Picking the Right Advertising Channels (Awareness versus Direct Response)

With so many choices and venues, to advertise, it can hard to pick the right advertising channels with limited funds.  Of course, we can’t answer every channel selection question here, but let’s take a few moments to take a refresher on two types of advertising channels.  The internet has certainly blurred some of the lines, but they are still there.  This certainly isn’t the only way to divide marketing channels, but it is one of many helpful exercises.  Are you trying to build awareness or elicit a direct response?

I remember a time when, to settle an argument about a recruiting ad, we put a $7,500 billboard ad up against a $1,500 Facebook ad. Which do you think was better? Was this for awareness, or for direct response? Do either Facebook or a billboard lend themselves more to awareness or direct response?

Awareness
What is it that you want to accomplish with your ad?  Are you a plumber that wants to increase Top of Mind Awareness (TOMA), so when somebody springs a leak a year from now, you are the most familiar name in Google’s 1,000,000 “plumber” results? Is this a product release that you want to create buzz and get people talking about?  It is a political ad meant simply to get a sound bite, or a campaign slogan embedded in the target’s mind?

If you answer yes to this type of questioning, this is an awareness campaign.  So what type of channels lend themselves to that?  Can you think of any?  Billboards (and other signage), online banner ads, broadcast mediums.  Seems obvious, but how many times have you seen a direct response solicited on a billboard, or a cable insert that said “call now” when the business was actually closed, or calling would otherwise be impractical?

A lot of business owners hate this type of marketing because it seems like a waste or it’s not trackable, but there are measures like TOMA and other surveys, social media buzz, and up-ticks in direct response results that can begin to measure ROI.

Direct Response
Are you a plumber that wants the call in the middle of the night the moment the pipe busts?  Do you want folks to apply now, buy now, watch now?

If you answer yes, then this is a direct response campaign.  So what are good channels for this type of ad?  Cost-per-click (CPC) campaigns, snail mail, email, personal selling can all be direct response channels.  Again, this sounds obvious, but how often do we see a direct response ad with a confusing, or non-existent call to action?

Putting it all Together
One of the advantages to this exercise is that it helps plan the ad content too.  If we’re working on awareness, maybe the QR code is a waste of space, heck, maybe even the phone number is a waste of space.

Of course, a mix of these ads is a good thing too.  Think about that plumber.  When the pipe bursts and the google search goes out, there’s no shopping around and reading review after review.  If you sound familiar, you get the click.  Having built a good awareness campaign over years, when the market may not be ready for your services, will augment greatly the direct response when the time comes.  We can also use a direct repose channel to send folks to an awareness channel.  Think of an ad for a marketing game.  Maybe the plumber we keep talking about has some sort of whack-a-mole game you can play that stops leaky pipes. Perhaps becoming a thought leader offering free tips to keep pipes from breaking, or a Saturday class on maintenance. A blitz of direct response campaigns can be so ubiquitous as to act as an awareness campaign.

In case you hadn’t guessed, the Facebook ad not only had a better cost per application, but it also yielded significantly more applications. That was a VERY expensive mistake that could have been avoided by asking the questions we asked above.