Audio Ads

The Perfect Gift

Gifts.com used Google Audio Ads to create awareness for its new Gifts.com Gift Card web site, and saw 23% higher visitation in radio markets.

Since its launch in March 2005, Gifts.com has provided consumers with a one-stop destination for a task that often seems elusive – finding the perfect gift. On Gifts.com, shoppers can browse gift ideas that are customized by recipient or occasion. Gift ideas can be personalized by age, gender, holiday, and even personality type. And because gift giving is rarely a one-time event, Gifts.com allows shoppers to save recipient profiles and set event or holiday reminders, making the quest for the perfect gift quick and easy.

Gift Cards

In October 2007, Gifts.com was set to launch its new Gifts.com Gift Card product. The new site allows shoppers to purchase gift cards which can be emailed, then redeemed for hundreds of top merchant gift cards – making it a meta gift card.

As Jenny Connelly, Vice President of Marketing for Gifts.com, explains, “The Gifts.com Gift Card lets the recipient choose not only what they want to buy, but where they want to shop. It’s an ideal last-minute gift because it can be sent instantly via email. After shipping deadlines have passed, the gift card becomes the clutch last-minute gift.”

In the past, Gifts.com had relied primarily on online advertising, with radio and television used occasionally around major holiday seasons to augment online campaigns. Creating awareness for the new gift card, however, called for more intense efforts. “We needed to quickly brand our new gift card in October,” Connelly says, “so it would be in consumers’ minds during the November–December holiday shopping period.”

Radio had obvious potential for building awareness, but there were concerns. As Connelly states, “One of the biggest challenges is that the medium is difficult to quantify. Consequently, when the Google team approached us with the opportunity to run radio with Audio Ads, we were very intrigued by the measurement opportunities it offered.”

The Audio Ads Campaign

Two weeks after launching the new gift card web site, Gifts.com aired 30-second radio commercials in 14 key markets across the US. The spots directed listeners to visit http://www.gifts.com/perfect, a unique URL redirecting to the new gift card site.

“I was pleased to find that the whole campaign process was really very simple,” Connelly remembers. “We worked closely with the Google team to target the campaign across the right markets and formats and test different pieces of creative. We even utilized Google’s Ad Creation Marketplace to produce the radio ads – a very nice feature for a small company because it allowed us to produce the spots quickly and very cost-effectively.”

The campaign was aired on station formats with a high percentage of Gifts.com’s target audience, women 25–54. Using Audio Ads’ online interface and tools, Gifts.com was able to effectively target, track, and optimize the campaign. In addition, real-time reporting features allowed Gifts.com to gain a better understanding of how the radio campaign was progressing. Based on in-campaign data, Gifts.com was able to leverage the system’s flexibility mid-way through the campaign in order to deliver increased impressions to a top performing market.

Key Results

By using radio to supplement its online initiatives, Gifts.com was able to generate greater online awareness, as well as drive increased traffic to the gift card web site. On average, the radio markets showed 12% higher search activity on ad-related keywords and 23% higher site visitation.

Among consumers who had prior exposure to the Gifts.com brand, adding radio to the media mix delivered increased activity. In fact, gift card visitation originating from the Gifts.com site averaged 20% higher in radio markets.

Markets with radio also displayed greater user engagement and conversion. As the campaign progressed, radio’s role as a frequency medium and brand builder supported greater investment. For each week of the campaign, consumers in radio markets were increasingly engaged. And when compared to consumers with no exposure to the radio advertising, they were increasingly likely to purchase.

“Google Audio Ads was a great way for us to create awareness for our new product,” Connelly says, “which contributed to a successful holiday season. By providing the metrics needed to measure impact, Audio Ads helped assuage some of our concerns about radio.”

About Google Audio Ads
Google Audio Ads™ makes radio advertising easy and cost-effective. Google has partnered with hundreds of radio stations that reach millions of listeners throughout the United States. Using the AdWords online interface, advertisers can develop and launch campaigns, and target their audience based on time, location, station type, and demographics. Audio Ads connects them with qualified creative professionals who can help produce ads. Tracking is simplified through online reporting, which features real-time recordings of radio spots in context.

About Google Adwords
Google AdWords­ is a performance-based advertising program that enables businesses large and small to advertise on Google and its network of partner websites. Hundreds of thousands of businesses worldwide use AdWords for text, image, and video ads priced on a cost-per-click (CPC) and cost-per-impression (CPM) basis. Built on an auction-based system, AdWords is a highly quantifiable and cost-effective way to reach potential customers. For more information, visit http://adwords.google.com.