Contributor: Rick Kestenbaum, general manager, AnalyticOwl
The telecom industry is what keeps us all connected—whether we’re texting a friend, streaming a movie or hopping on a video call for work. It’s come a long way from landlines and dial-up internet to lightning-fast mobile networks and fiber-optic cables. These days, telecom companies are at the heart of the digital world, powering everything from smart homes to cloud computing.
According to AnalyticOwl’s Prospecting Insights, there were demand spikes in January (maybe those who DIDN’T get the phone they want for Christmas), July (maybe those looking to cut spend mid-year), September (maybe new lines for Back to School) and December (for those who WILL get the phone they want for Christmas).
AnalyticOwl’s Industry Insights report for the telecom category, based on 6,000 aired commercials, reveals a number of opportunities that telecom marketers can use to better understand the impact of radio on website traffic, and to understand where and how to optimize to even better response.
One key finding is that across these airings, 69% of telecom website visits that occurred immediately after commercials aired came from search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.), while only 31% of visits came from users who entered a specific website address. Why is this important? In Google Analytics, the “Referring Source” metric identifies the last website a visitor was on. That can give the impression that all of that traffic should be attributed to search engines when in reality, many visits are from people who had just heard a commercial and then used a search engine to get to the site. Understanding that people will overwhelmingly behave this way no matter what call to action is used is key to understanding the full impact of radio. Hard-to-remember website or landing pages addresses, dedicated phone numbers and response codes all attempt to create a narrow response path that most people simply won’t follow.
Looking at day of week, response rates were highest on Wednesday. In this case, the best strategy is a higher Wednesday presence to leverage the spike in response, but also a presence the other days of the week to build toward the Wednesday opportunity. The best daypart overall was Midday. Evening and Afternoon both contributed at a nearly equal level, arguing for the value of a presence throughout the day and into the Evening which can deliver good additional value given lower rates. And :30 was the best performing ad duration, driving 2% lift in web traffic. This is an important consideration for those who are trying to move advertisers from :60s to :30s.
Radio visitors also drove quality visits. Session durations averaged 2 minutes and 4 seconds with an average of 1.9 pages viewed, indicating serious interest and response. Bounce rates were on the low side at 37.5%, indicating that fewer people just visit a single page before leaving the site. And 10% of site visitors used a mobile device, a great reminder that radio audiences can easily respond anywhere and everywhere.
Broadcast radio connects and engages with consumers throughout their daily lives. It also connects with them via apps and streams on mobile devices to deliver the content and information they want whenever they want it. And radio delivers results for advertisers because it dominates the funnel for telecom. Radio drives brand awareness and consideration. Based on Nielsen Commspoint data, radio ads drove 53% of listeners to try a telecom brand – better than every compared media channel, including TV or social.
Advertisers who follow these insights will find that increased response from people considering changing providers leads to increased conversions and dominance in targeted markets.