• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, April 29, 2013

Meredith Corp. is expanding its Sales Guarantee program, the women’s interest publisher announced Monday, allowing more advertisers to take advantage of Meredith’s promise to deliver a certain level of return on investment.
 
The Sales Guarantee program essentially commits Meredith to help advertisers achieve a certain level of sales lift through advertising, with a promise to make good any shortfall with additional advertising, as necessary.

The program measures ROI by combining data from Nielsen Homescan, which tracks consumer product purchases, with Meredith’s national customer database to determine the purchase behaviors of consumers exposed to specific brand advertising in Meredith magazines, as compared with the purchase behaviors of identical shoppers with no exposure.
 
When it launched in 2011, the Sales Guarantee program (originally known as “Engagement Dividend”) was open to a select group of 25 big advertisers, including Kimberly-Clark, Tyson Foods and Ken’s. But Meredith is now opening the program to advertisers in new categories, like pharmaceuticals and automotive, provided they are prepared to commit to achieving a minimum level of advertising impressions over a 12-month-period with a national ad buy.
 
According to Meredith, advertisers that participated in the Sales Guarantee program saw an average ROI of $7.81 in sales for every $1 spent on advertising in a Meredith title, with an average sales lift of 9% in categories including food, beauty, household goods and over-the-counter drugs.

The company also hopes to highlight the efficacy of print advertising versus digital portals and ad networks, where the average ROI was $2.79 per dollar spent, according to data from Nielsen Catalina Solutions.