MKTG P303 - ADVERTISING

MODULE 10
Measuring Advertising Effectiveness
INTRODUCTION
All advertising efforts are directed mainly towards the achievement of business,
marketing and advertising objectives i.e., to increase the sales turnover and thus to
market the maximum profit. The advertiser spends to this advertising activity. In the
background of all these efforts, is an attempt to attract the customer towards the product
through advertising.
As soon as the advertising campaign is over, a need is generally arisen to
measure the effectiveness of the campaign. Whether, it has achieved the desired
results i.e. desired sales profitability or results in terms the change in customer‟
behavior in favor of the company’s product which will naturally, affect the future sale of
the product.
In order to measure the effectiveness of advertising copy, two types of tests-
pretests and posttests- can be undertaken. Pretests are generally conducted in the
beginning of the creation process or at the end of creation process or production
stage. There are several pre and posttests techniques to measure the effectiveness of
the advertising copy.
The effectiveness of advertising in a particular media may also be measured in
any of the following ways; (a) by giving different addresses to different media, (b)
different newspapers may be selected for advertisements of different
departments, (c) coupon blank etc. May be provided with the advertisement or
(d) enquiry from consumers should mention the name of the source of
information. The technique is known as keying the advertising.
Thus in measuring the effectiveness of advertising we include measuring of the
effectiveness of advertising campaign, advertising copy and the effectiveness of
individual media. This chapter deals these three problems.
OBJECTIVES
At the end of this module, students are expected to;
1. Understand the importance of measuring the effectiveness of advertisement.
2. Equip on the different methods of measuring advertising effectiveness.
3. Recognize the different types of measurement tools in advertising.
4. Apply pre-test and post-test methods on advertisement copy output.

A. Importance of Measuring Advertisement Effectiveness

1. It acts as a Safety measure
Testing effectiveness of advertising helps in finding out ineffective
1st Semester, A.Y. 2024-2025 Page 1
MKTG P303 - ADVERTISING

advertisement and advertising campaigns. It facilitates timely adjustments in

advertising to make advertising consumer oriented and result oriented. Thus waste of
money in faulty advertising can be avoided.
2. Provides feedback for remedial measures
Testing effectiveness of advertising provides useful information to the
advertisers to take remedial steps against ineffective advertisements.
3. Avoids possible failure
Advertisers are not sure of results of advertising from a particular advertising
campaign. Evaluating advertising effectives helps in estimating the results in
order to avoid complete loss.
4. To justify the Investment in Advertising
The expenditure on advertisement is considered to be an investment. The
investment in advertising is a marketing investment and its objectives should be
spelt out clearly indicating the results expected from the campaign. The rate and
size of return should be determined in advance. If the expected rate of return is
achieved in terms of additional profits, the advertisement can be considered
as effective one.
5. To know the communication Effect
The effectiveness of the advertisement can be measured in terms of their
communication effects on the target consumers or audience. The main
purpose of advertising is communicated the general public, and existing and
prospective consumers, various information about the product and the
company. It is therefore desirable to seek post measurements of advertising in
order to determine whether advertisement have been seen or heard or in other
words whether they have communicated the theme, message or appeal of the
advertising.
6. Compare two markets
Under this procedure, advertising is published in test markets and results are
contrasted with other. Markets – so called control markets – which have had the
regular advertising program. The measurements made to determine results may be
measurements of change in sales, change in consumer attitudes, changes in
dealer display and so on depending upon the objectives sought by the
advertiser

B. Methods of Measuring Advertising Effectiveness

1st Semester, A.Y. 2024-2025 Page 2
MKTG P303 - ADVERTISING

Advertising is aimed at improving the sales volume of a concern so its

effectiveness can be evaluated by its impact on sales. Most of the managers believe
that the advertisement directly affects the sales volume and hence they evaluate the
effectiveness of the advertising campaign by the increase in the sales volume.

There may be two types measures (i) Direct measures: and (ii) Indirect
measures:-
1. Direct Measures of Advertising Effectiveness
Under direct measures, a relationship between advertising and sales is
established. A comparison of sales of two periods or two periods or two markets may
be done and the corresponding changes may be noted. The following are some of the
methods that are generally used in measuring that advertising effects.
2. Indirect Measures
As it is very difficult to measure the direct effect of advertising on company’s
profits or sales, most firms rely heavily on indirect measures. These measures do not
evaluate the effects of advertisements directing on sales or profits but all other
factors such as customer awareness or attitude or customer recall of advertising
message affect the sales or profits or goals of the business indirectly.
Despite the uncertainties about the relationship between the intermediate effects
of advertising and the ultimate results, there is no other alternative but to use indirect
measures. The most commonly used measures are;
 Exposure to advertisement
 Attention or recall of advertising message content
 Brand awareness
 Comprehension
 Attitude change
 Action

C. Copy Testing
Copy testing is a tool involving a procedure where the effectiveness of an
advertisement is measured before it appears in its final form, during and after its
exposure to the audience to determine whether and to what extent, it has accomplished
its assigned task. In this way, the copy testing is a method used to control the
effectiveness of future advertising. It addresses the following questions
(a) Will a proposed copy theme be effective at achieving advertising
objectives?
(b) Does the set of advertisings that makes up an advertising campaign
create the desired interest level and image? And

1st Semester, A.Y. 2024-2025 Page 3

MKTG P303 - ADVERTISING

(c) Will an individual advertisement attract the attention of the audience?

