Employing insightful ad testing to ensure effective advertising for home building products and materials

Effective advertising is one of the pillars of successful marketing. But not all advertising is effective. Is yours?

The best way to ensure your advertising communicates what it’s intended to communicate, in a way that also grows your brand, is by testing it. Home Innovation Research Labs can now offer building product manufacturers a broad range of advertising research methods and designs for use among both consumer target-audiences, and B2B decision makers and influencers.

With decades of in-house expertise in ad testing for major consumer brands, we have the capability to conduct ad testing at every phase of your advertising timeline.

Qualitative Research

We typically start our ad testing process by helping clients develop and fine-tune advertising ideas, messages, concepts, positionings, and strategies. We can do it all in the qualitative research realm — from developing recruitment screeners and moderator/facilitator guides; to recruiting for, moderating, and facilitating in-depth interviews and groups; to full report development and presentation of findings, including conclusions, business implications, and recommendations for moving forward. To fulfill this phase of the research, we can conduct:

• In-depth, one-on-one interviews
• Mini focus groups (4 to 6 participants)
• Full-size focus groups (8 to 12 participants)

Advertising Message & Concept Screens

Used to eliminate the least promising advertising messages and ideas, and determine which messages or advertising concepts exhibit the most potential for further development. Elements of this phase include:

• Robust quantitative research among category users, primary and secondary target consumers, key decision makers, and influencers
• Determine statistically reliable sample sizes for consumer and B2B advertising
• Depending on specific objectives, implement appropriate methodologies, including choice-modeling tasks, Max-Diff exercises, round-robin exposure to stimuli, and even sequential or proto-monadic methods

Communications & Ad Copy Testing

Used to determine how effective an ad is at communicating key attributes and benefits, in addition to effectively eliciting positive imagery and associations with the product and brand.

• From storyboards to full-finished ads, and every phase between, for TV, print, online, and radio advertisements
• Liberal use of open-end questions to assess the ability of an ad to effectively communicate key messages and probe specific likes and dislikes about messages, content, and images
• Key metrics and diagnostics are employed to assess an ad’s ability to generate purchase interest and recommendations, as well as determine if communications are relevant and believable, how much an ad is liked overall, and whether the ad generates positive or negative rational and emotional imagery, associations and feelings for a brand, all with the intent of determining what can be done to make an ad more effective

Multi-cell Ads Tests

Used to determine the best ad for further development or launch out of a set of ads.

• Monadic research design is typically best suited for measuring results free of potential bias or influence from seeing other ads
• Proto-monadic research design often recommended if comparative ratings are desired in addition to monadic ratings
• Sequential monadic research designs can save money by having respondents react to multiple ads, one at a time

Test vs. Control Ads Tests

Used to determine if a test ad measures up to a benchmark ad or an ad from a major competitor. Control ad(s) can be from major competitors in the same category, or a control ad can be a particular client ad that performed extremely well in prior testing.

TV Clutter-Reel Tests & Print Ad Portfolio Tests

Used to measure intrusiveness of advertising, or the ability of advertising to break through clutter and effectively generate high levels of ad, brand, product and message recall, in addition to being likable, memorable, relevant, believable, and persuasive.

Pre-Post Advertising Effectiveness Tests

Used to determine the effectiveness of an ad/campaign across multiple metrics (e.g., advertising and brand awareness, and attitudinal and behavioral dispositions prior to advertising launch), and relative to the same metrics following the completion of an advertising flight/campaign.

• Assess the effectiveness of an advertisement/campaign in terms of its ability to positively impact awareness, perceptions, and sales

Advertising Tracking Studies

Used to measure the effectiveness of ads/campaigns as compared to competitive ads/campaigns on building awareness and positively affecting attitudes and behavior.

• Longitudinal tracking (quarterly, semi-annual, or annual waves) to assess the impact of an advertising campaign over time, and determine when an ad campaign is beginning to wear out
• Continuous tracking to assess an ad or campaign’s impact while it’s on air/web or in print for real-time effect, and/or to measure results immediately following an advertising flight
• Pre-Post Advertising Tracking can be longitudinal or continuous, and includes a benchmark wave prior to launch of a new campaign or series of ads