5 KPIs Every Marketer Should Track to Measure Radio Effectiveness

Notebook with Toolls and Notes about ROI

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”
-John Wanamaker

Despite the attempts of ratings organizations such as Nielsen, it is difficult to directly measure progress toward specific sales goals and overall return on investment (ROI) when dealing with radio advertisements.

To help you track your radio effectiveness, concentrate on the following five key performance indicators (KPIs):

1. Reach

One of the greatest benefits of radio advertising is its ability to connect with large numbers of consumers. Therefore, one of the most important KPIs to consider when purchasing airtime is reach. By looking at past records and historical data, media buyers can estimate the expected reach of broadcasts in particular markets and set conversion goals.

2. Brand Awareness

Although a specific marketing message or special offer may bring consumers to your door, brand awareness is essential if you want to keep them coming back.

You can gauge the ability of specific radio spots to build brand loyalty through a range of informal and formal initiatives. For example, pay attention when clients or customers mention a particular ad when visiting your organization. More formally, you can conduct surveys of the general population both before and after the ad airs to ask whether or not they have heard of your brand. You can also measure the effects of the ad on your brand-specific social media growth.

3. Website Traffic

When it comes to measuring overall website traffic, take a longer approach to determine overall effectiveness. Compare your total number of website visitors after you began running radio ads to your total number of website visitors during the months and years that came before. Consider the effects of changes in specific website conversion rates and general increases in branded traffic (comprised of visitors who arrive at your website after typing your brand name into a search engine).

4. Gross Sales

Conduct year-over-year and month-over-month analyses to see if sales are up or down in relation to the airing of your radio ads. A radio specific discount can be an outstanding way to track its effectiveness. When consumers ask for that discount online or in your brick-and-mortar location, you will know for certain that they heard your ad spot.

5. Return on Ad Spend

After you determine your gross sales and estimate how much of those gross sales can be attributed to your radio ads, you can calculate your overall return on ad spend (ROAS) by dividing the revenue from gross sales by the total amount that you spent on the radio advertisements. This KPI will ultimately encapsulate your radio effectiveness as a whole.

For marketing professionals who pay close attention to these five KPIs, the potential of radio advertising is incredibly promising. In fact, industry experts have shown that radio can typically deliver up to $12 in sales for every dollar spent on ads. Although impressive, this figure will come as no surprise to any marketer who knows that radio reaches 93 percent of US adults on a weekly basis.

John Wanamaker may not have known which half of his advertising dollars were being wasted. However, these five KPI will reveal whether a radio advertisement is a waste of your advertising dollars.