Why do people advertise?

Advertising is all around us. Why? Because it works! The importance of advertising cannot be underestimated, and its impact can be huge.  Getting your brand out there, in the correct way, is the single most valuable way to sell your product or service to a potential customer.  Aside from word of mouth and recommendations, it’s how people develop brand awareness and an understanding of who you are, what you do and what you offer.  And that’s why it’s important to get advertising right – before you launch.

A campaign that falls flat can endure more than lost capital – it can mean a devastating loss in credibility, integrity, sales, existing and potential customers.  Unlike a bad review, which can be lost amongst the positives, a bad advert is available for everyone to see. It also tends to stick around, be repeatedly shared and can resurface for years to come.  Remember Bloomingdale’s clanger from 2015? Pepsi’s 2017 campaign with Kendall Jenner and McDonald’s 2017 Filet-O-Fish campaign?  All pulled, at the eye-watering expense, because they simply missed the clanger.

How do you make sure your Ad is perfect?

So, you’ve brainstormed, created and developed.  You’ve discussed, invested and finalised.  You’ve got an advert that’s almost ready to run.  With everything at stake for your brand, from image to substantial investment, the question is simple – why risk it all going wrong?

Advertising Research and Testing is important and it’s pivotal to a successful campaign. Why? Because it’s about ironing out any issues – before launch.  It’s about identifying where it might fall flat, how the message could be misconstrued (or strengthened), whether or not the visuals work – whether it connects with your key audience.  It’s about gleaning valuable insight that allows you to make game-changing tweaks that allow you to proceed with confidence and certainty.  It’s about helping to ensure success.

Regardless of the type of advert – whether it’s a global TV campaign, a glossy ad to launch a new product, or even a series of visuals for a billboard – launching without thorough testing would be like taking a handmade boat straight to sea. 

With that metaphor in mind, let’s explore why Ad testing is so important, and how it can really help your advertising campaign to succeed.

What are the benefits of testing an Ad?

You get essential insight from the horse’s mouth – your target audience. If you want to understand how your ad might resonate with your key target group, ask them what they think. 

As well as giving you some (often) surprising feedback, you’ll often get additional, deeper insight into how it triggers their emotions, what reference points they are using and how it makes them feel. It can provide eureka moments, brand new revelations and highlight the elephant in the room.  Equally importantly, it can also reassure you that you’ve hit the nail on the head.

Advertising testing offers huge ROI – think about the financial impact of a lacklustre, unsuccessful campaign, the production and time spent creating the advert, not to mention the wider impact of a failed ad that damages your credibility.

Ad testing also allows you to test multiple concepts at the same time – allowing for nuances to emerge, preferences to be explored and less viable options to be dropped in favour of concepts that really connect.

Want some insight into your competitors? Testing your advert against your rivals allows you to delve deeper to understand what your target group have missed from your advert – why they’ve chosen your competitor over you.  It gives you the valuable insight you need to make everything from minor tweaks to big, strategic decisions.

Advertising pre-testing and advertising research significantly improve the chance of a successful campaign!  It gives you the game-changing insight you need to launch your campaign with confidence, knowing that you’ve hit the mark.

How do I test my advert?

Our innovative ad testing tool – AdProbe – can be applied at any stage of your campaign, from the creative development phase right through to live testing. 

The aim is to provide a clear understanding of how your advert might be received, the root of any issues and practical advice on improvements that can be made – it can also be used to test the effectiveness and impact of live adverts.  Perfect for testing multiple adverts at once, AdProbe gives you precise indications of your concept’s strengths, weaknesses and key areas for development.

AdProbe is exploratory, precise and eye-opening.  Using key metrics, it gives you an exact breakdown of each element of your advert – everything from the emotion that it elicits (a key driver for successful advertising) and the strength of its key messages to overall perceptions and then ad recall (for live advertising).

To find out more about how to research and test your next ad campaign – and give it the best chance of success – just fill our contact form below.  You can also read more about AdProbe and our advertising metrics here.