By Brendan Almack on 3 Apr 2013
What’s the first the thing you do when you hear a great radio ad, see a highly relevant outdoor ad or get inspired by a TV ad? I bet a lot of you turn to your phone, tablet or work PC to find out a little bit more. Because we’re always connected, the point of sale (POS) can be anywhere a potential customer can get an internet connection. So now more than ever there are plenty of great reasons for supporting any offline advertising effort with a digital marketing campaign, but here are my top 4 reasons:
1. Cost Effectiveness
The cost of creating and managing a digital marketing campaign for the duration of your offline campaign will be a very small fraction of the total advertising spend, but could have a serious impact on the success of the campaign.
2. Measurement
One of my favourite features of digital marketing is the measurability of performance. We’re in a lucky position in being able to very quickly generate performance reports that give a detailed insight into the return offered by a digital marketing campaign. ROI is a very easy calculation for any digital marketer. By including a digital element to your offline advertising campaign you are creating a great mechanism for measuring success.
3. Engagement
I’ll try to illustrate this with an example. Electric Ireland is currently running a really interesting and extensive billboard and TV campaign. I see the ads everyday on my commute and I think they’re eye catching. However, the ads don’t give me any opportunity to engage with the brand or take any action. 
I think this is a missed opportunity. Something as simple as a landing page reference or even a #hashtag would allow Electric Ireland to develop something beyond their billboards which could even outlive the outdoor and TV campaign.
4. Capturing the Search
This is very important. If I’m spending a large sum of my advertising budget on a radio, TV or outdoor campaign, I’d want to do everything I could to maximise the return. One of the easiest ways to do this is to make sure that when people go looking for you online, that you are there…..and in a prominent position. Let’s try another example. Follow the Camino are running a radio ad on Newstalk at the moment. So, I heard the ad in the morning and then Googled the brand in work a short time later. The Google results I was presented with are shown below: 
The first thing that jumps out is that they aren’t appearing the paid ads at all. Now, there are a couple of reasons:
- Follow the Camino might not have a Google AdWords pay per click (PPC) search campaign. If this is the case, the ads on Newstalk are generating business for some of their competitors who have a strong and prominent ad position.
- Follow the Camino do have a Google AdWords campaign, but their ads aren’t displaying due to budget, bidding or keyword issues.
Whether it's reason 1 or 2 above, the solution is pretty simple. When you are running an offline advertising campaign make sure you are in a prominent position when people turn to Google to find you. This might involve setting up a paid search (PPC) campaign or actively managing an existing campaign during the offline campaign via Google AdWords advanced bid management and scheduling features. By supporting your offline advertising with some digital marketing wizardry you’re creating a great 360 degree integrated campaign….and who knows maybe you’ll win an award for it.
- Brendan
