Advertising research is a specialized form of marketing research conducted to improve the

efficiency of advertising.
Meaning• Advertising research is the systematic gathering and analysis of information to
help develop or evaluate advertising strategies, ads and commercials, and media
campaigns
scope of advertising research
Increases awareness: Advertising research increases the knowledge about the market,
which helps in building a brand campaign. Analyzes changing market: Knowing your
customer is very important for any business. ... Advertising research analyzes these
changing attitudes of your customers.

Evaluating Advertising Effectiveness:

There is a famous quote which goes like “half the money spent on advertising is waste, but it
is difficult to determine which half”. Companies around the globe spend billions of Rupees on
their advertising. Hence it becomes imperative for the companies to maintain a proper
evaluation system for monitoring advertising effectiveness. Evaluation of advertising is often
a critical factor in marketing success.

A slight change in an advertising campaign brought about through some form of evaluation
can lead to significant increases in sales and profits. In a highly intense competitive
environment, a rational evaluation can provide a company with an edge over its rivals.
Evaluation also gives business some means of control over the tremendous sums of money
spent on marketing communications. Thorough and accurate evaluations increase chances
of success of the marketing communication programme, but also strengthens the morale of
the people associated with the campaign.

Advertisers tend to ask three basic questions before measuring the effectiveness of a
campaign:

i. Why to measure?

ii. When to measure?

iii. What to measure?

These questions assume important dimension because of the following reasons:

i. Cost:
Research can be expensive. As companies strive to keep costs down, research is one of the
first expenses cut or significantly decreased. Measures to evaluate advertising after it is run
are particularly vulnerable.

ii. Research Problems:

Advertising people are uncertain about the methodologies that research organizations use
and the criteria they test for. Research activities tend to be divided into developmental
research, which is used to develop a campaign and evaluative research, which is used to
evaluate the effectiveness of the marketing communications campaign. There is frequent
disappointment with the limitations of research. Planners are often confused with tests that
only measure communications effects, such as awareness and recall. There are few tests
which isolate and reveal a direct causal relationship between advertising and sales.

iii. Disagreement over What to Test:

It is very often difficult to ascertain as to which aspect of the campaign to test. The sales
manager may want to assess the impact of promotion on sales, whereas the corporate
hierarchy may be more concerned about the company’s image. Disputes over what to test
can sometimes lead to no testing.

iv. Creativity Objections:

Most creative people do not like copy testing. They say it inhibits their creativity. Because
many tests are inexact and measure only one aspect of communication, such as awareness,
copywriters often protest that they do not measure the full impact of an ad.

When and What to Measure:

There are at least four stages of a campaign during which it is common to use some
type of evaluative testing:

i. At the beginning of the creative process i.e., concept testing

ii. In the middle and at the end of the creative process i.e., copy testing

iii. While the advertising is appearing in the media i.e., concurrent testing

iv. After the advertising has appeared in the media i.e., post testing.

3. Concept Testing:
Concept testing is a form of evaluative testing used by planners to get a feel for whether
their ideas and strategies are likely to be on target. The purpose of this type of testing is to
get feedback from the customers before a lot of time, money and efforts are spent on
producing expensive ads. Concept testing is as much a check on the strategic development
of the campaign as it is on specific executions. The testing tends to be somewhat
exploratory in nature, although a frame work of ideas and concepts have been developed.

Among the concepts which are evaluated are product names, slogans, campaign themes,
advertising claims or promises and the basic product positioning. Later during the copy-
testing phase, specific variables that affect the execution of an ad can be tested (such as the
selection of music, choice of words use of art or humour, and arrangement of these
elements). This is also a good stage to evaluate end users. Celebrity endorsement is usually
expensive hence it is imperative to get some feedback on it before contracts are signed.

Because concept testing tends to be exploratory in nature, the research techniques tend to
be more qualitative than other types of testing.

Among the more common ways of gathering information are the following:

(a) Focus Groups

(b) Mall intercepts

(c) One to One interview.

Post Testing:

Post testing refers to testing at the end of the campaign whereas concurrent testing is done
for an ongoing campaign.

Post testing can be divided into two types:

1. Test measuring communication effects,

2. Test measuring behavioural effects.

The following criteria are among the most popular used for post testing:

i. Recognition (A communication effect)

ii. Recall
iii. Attitudes, Awareness and Likeability

iv. Sales (Behavioural effect)

v. Enquiries.