Less Is More: Reduce Audio Ad Copy Word Count And Improve Effectiveness, According To Colourtext’s Jason Brownlee
A major new study finds the lower the audio word count per minute, the greater the brand standout, which in turn increases campaign web response.
Major finding: Word density (expressed as words per minute) has a major impact on the effectiveness of audio ads
Jason Brownlee, a renowned UK audio researcher, finds the average number of words per minute used in UK audio commercials is 169. This can vary widely from just 155 words per minute in the food and drink sector to 180 words per minute on average for financial brands.
Methodology: To examine the impact of word density, Jason Brownlee’s firm Colourtext, fused a database of thousands of radio ads to 1,000 advertising effectiveness studies conducted by Radiocentre, the UK’s AM/FM radio advertising industry organization.
There were 22 AM/FM radio campaigns that aired between 2020 and 2022 that are common to both datasets. Colourtext analyzed the relationship between word density and audio advertising effectiveness of the campaigns.
Radiogauge campaign effectiveness studies measure a wide range of brand equity and advertising creative diagnostics.
Creative Standout was found to be the metric that’s most sensitive to variations in word count. Creative Standout is achieved when consumers say “this ad stands out” and rate an ad with an 8, 9, or 10 on a one to ten standout scale.
Less is more: The fewer words used in an ad, the more it will stand out and be effective; For every 10 words per minute eliminated from an ad, Creative Standout can be expected to grow by 1%
As the word density (words per minute) of an audio ad increases, its Creative Standout falls. Think about someone who talks a lot and talks fast. It’s overwhelming and hard to remember anything they said.
Each 1% rise in audio ad Creative Standout results in a web response rate increase of 0.25%
Colourtext found Creative Standout in audio advertising is very strongly linked to ad response in the form of website visits. For each 1% rise in Creative Standout achieved by an audio ad, its web response rate can be expected to increase by 0.25%.
Campaign effect of copy with light and heavy word count
A data model was built to understand the practical effects of word density and Creative Standout in audio advertising. Three ranges of word count per minute are examined: light (147 words per minute) and heavy (195 words per minute). Campaigns with a heavy word count tend to feature terms and conditions or a lot of disclaimer copy.
Ads with excessive words result in lower performance and web response/referrals; 24 extra words in a 30-second audio ad lowers ad response by -27%
Compared to 147 word per minute campaigns, ads with excessive 195 words per minute degrade the average Creative Standout score from 39.6% to 32.9%. This in turn reduces average web response rate from 1.8% to 1.3%. Over time too many words in your copy means hundreds and thousands of fewer visits to the advertiser’s website.
Sharpen your editing pencil: Removing 48 words from a 60-second ad script results in a:
- +20% increase in Creative Standout score
- +38% growth in web response rate
Key takeaways:
- Eliminating 10 words of audio copy increases the Creative Standout score by 1%. Creative Standout is achieved when consumers say “this ad stands out” and rate an ad with an 8, 9, or 10 on a one to ten standout scale.
- Eliminating 10 words of audio copy increases web traffic by 0.25%. Creative Standout in audio advertising is strongly linked to ad response via website visits. For each 1% rise in Creative Standout achieved by an audio ad, website response rate increases by 0.25%.