Evaluation of advertising

1. Definition 
Evaluation of advertising concerns the verification of the economic and cognitive effects of advertising on the recipient. Advertising is defined here as all forms of paid communication messages, primarily in print media. Countless special forms of advertising exist.

2. Applications
The main application for evaluation of advertising is the stage of generating an ad or advertising campaign. Ads are evaluated as a basis for choosing between different drafts and to check intended communication goals.

3. Conduct
Pretests are employed. The advantage of pretests is that they identify any necessary improvements in an ad before a campaign is launched. However, the basis for predicting the actual impact in a real-life situation is very limited indeed. Pretests screen out numerous potential interfering factors (lab setting). 
During or after an ad is placed, posttests are therefore performed in order to check the impact of an ad in real life. The disadvantage here: Although the method identifies the effects elicited in the recipient, it is rarely possible to identify direct cause-effect relationships.

Evaluation of advertising is embedded in the context of advertising impact research and its economic and scientific interest has long been recognized. The influence of specific PR and marketing items on the reception of advertising is growing. The main media sections of interest are print media and television, alongside an increasingly important role of advertising on the internet and on websites.

4. Indicators

5. Service providers

6. Links

7. Further reading

8. Case studies