Advertising Effectiveness: How research helps you boost it?

The winners of the Premios Eficacia, the leading event in the field of advertising effectiveness in Spain, have been announced these days. This year, the Grand Efficacy Award went to the automotive brand Cupra, supported by the agencies &Rosàs and PHD Media. PS21 and Arena Media have been awarded as Creative Agency and Media Agency of the Year, respectively. There is a long list of award winners for campaigns that have excelled in terms of advertising effectiveness.

But what exactly is advertising effectiveness, and how can research help boost it? Here, we provide all the key insights.

What Is Advertising Effectiveness?

Advertising effectiveness is the ability of a campaign to create an impact on the target audience and achieve the expected communication objectives.

The concept of advertising effectiveness is broad and depends on the specific objectives for which the campaign was designed. Some of these objectives may include:

• Increase brand awareness. The brand aims to generate increased brand recognition and a strong association with the category and product. This way, the brand will have greater «mental availability» and a better chance of being chosen.

• Brand positioning. Associating the brand with certain brand attributes that will make it stand out and be more desirable to the target audience.

• Associating the brand with specific category entry points, such as different purchase scenarios that will make the brand a preferred choice in those situations.

• Achieving a tactical objective. Performance-oriented campaigns aim to mobilize buyers to take action, such as visiting stores on specific dates, participating in a promotion, or registering for an app. 

• Increase sales. Generate increased demand for the brand through the campaign’s launch and sustain it over time.

Depending on the campaign’s objectives, advertising effectiveness should be evaluated with its specific set of indicators.

How to Boost Your Advertising Effectiveness?

All brands and agencies want to create more effective campaigns. However, some campaigns are highly successful, while others go unnoticed. What is the magic recipe? If we understand the factors that influence advertising effectiveness, we can create more effective campaigns.

Paul Dyson, Founder of Accelero, published a comprehensive study based on over 28,000 campaigns in July 2023, in which he identified the following «multiplier factors» that determine advertising effectiveness:

• Brand size: Campaigns for large brands are up to 20 times more effective than those for small brands. Good news for large brands, but also a motivation to help smaller brands invest in the long term. Any growth they achieve today will prepare them for greater advertising effectiveness in the future.

• Creativity. Creative quality is the second factor in advertising effectiveness, multiplying it by up to 12. This is where the work of high-quality creative agencies makes a difference.

• Budget management. Proper allocation across regions can multiply advertising effectiveness by up to five times. In some countries, the brand will be larger, which will benefit it in terms of size, while in other places, the unit costs of advertising investment may be lower. Therefore, achieving a good balance will be crucial for optimizing investment. The same applies when allocating the budget among portfolio brands (x3) or variants (x1.7).

• Media planning. According to Paul Dyson’s study, multimedia planning can increase advertising effectiveness by up to 2.5 times. Other factors related to media planning include launching campaigns at the right time (x1.6) – at the peak of seasonality or when the cost of advertising investment is lower – ceasing to run the campaign at the right time (x1.15), and selecting the most efficient audience (x1.1).

• Brand vs. Performance. The right combination of brand campaigns with other tactical campaigns with short-term objectives can double advertising effectiveness.

Given the extensive list of factors, it’s clear that launching effective campaigns requires making many well-informed decisions to stand out. Fortunately, market research helps you make the right choices in many of them.

Pre-Campaign Research

There is a wide range of studies you can conduct before launching your campaign to secure your investment.

• Category understanding studies. It’s advisable to update your baseline information before launching a major campaign. If there have been significant market changes, you could deviate from your objectives. Therefore, it may be interesting to check the profile of your brand’s target audience, confirm their needs, and re-measure their buying or usage habits. There are many ways to do this. You can conduct online market research based on surveys or opt for qualitative research if you need to explore these factors more comprehensively.

• Brand studies. Having a good initial measurement of the most important brand indicators will help you select the best objectives for your campaign. Additionally, you can compare this data with post-campaign measurements, allowing you to isolate and demonstrate its impact.

• Pre-advertising testing. Pre-testing evaluates your advertising creativity in a controlled environment before investing and provides suggestions to improve the final execution. With today’s tools, results are very quick, and the cost of conducting a pre-test is very low compared to the risk of a campaign’s failure.

• Media studies. From audience data to media-product studies, there is a wide range of syndicated studies to help you fine-tune your media planning. For areas they do not cover, you can create ad-hoc research to refine your media plan.

Post-Campaign Research

So far, we’ve covered the recommended research before launching a campaign. But what about after launch? Post-advertising tests are the studies that allow you to understand the impact you’ve achieved and gather insights for making your next campaign even more effective. With a campaign post-test, you’ll be able to measure and demonstrate the impact of your advertising.

How to Equip Yourself for Advertising Research?

An effective advertising strategy will require you to make many decisions over time. You can always contract the necessary studies when the need arises. If your advertising activity is regular, it’s usually convenient to equip yourself with a subscription that allows you to launch studies with freedom and agility. Furthermore, subscriptions are always more cost-effective and will allow you to make better use of your budget. 

Whether you choose to contract specific studies or a subscription, the research experts at We are testers will always be by your side to assist you with anything you need. We can help you define your objectives, design your research plan, create questionnaires for the studies you need, and work with you on interpreting results. Everything you need to boost your advertising effectiveness and achieve your goals.

Contact our team to explore all the possibilities.