Newspaper Ads Most Popular, TV Best ROI say SMBs
Ad Projections
January 10, 2014 -- Analysis from BIA/Kelsey’s ongoing tracking survey of small and medium-sized businesses finds newspapers (32.2%) and direct mail (31.7%) are the traditional media most commonly used by SMBs for advertising and promotion; Television (13.7%) and outdoor (12.9%) bring up the rear.
SMBs AND TRADITIONAL MEDIA USE
Source: BIA/Kelsey, 2014
SMBs PERCEIVED ROI FROM TRADITIONAL MEDIA
When asked about return on their investment, SMBs say the traditional media with the highest usage, newspapers, have the lowest perceived ROI, while the ones less often deployed -- TV, cable and outdoor -- have the highest ROI among the traditional media.
Source: BIA/Kelsey, 2014
TV has the highest perceived ROI among the traditional media, with 50% of SMBs rating it as either excellent (10-19 times return on that investment) or extraordinary (over 20 times the return).
Newspapers, which had the highest usage among the traditional media, had the lowest perceived ROI, with 26% of SMBs reporting returns as excellent or extraordinary.
In general, SMBs reported using an average of 7.6 different media (online and offline) to promote their businesses. Of these media, newspaper and direct mail are the only two traditional media to appear in SMB’s top 10 most used media for advertising and promotion; The remainder of the top 10 are filled with digital media.
About: Local Commerce Monitor (LCM) is BIA/Kelsey’s ongoing tracking survey of small and medium-sized businesses conducted online with research partner Ipsos. The survey measures where SMBs are spending their advertising and promotional budgets and how their media usage and spending habits are evolving. For this study, SMB is defined as a business having from 1 to 99 employees. Local Commerce Monitor draws its sample of business respondents from a mix of nationally scoped MSAs, which include first- and second-tier markets. Local Commerce Monitor Wave 17 was conducted in July 2013 via an online survey of 568 SMBs.
Source: BIA/Kelsey, Traditional Media Isn’t Dead Yet, Despite Increased Competition from Digital Media, Jan. 10, 2014.
