I Can Measure That! Webinar Recap

We held our I Can Measure That! A Full-Funnel Guide to Podcast Ad Effectiveness webinar on Thursday. I was joined by Arica McKinnon, Vice President of Solutions Consulting at Nielsen, Omer Jilani, Vice President Sales from Claritas, and Arianna Vogel, Director of Product Marketing at Foursquare.

Here are the highlights.

Top Takeaways

Begin measurement discussions when you start planning your campaign strategy and let your sales team help find the right method and metrics.

• Align measurement with top KPIs. Top-of-funnel metrics like awareness are a good fit for brand lift, while lower-funnel goals like online sales or brick-and-mortar footfall are best measured with online or offline attribution, respectively.

• Creative and audience alignment is key. The KPIs should be reflected in the ad copy and creative. You need the right listeners, and if you want them to know something or take an action, tell them.

• Allocate budget to podcasts. Podcasts can be measured as part of an omni-channel campaign, often leading performance when stacked up against other channels. However, it’s important to give podcasts a fair chance to perform by assigning the channel an appropriate share of the budget.

• Test and repeat. One “test” campaign is not enough to say whether or not podcasts work for your strategy and goals. Metrics from your first campaign should provide insights that allow you to optimize additional campaigns. 

Insights from Arica McKinnon, Nielsen

• Brand lift studies are best for upper- and mid-funnel goals. Brand lift studies measure upper funnel metrics like awareness and familiarity, along with mid-funnel metrics like consideration and intent.

• Bonus episodes drive brand affinity and intent. Arica shared a case study example of brand lift performance for a Buick-sponsored bonus episode of Office Ladies to help introduce their new luxury SUV. The episode drove a significant +8 pt lift in affinity and an impressive +12 pt lift in intent to seek more information on the new vehicle.

• Podcasts increase aided and unaided awareness. Arica also revealed newly compiled norms for PAE+ for the first time, showing how podcasts move the needle in brand awareness. On average, podcasts drive a lift of +4 pts in unaided awareness, where respondents have to actually list the brands they know, unprompted. Podcasts drive a +6 pts lift in aided awareness.

Insights from Omer Jilani, Claritas

• Online attribution measures impact on consumer actions. Online attribution is best for measuring podcasts’ impact on online consumer action, including web engagements—like homepage landings or an add-to-cart—and purchases and app downloads.

• Claritas offers both attribution and lift/incrementality metrics for all online actions. Attribution demonstrates how many actions were driven by a podcast campaign. Lift/incrementality measures attribution against a control to show how many additional actions were driven, compared to not running to podcast ads.

• Podcasts drive both web engagements and purchase conversions. Omer shared highlights from a successful campaign for a home furnishings retailer. Podcasts drove a +13% lift in web engagements and a remarkable +23% lift in purchase conversions.

Insights from Arianna Vogel, Foursquare

• Footfall attribution shows podcasts’ impact on foot traffic and sales. It’s ideal for brick-and-mortar advertisers, such as retail and QSRs. 

• Foursquare offers both attribution and behavioral lift metrics. Attribution shows the number of unique visits and total sales driven by the podcast campaign. Behavioral lift compares these attributed actions to what would be expected based business prior to the campaign.

• Podcasts show behavioral lift. Ariana shared data from a QSR’s omni-channel campaign where podcasts were the top performing tactic. Overall podcasts generated a 5% behavioral lift in visits, compared to control.

What to know more about podcast measurement? Let's talk.