Remember those catchy phrases like “While supplies last!” or “For a limited time!” that used to accompany direct response advertising? They were often accompanied by a phone number urging you to call right away. In the past, direct response (DR) campaigns were straightforward: run an ad with a unique phone number and track the number of calls received.

Fast forward to 2023, and the digital era has revolutionized how consumers respond to DR calls-to-action. Even though people now have their phones constantly within reach, they are less inclined to make a call. Instead of dialing immediately to secure a deal, most consumers nowadays opt to search for the brand or product online after seeing an ad. This additional step necessitates a new approach to tracking the success of DR campaigns.

The Cost-Per-Call Conundrum

Does anyone even call an advertisement phone number anymore? Interestingly the answer is YES! Newly launched direct response radio and TV advertising campaigns continue to provide a low initial cost-per-call.

As more ad frequency occurs though, calls tend to decline, and cost-per-call slowly increases. To put this into context imagine callers represent the low end of the sales funnel, or a smaller pool of fish ready to convert. As those low funnel leads are fished over time, phone calls decline. At the same time, ad frequency begins to create brand recall for leads at the top of the funnel who are still in the awareness phase. A larger pool of leads is now recalling your name and searching your brand online. In other words, the more familiar consumers are with a brand, the less phone number dependent they become. They simply remember the company’s name and Google it.

Brands often continue chasing that initial low cost-per-call, feeling like perhaps their DR campaign has run its course. This is an old school way of thinking about direct response. And here’s the troubling part: we’ve seen our fair share of advertisers kill broadcast campaigns at the first uptick in cost-per-call, only to see website traffic tank in the process.

The takeaway? While cost-per-call may indeed rise over time, these numbers don’t fully reflect what’s happening. To get the full picture of how a direct response campaign performs these days, we need to consider the fact that the first action most consumers take is an online search of your brand. As a DR campaign gains traction and your brand becomes top-of-mind with consumers, you will see a noticeable lift to baseline web traffic corresponding to ad air times.

The Relationship Between Brand Awareness and Direct Response

Researchers at Meta recently analyzed 35 campaigns with 34 advertisers across 10 verticals to learn best practices for brand-building alongside direct response. Meta discovered that 57% of brands running direct response campaigns experienced an increase in brand awareness not only for their own business, but also for their competitors’ businesses. Lack of branding was a key contributor: in the absence of a distinguishing, recognizable, and mnemonic visual identity, their ads lifted the entire product category. In other words, failing to showcase the brand identity favors the most salient brand within the product category.

The logic here makes sense. If your direct response campaigns promote your products without branding, you’re essentially running a product ad. Establishing a brand identity early on will help create brand recognition and set you apart from your competition.

Viewing Brand Marketing and DR Through a New Lens

Many marketers struggle to balance short-term sales with long-term brand growth. While both are critical components of your marketing strategy, direct response and branding generally exist in two distinct silos with separate budgets, goals, and priorities. Performance marketing  takes a holistic approach, combining product-centric messaging with brand awareness.  This way of thinking allows advertisers to create strong, consistent, and memorable brand experiences while driving immediate results.

Suppose you could determine the point at which a cost-per-call strategy begins to drive web traffic, increase brand awareness, and generate more qualified leads, if viewed from the perspective of trading initial low cost-per-call for eventual brand recognition.

As the cost-per-call increases over time, look at what’s happening with brand awareness, too. Think of your DR campaigns as part of your brand awareness strategy that drives consumer attention and drives down costs over time. This protects advertisers from pulling their campaigns when they’re still growing by acknowledging that cost-per-call is just one small part of the “big picture” in today’s “Google first and ask questions later” world.

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