ROI for Traditional Media - Take Another Look

As budgets continue to shift to Internet advertising, clients are relieved that they can quantify their ad spend with more metrics. While measurable results are certainly import, the key is to make sure you don't forget about the original objectives of a campaign.

Yes, you can measure click-thrus and conversion rates, but brand awareness and imaging goals? Not easy to do without using primary research for the specific campaign. That's a luxury most advertisers cannot afford.

Measurement is extremely important, but it must be kept in perspective. For example, many small businesses are using Twitter successfully. How do they know? Because business has improved.

Another example from personal experience is buying spot TV and holding stations accountable to their ratings. Several years ago, I bought paid programming from a new small station in a top 100 market, as well as a spot buy. The station never posted above 30%. The results were horrible - or maybe it was my ability to project a rating? Regardless, the station always ran a fair under-delivery schedule. What's interesting is my $50 paid programming creative that ran at 1 a.m. made the phone ring off the hook. With the direct response type spot creative I was running (on several stations), I knew the :30 lengths were also generating calls. (With a vanity number, we did not have the luxury to run different numbers on different stations). So, according to the ratings, my buy was not efficient. Yet, I know it was effective.

Isn't that what really matters?