Ad Tracking

Ad tracking, also known as post-testing or ad effectiveness tracking is continuous in-market research that monitors a brands performance including brand and advertising awareness, product trial and usage, and attitudes about the brand versus their competition.

Depending on the speed of the purchase cycle in the category, tracking can be done continuously (a few interviews every week) or it can be pulsed, with interviews conducted in widely spaced waves (ex. every three or six months).

Since the researcher has information on when the ads launched, the length of each advertising flight, the dollars spent, and when the interviews were conducted, the results provide an accurate rear-view mirror look at the marketplace and how it was affected by the advertisers marketing messages and decisions.

The purpose of ad tracking is generally to provide a measure of the combined effect of the media weight or spending level, the effectiveness of the media buy or targeting, and the quality of the advertising executions or creative. Some newer forms of online tracking, separate the issues of the quality of the creative component from the quality of the media buy and instead focus on the relative performance of ads versus the competitive ads that are airing at the same time. All forms of tracking data are used to provide inputs to Marketing Mix Models which marketing science statisticians build to estimate advertising return on investment.