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Wednesday ads drive higher in-store traffic, study shows

We are more likely to visit stores if we hear radio ads on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, according to a new study.
Written by Eileen Brown, Contributor

Advertisers who spend budget on radio ads want to make sure their marketing spend is making a difference in terms of sales. Now, a new study shows that in-store traffic increases due to these ads.

Indianapolis-based DialReport conducted a study between April and June 2018. It analysed 1.5 million radio spot plays across the top 100 US markets.

It looked at various formats from brand campaigns using Ad-ID to identify advertising assets, and the data on Tagstation cloud services. It also looked at 107,000 smartphone listeners who listened to FM radio and matched them to Freckle location data.

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For each of the 10 brands across four categories, store traffic data was matched to listeners on stations to which the spots played. Average retail visits were calculated for those exposed to the radio spots and also across a control group of unexposed visitors listening within the same timeframe.

The percentage change in average retail visits between the exposed group and the unexposed group was calculated -- giving the store traffic lift.

Wednesday ads drive higher in store traffic according to a new study ZDnet
DialReport

Store traffic lift saw the following increases across industries: Automotive increased by almost one-third (32 percent), beauty by 32 percent, and the lift across quick service restaurants increased by almost one-quarter (23 percent).

The study showed that radio ads, on average, drive 22 percent traffic lift for brands. Interestingly, audiences who heard ads on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays were more likely to visit retail stores.

Weekends from 6am to 7pm and overnight at the weekends also drove higher store traffic.

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Not every category experienced a good uplift after exposure to radio ads. The home improvement category only lifted by seven percent, whereas the automotive and beauty retailer categories uplifted by 32 percent.

So, is it worth spending on radio? The study seems to think it does. A 22-percent lift for an automotive brand is a significant amount of revenue. But a beauty brand would need to work very hard to generate a similar amount of cash.

Brands should make sure that they spend their money wisely.

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