Billboard Advertising in San Antonio

If you are a marketing director, your life hangs in the balance between the time you authorize a campaign and the time revenues start to pour in. All the while your superiors are scrutinizing your decision and the efficacy of your job! So, how long should carry over be? When can you stop telling your boss to be patient? In Effective Advertising, Gerard Tellis addresses this question when he address what he calls “Dynamic Advertising”.

One morning I was at a breakfast meeting with two fellow out of home advertising businessmen, and the topic of carryover was brought up. Carryover is advertising phraseology for, “How long will it take for my advertising to kick in?”. Carryover represents the delay in the effect of an ad.

When will my advertising start working?

Effects of advertising are not instant. If advertising was instant, we would see results like those in the graph. As you can see in the chart above, we see little revenue pops every time your ad is seen. There is a part of your advertising efforts which will carry over to a time period following your initial investment. This is related mostly to consumer psychology:

1. Consumers take time to consider your ad and then do relevant research on your product
2. Consumers often feel the need to discuss the ad with acquaintances before making a decision
3. Consumers might make a purchase without even seeing your ad - they hear about your ad second hand from a friend

These three psychological effects are most strongly correlated with carryover. It is for this reason that companies often waste money by advertising during periods where they could have had sustainable carryover-related sales. So the first generalized answer you can quote me on:

Advertising does not work instantly

How long do I have to wait?

Short answer: Not Long. Honest answer: No one knows! Unfortunately there is conflicting evidence and this answer cannot be resolved easily. The evidence which points to year-long carry over effects is drawn from data over a period of years, but it was found Tripp, Jensen, and Carlson in the Journal of Consumer Research, 20k, 4 (March), 535-547 that when this annual data is broken up into weeks, days, or hours we see carryover to last weeks, days, or hours. Therefore, you should not have to wait long.

3 months is a conservative time to wait.

Anecdotally speaking, your customers remember the catch phrases, slogans, and themes of well-advertised products many years after the ad stops, but this does not necessarily have a causal link to your sales increase. This is why it is so key for your advertising to cut through the clutter.  This is the comparative attribute San Antonio billboards have over other media.  The research tends to point towards a shorter carry over, but suffice it to say, you are going to have to tell your boss to expect results soon. (Hopefully you found a good advertising consultant, so you have someone to turn to if your boss gives you some difficult questions that need answering).

Conclusion: It works or it doesn’t

The results of your ad campaign will either “work” or not work. Work is quoted here because you must first define what you mean by an advertising campaign which “works”. You want a campaign which will deliver you the inbound prospects you seek. Well, let me tell you something. If your advertising campaign proves to be ineffective in the first few months, it is not going to work. This might not be your advertising consultant’s fault. Who approved the ad? Are your sales people closing your inbound deals? Are you effectively using your name, location, unique selling points, and other important elements of good copy in your advertising? Do you know what good copy is supposed to look like?

Nothing is certain, but everything is measurable, and if you have a failed advertising endeavor, doing it more will not improve your results.