Google Radio Ads
In a recent newsletter from WebProNews I read the following question concerning Google Radio Ads;
One particular hurdle the company will have to address is measuring traffic. Clicks, page views, and unique visitors all offer a particularly reasonable method of quantification when it comes to tracking advertising metrics.
The question remains, however, what analytical method Google will choose to implement for radio, as the aforementioned measurements are unique to the Internet.
So as Google takes to the airwaves, it seems we are left with more questions than answers about how Audio Ads will take shape.
Having placed a few radio ads for other businesses that we own including our web design business, I can tell you that radio is sticky in the minds of the consumers, but is very hard to track. One solution offered by a print media company that also applied to radio advertising was for the company selling the advertising to buy a bunch of toll free numbers and assign 1 number to each advertiser. Using the unique identifying toll free number assigned to each advertiser, it is possible to retrieve a call rate and an area of where the calls are coming from.
This information can be used to hone the radio advertisement to improve “Call Throughs” and also used to improve stickiness in geo targeted areas.
Also, using unique landing pages for the radio ads would help to track the conversions from listener to visitor, then internal metrics can track transformations from visitor to buyer. A simple url of yoursite.com/radio should do the trick.
