Marketing Estimates

[LewisTintin]

Hi Chaps,
I was hoping to benefit from some of your combined wisdom.

I'm trying to model a return I might expect from running a marketing campaign across some regional newspapers. I realise its very subjective, but any ideas on the sort of return you might expect, or method for calculating such thing? Anyone have any first hand experience?

For example, assume a company like moneysupermarket.com (pre becoming very big, as they offer quite general services) put an ad in either a national or local paper.

What sort of return in terms of web hits would they get?
Is there a very basic marketing formula for this type of thing (ie. spend x readership x Y)?

Any help would be very much appreciated.

[ShadowNinja]

Re newspaper advertising, it's better as brand awareness than getting response/orders, per se.

[phil35]

As far as I know there is no standard response % for advertising. Unless you are a big corporate then advertising for awareness sake will probably be a waste of money. On any ads you do, make sure you have a clear offer (why should people respond) and definitely have a call to action (an action you want people to take, maybe an information request/web visit etc) make it something you can measure accurately though.

If time and funds allow, rather than jumping straight in with lots of ads in different publications, test a few different ads, measure your response and then roll out the one which works best for you.

Hope this helps

[andyps]

If such a measure existed the newspapers would tell you what it was. Unfortunately, there are so many factors which affect the potential response, some of which are within the advertisers control, and some without. As already mentioned, ensuring the copy has the correct content is essential and within the advertisers control, as is the approximate position of the advert which can be controlled through the amount paid for the insertion. Factors such as other things in the newspaper, particularly on the page around an advert, are less within the control of the advertisers and can have an effect, although there is an element of ability to verify this on booking. Because of these factors there cannot be a standard measure to determine the likely response, quite apart from that depending upon the intended purpose of the message - inform, remind or sell?

[DonnyMac]

Hiya,

Print is dead, trust me, I know.

If you really do want to test printed media, ensure you add a promo code to the copy (right hand page, 4 colour of course) so you can track the response.

This can then give you a couple of KPIs, cost per enquiry, then cost of sale (advertising) - this can then be compared to a Google PPC campaign or email marketing :winky, winky: - both of which will out perform print, hands down.

Even if you're not interested in digital now, I'm happy to help give you any pointers on buying cheap 'space' - PM me either way.

Good luck & take care,
Donny

Edited by DonnyMac on Friday 28th November 21:06

[andyps]

I wouldn't entirely agree that print is dead - it still has its uses, and they are very valuable. For example, I have just finished discussing a case for a start-up online organisation and one of the issues that exists is awareness. Whilst there is a strong place for online promotion through PPC etc. this has to be supported by traditional offline activity otherwise people will have no reference for what they find online. The importance of this depends upon the market segment at which the product or service is aimed, but print is good for awareness, even if in the long term readers don't recognise why they are aware.

Online is much easier to measure, however. And you only pay for a result that you have some chance to turn into an order.

Offline, when putting a code into the ad, use a unique web link in the advert so you can track visitors from each advert by the landing page they use.