How to Tell if Your Ad Campaign is Working

By Chris Twaites

Advertising is not an exact science. There’s no precise way to measure the success of an ad campaign. You can’t, for example, determine how many sales dollars are generated by each advertising dollar you spend. But there are methods that will give you a rough idea of whether or not your ads are hitting the mark. Use these tactics to gauge the power of your ads:

• Track retail traffic by counting the people who enter your store. Don’t forget to monitor traffic before you start the ad campaign, so you’ll have a basis for comparison.
  
  
• Compare sales before, during, and after an ad campaign. Keep in mind that advertising often has a cumulative or delayed effect, so ad-driven sales may not materialize immediately.
  
  
• Include a coupon that customers can redeem for a discount or gift with their purchase. Code the coupons so you can determine which flyer or other publication generates the best results.
  
  
• Offer an incentive for customers to tell you they’re responding to an ad: “mention this ad and get ten percent discount on your first order.”
  
  
• Use response cards in your mail-outs that let readers request more information from you.
  
  
• Use dedicated phone lines to track responses. For example, if you mention a toll-free number in your ad, assign different extensions to particular ads.
  
  
• Compare pre- and post-advertising traffic on your Web site. Your Web host logs the hits on your site and should be able to provide you with daily, weekly, or monthly reports. If you maintain your own Web server, invest in software that generates easy-to-read traffic reports.
  
  
• Don’t overlook the tried-and-true approach: Ask all new customers how they heard about your business.
  

Keep in mind that you can’t gauge success if you don’t know what you’re trying to achieve. Make sure you have clear advertising goals. You might want to boost business overall, but your objective should be more specific: to increase sales of a new product or service, to build awareness of your company, to spur volume during a specific time period, or to expand your business in a particular market. Tailor your evaluation methods to your goals.

Chris Twaites is the Marketing Manager at Track21 Graphix Inc., A Printing Company, Dashwood, Ontario. Phone (519) 237-3838 Email: info@track21graphix.com. www.Track21graphix.com

Published in Networking Today, December 2002.