Six Steps To More Effective Audio Ads.

A Nielsen study of nearly 450 ad campaigns found that creative drives nearly half (49%) of all sales effect, far ahead of brand (21%), reach (14%), targeting (11%) and recency (5%). So, what’s the problem? According to Advertiser Perceptions, marketers believe creative accounts for just 21% of ROI, tying brand and led by targeting (25%).

“Advertisers massively underestimate the sales effect of creative,” Cumulus Media/Westwood One Audio Active Group Chief Insights Officer Pierre Bouvard says in Westwood One’s blog. “Ensuring your creative is strong and well-branded makes all the difference.”

How to do that? Bouvard suggests letting research be your guide, citing studies from Effie, System 1 and other sources. “Most audio ad campaigns feature low emotion and rational messaging, along with narrow targeting, yielding the lowest long-term profit, [while] broadly targeted ads with emotion (ads that make you feel something) generate the greatest profit. Broad media targeting increases profit performance. Shift to an emotion-based creative strategy and profit likelihood soars.”

Creating ads with emotion is just one of six strategies Bouvard recommends to improve audio ads, with another to brand early and often. A Nielsen brand effect study showed that more brand mentions in a 30-second spot improved consumer familiarity by 67%, affinity by 40% and likelihood to seek more information by 43%.

“Here’s a simple best practice: begin the ad with the brand name,” Bouvard says. “The brand needs to appear in the first two seconds. The rule of thumb is five brand mentions in a 30-second ad, [while] 60-second ads should feature at least 9+ brand mentions. Prune out the endless features and say the brand name more often. Say the brand name slowly. Spell the name out.”

A key component of branding is tying any brand to a category. As Bouvard notes in the blog, O’Reilly Auto Parts’ radio spots end their jingle with “auto parts.” “You have to say your name a lot and the category you are part of,” Bouvard says. “This helps the listener who is unfamiliar with your firm learn what you do.”

Using sonic assets, such as a music track or jingle, boosts brand association. “Using the same music track in all your ad reads creates a distinctive brand asset for your brand,” Bouvard says. “The worst situation is when a podcast puts a random piece of music behind your ad copy. Even worse is if they use the same music track for multiple brands.”

While it may be tempting for new advertisers using audio to pack as many copy points into 60 seconds, research shows that fewer messages lead to greater ad recall, while it’s less likely consumers will remember anything when more messages are included.

Simply put, research shows that funny ads are more effective. “System1 data says the greater the humor, the greater the market share growth,” Bouvard says. “[Their] research finds you have to spend twice as much media money on dull campaigns to get the same impact as interesting campaigns. It’s good business to inject showmanship into your ad campaigns!”

Along those lines, Bouvard adds, it’s important for audio advertisers to note that “the most successful ads have both showmanship and salesmanship,” quoting veteran ad executive and author Paul Feldwick: “Advertising builds brands best when it is entertaining, popular and memorable, when it is not just a pitch, but a performance.”