Once you’ve developed different versions of your ad, design a media test plan that puts those messages in front of your target audience. A test phase typically involves six to 10 stations, chosen by format and time of day to match your customer demographic.
Targeting starts with format, which attract the following audiences:
- Teens 12-17: contemporary hit radio, urban, alternative
- Adults 18-24: contemporary hit radio, alternative, urban
- Adults 25-34: alternative, rock, contemporary hit radio, urban, adult contemporary
- Adults 35-44: rock, adult contemporary
- Adults 45-54: oldies, adult contemporary
- Adults 55-64: classical, new adult contemporary
- Adults 65+: adult standards, classical, news talk
Each format can be further broken down with details such as gender split, household income, listening habits and other factors.
The breakdown for the alternative format includes:
- 63% male, 37% female
- 38% listen in the car, 31% at home and 28% at work
- 5% earn more than $75,000 a year
- #1 format in movie attendance
- 31% have eaten at a fast-food restaurant more than five times in the last 30 days
Your goal is to track the results by ad and by customer audience to determine which creative and media variables are most effective.
For ads that require a telephone response, assign a unique phone number to each ad and use a call center that can track incoming calls by geographic region. Ads requiring an online response should use unique URLs.