D. Types of Tests
1. Pre-Test Methods
Pre-test method refers to testing the potentiality of a message or copy
before printing or broadcasting. It is useful because the concepts in advertising
may appear to be simple and effective to the advertiser or advertising to be
simple and effective to the advertiser or advertising agency. It may be difficult from
the layman’s point of view. All the elements in the advertising copy requires careful pre-
testing to see that the matter it intends to be conveyed has been really conveyed,
„prevention is better than care‟. Pre testing methods are adopted on this basis. The
following are some of the pre-testing methods;
a. Consumer Jury method
This method essentially involves the exposure of alternative
advertisements to a sample of jury; of prospects and the securing of their opinion
and reactions to the advertisements. This test is designed to learn from a typical
group of prospective customers gathered in one place or a sample of
prospects that are independently, visited by interviewers or contacted by mail
their preference for one advertisement over the other or for several
advertisements out of a group. Advertisements which are unpublished are
mocked up on a separate sheet and these are presented before the consumer jury
either in personal interviews or group interviews.
b. Sales Area Test
Under this method advertising campaign is run in the markets selected
for testing purposes. The impact of the campaign is evaluated by actual sales in
the selected markets. The market with high sales is considered the best market
for effective sales campaign. In other markets suitable changes are made in the
advertising campaign.
c. Recall test Method
Under this method, advertising copies are shown to a group of
prospects. After few minutes they are asked to recall and reproduce them. This
method is used to find out how far the advertisements are impressive.
d. Reaction test
The potential effect of an advertisement is judged with the help of certain
instruments, which measure heartbeats, blood pressure, pupil dilution etc. Their

1st Semester, A.Y. 2024-2025 Page 4

MKTG P303 - ADVERTISING

reactions reveal the psychological or nervous effects of advertising.

e. Readability test
All the listeners of advertisements cannot read it equally. So respondents
are drawn from different socio economic and geographical backgrounds. This
method is used to find out the level of effectiveness when and advertisement is
read.
f. Eye movement test
The movements of eyes of the respondents are recorded by using eye
observation camera when advertisements are shown to them in a screen. This
helps to find out the attention value of advertisement.

2) Post-Test Techniques

The following are the post-test techniques for measuring the effectiveness of the
advertisements;
a. Recognition Test

It determines the readership of the advertisement in the newspapers

and journals. This test is conducted by personal interviews with readers, and
magazines or newspapers. The interviewers locate the readers of the
particular issue of the magazine in question. They, then, go through the
magazine page by page with the respondent indicating those advertising
elements which he or she recognize as having read.
The data collected by this test indicate the proportion of qualified
readership of a publication who claims to have „seen‟, „read some‟ or
„read most of the elements of the individual advertisement. These
measurements may also seek to obtain quantitative data regarding the parts
of an advertisement which were seen or heard.

b. Recall or Impact Test

The recognition test measurers the stopping power of the advertising
but goes not tell us what the readers understood or retained of the
advertisement. The recall test is designed to measure the impression of
readers or viewers of the advertisement. If a reader has a favorable
impression of the advertisement, he will certainly retain something of the
advertisement. The measures of interest would be obtained by interviewing the
1st Semester, A.Y. 2024-2025 Page 5
MKTG P303 - ADVERTISING

readers or viewers or listeners, days after the advertisement or commercial

is appeared in the newspaper, or on T.V. Interviewer asks the questions from
the readers / viewers and in response to the question asked, the reader reveals
the accuracy and depth of his impression by his answers.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1st Semester, A.Y. 2024-2025 Page 6
MKTG P303 - ADVERTISING

1. Why does expenditure on advertisement considered as an investment?

2. Differentiate direct and indirect measure method of measuring advertising

effectiveness.

3. What is copy testing? Why it is important in measuring advertising effectiveness?

4. Compare and contrast pre-test and post-test methods in advertising. Cite

examples.

Comments/Suggestions
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________

References
1. Andrews, J. and Shimp, T. (2012). Advertising, Promotion, and other Aspect of
Integrated Marketing Communication. South-Western, Cengage Learning. ISBN
13: 978-1-111-58021-6
2. Hackley C. (2008). Advertising and Promotion “Communicating Brands. SAGE
Publication. ISBN 0-6179-4153-3
3. Khan, R, et al. (2011). ADVERTISING. Professor cum Director Institute of
Distance Learning and Open Learning, University of Mumbai, Vidjanagari,
Mumbai- 400-098
4. Moriarty, S. et al (2009). Advertising Principles and Practices 8 th Edition. Pearson
Education Inc. ISBN 978-981-0697-518

1st Semester, A.Y. 2024-2025 Page 7