Ecommerce is experiencing an extra boost in growth because businesses are using offline advertising to drive traffic to their ecommerce websites. Television advertising has traditionally been used to encourage viewers to head to the high street and shop in store. But as ecommerce has grown, marketing strategies have been evolving to capitalise on online opportunities. The latest wave of television adverts for Christmas shopping and the January sales have been more focused on ecommerce than ever before.
In the past, television advertising hasn’t been cost-effective for the majority of businesses because ecommerce hadn’t been fully embraced by the British public, the result, a low conversion rate. However, it appears that consumer behaviour is changing as businesses invest more in TV advertising that drives consumers to shop online.
To monitor and track their return on investment from online advertising, businesses use TV advertising specific voucher codes and discounts to track return on investment. It is important to note, however, that the impact of TV advertising is impossible to accurately measure because of the value from branding and visitors failing to use the tracking code or URL from the advert.
Despite the increase in businesses using TV advertising to promote their online shop, it is not something I would recommend to clients. TV advertising is expensive, difficult to track and is unlikely to be a successful option for the majority of businesses. In fact, online advertising has recently been found significantly more effective than television advertising for large retailers. The research, conducted by Microsoft using data from 26 UK retailers found that the return on investment from £1 on online advertising was £3.44, compare to £2.15 from television, for more information, take a look at this Article about Advertising using Print, Online and Television in The Times. So TV advertising is improving but online advertising still generates a better return on investment.
