PLANNING
A
dvertising works. But not all advertisements tant thing for many of these categories is to mea-
work. sure activities before and after your advertise-
While choosing the right communication chan- ment goes out.
nel and creating an appropriate advertisement
are critical to reaching your target market, busi- Here are some suggestions on
nesses often neglect to measure the effective- how to measure the effectiveness of advertis-
ness of specific ads. While most measurement ing:
processes aren’t as precise as you might want, • If you have the budget, consider setting up a
they still provide quantifiable data that’s superior media tracking system, using toll-free numbers
to a simple estimate. At the very least, measuring assigned to specific ads in order to measure cus-
and analyzing response rates will enable you to tomer response rates. You can use this system to
make a more informed choice on spending com- track newspaper, radio, television, billboard, di-
pany ad dollars. rect mail advertising, and more.
• Include coupons in any print advertising you
run, offering a discount or gift with any pur-
chase. Make sure you assign a code identi-
fying where the ad ran, especially if it ran in
more than one newspaper or magazine.
• Motivate customers to help you learn. Of-
fer a 10% discount if they tell you where they
saw the advertisement. Be sure to track all re-
sponses or totals become negatively skewed.
• To measure retail traffic, start tracking vis-
itors to your store before the advertisement
runs. Historical data is all you have when com-
paring pre- and post-advertising traffic.
• The same goes for sales. Comparing to-
tal sales for similar timeframes before, dur-
Advertising should generate increases in mea- ing, and after advertising runs is an important
surable categories such as new customers, phone measurement tool. Ads often take time to be ef-
inquiries, retail traffic, sales, information requests, fective, so continue measuring sales well after
Website traffic, or specific page hits. The impor- the ad stops running.
ThinkBusiness June 2009
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