Signal Hill Insights team is constantly helping agencies, brands and publishers launch their first podcast brand lift study. While there is nothing fundamentally complex about the process, there are some hints and tips that will help set you up for success.

1. Plan for Brand Lift as Early as Possible

If there’s a single piece of advice I’ll give, it’s to start planning for your podcast brand lift study as early as possible, and possibly earlier than you might assume. Launching a brand lift study isn’t difficult, but there’s a bit more to it than just flipping a switch.

There are a number of steps that are best completed before your ad campaign launches to be sure things are ready for your study. So, ideally, we’ll start the process as soon as you’re setting up a campaign you might want measured. Looking to a calendar, that should be about six weeks before that campaign is due to start. We recommend this period because in addition to setting up the study itself, there are decisions to make about KPIs, objectives, and even the specific podcasts and creatives to test. Often there are multiple stakeholders our clients need to involve, such as buyers, planners, analysts, brand marketers and representatives, producers and sales or ad ops teams. It can take a bit of time to get everyone on board, and it’s best to account for that.

Of course, in the real world we understand circumstances often are not ideal. Our team can get a study together on virtually any timeframe. Shorter timeframes, however, can limit our options, potentially impacting what and how we measure, and the cost. So, please drop us a line as soon as you’re thinking about a study.

2. Get Your Campaign Details Together

To assemble the most appropriate research strategy, the Signal Hill Insights team will need to understand the details of your campaign.
Here’s what we’ll need to know:

• Campaign dates or length, including start date;
• Total number of impressions, views or downloads;
• The number of podcasts and placements and types;
• The audience target(s);
• Podcast names and genres, if known;
• Is there audio, video, or both? If both, how much inventory is allocated to each?
• How much inventory is DAI (dynamic ad insertion)? How much inventory is baked-in or embedded?
• Number of different ad creatives and types (e.g. pre/mid/post-roll, segment, etc.).

We understand that all of these details may not be fully fleshed out at the start of the planning process, so we can work with what you have, or work off estimates or ranges. We’d rather get the ball rolling as soon as possible and fill in details as they become available rather than wait until everything is fully nailed down. Our team’s goal is to select the most effective and efficient study design, and the earlier we have any information the better position we’re in to do that.

3. Define Your Campaign Objectives

Brand lift measures so-called “upper funnel” metrics. So it’s most appropriate for KPIs like brand awareness, favourability, consideration or purchase intent. A typical campaign is optimized to move the needle on one or maybe two of these metrics.

Identifying these at the start helps keep things focused. This method is also good for ascertaining how well the campaign’s messaging is cutting through and resonating with audiences. Knowing the specific product category and messaging let’s us ensure we’re in the best position to report on that impact.

It’s also useful to understand if there’s a specific consumer target. For instance, a B2B brand may be looking for business decision makers, or an outdoor brand might be in search of people who hike or camp. Knowing this, we can make sure we’re identifying those people in the audience so that we might isolate how the campaign drives lift with
them.

Bonus Tip: Don’t Worry

The Signal Hill Insights team of brand lift experts is here to help and guide you through every step of the process, start to finish. Don’t worry, just take the first step by getting in touch as soon as you’ve got brand lift in your sights. We’ll do everything to make your measurement a success.