as radio's advertising effect appears to be hugely underestimated when measurement focuses solely upon short-term spot attribution. There is huge opportunity cost suffered by advertisers who might have mis-evaluated the performance of their radio activity by purely focusing on very short term attribution. We think of this as the radio advertising ‘Attribution Halo’.
Radio attribution measurement -what have we learnt?
· 1. Radio can have a profound effect upon online search behaviour.
2: Short term attribution measurement did not pick up on the strength of radio’s effects at driving responses.
3: Re-thinking how we plan and optimise radio schedules
of the increase in daily website visits can be attributed to the Sky campaign radio activity
of the increase in website visits over a 3 day period can be attributed to the Sky campaign radio activity .
is the "attribution halo" for radio
