Marketers Should Test Advertising or Not. Ad-Pre-Testing

¶ … marketers should test advertising or not. Ad-pre-testing is a necessary, even vital part of the successful marketing campaign, because it allows marketing professionals to analyze and alter campaigns according to the public's reaction to the advertising, allowing marketers to avoid costly ad campaigns that do not get the results they thought they would.

Ad pre-testing provides a significant function for marketers, allowing them to assess and analyze the reaction to advertising before they commit to a large, costly campaign. The effectiveness of this procedure is illustrated by special software developed by advertising experts to help analyze and assess data from ad pre-testing. For example, OTX, a consumer research and consulting firm, has developed specific software called AdCEP (TM), which "achieves a balanced view of ad effectiveness by measuring multiple key criteria that line up with campaign objectives" (Harbeck 2009). This illustrates just how significant ad pre-testing is for successful advertising, and how industry professionals view ad pre-testing. It is so vital for successful marketing that time, energy, and revenue resources to into developing software that can make the job easier and far more effective, and this helps prove the importance of ad pre-testing in the advertising world.

Not all advertisers agree on the significance of ad pre-testing. Another industry professional notes that many online banner advertisers have not pre-tested their ads in the early history of the Internet, and they have been slow to come on board the pre-testing bandwagon. There have been few studies done on why this is the case, but it seems that in author Shen Fuyan's study, advertising agencies routinely pre-testing big-ticket campaigns, such as television campaigns, and just as routinely ignored pre-testing online campaigns. The author believes one reason the advertisers ignore Internet pre-testing is because the results are so difficult to analyze, since click-through rates and other measurements can vary so widely online (Fuyan, 2002).

Ad pre-testing can provide a myriad of data for analysis, especially if it is conducted effectively. For example, subjects who pre-test ads rate them by how well the ad grabs their attention, how well the ad stimulates the subject to continue watching or reading the ad until it ends, and how clear the ad's message is to the viewer. They can also rate how appealing the product is, and whether they will follow through (purchase) the product (Tyagi and Kumar 2007, p. 47-48). This is powerful information that can lead to far more successful advertising campaigns in the end, and ignoring this information could ultimately lead to a decrease in advertiser revenue, and perhaps even loss of the account.