Archive for the ‘Ad Tracking’ Category
Ad Testing and Tracking – So What Does it All Mean?
Shaun Baird asked:
You’ve built your page and displayed your ad. Sales have come in but you’re wondering if you are missing out? You know that it is worthwhile to test and track your ad, but, where do you start?
As with all things reliant on human nature, there is no real starting point. Which also means there is no wrong place either. The main point is to make a change and breathe new life into your sales.
After your initial sales bonanza, take advantage of your right to obtain feedback. Take a look at your page again and write some specific questions that will add pertinent information to your testing studies. Send it out to the initial buyers, asking them to be as specific as possible and as honest as possible. Don’t bombard them with questions, stick to the basics, and get a general feeling as to their views. Now is also a good time to ask for testimonials if you have not already done so. Don’t rush to change the page until you have sufficient feedback to warrant the change. You may have to do this more than once during a campaign so keep your options open.
Be sure you feel right about any changes you plan. Careful tracking will show you who is picking up your product and the whole idea of the testing and tracking is to increase the volume of your sales. Be careful not to alienate your first time buyers by re-sending the same sales page over and over. Each time you make a change to your page, take time to see the results.
Another way to fire up sales again is to add an affiliate option into your ad. By doing this, your potential audience will diversify and grow, drawing in more results and more opportunities to improve your ad production.
Is it really worth your while to test and track your ads? Look at this in terms of what you are trying to accomplish. To build your empire will take trials and tests, tracking and re-tracking. Yes, it all takes time but in the end is it not true that “Good Things Come To Those Who Wait?”
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You’ve built your page and displayed your ad. Sales have come in but you’re wondering if you are missing out? You know that it is worthwhile to test and track your ad, but, where do you start?
As with all things reliant on human nature, there is no real starting point. Which also means there is no wrong place either. The main point is to make a change and breathe new life into your sales.
After your initial sales bonanza, take advantage of your right to obtain feedback. Take a look at your page again and write some specific questions that will add pertinent information to your testing studies. Send it out to the initial buyers, asking them to be as specific as possible and as honest as possible. Don’t bombard them with questions, stick to the basics, and get a general feeling as to their views. Now is also a good time to ask for testimonials if you have not already done so. Don’t rush to change the page until you have sufficient feedback to warrant the change. You may have to do this more than once during a campaign so keep your options open.
Be sure you feel right about any changes you plan. Careful tracking will show you who is picking up your product and the whole idea of the testing and tracking is to increase the volume of your sales. Be careful not to alienate your first time buyers by re-sending the same sales page over and over. Each time you make a change to your page, take time to see the results.
Another way to fire up sales again is to add an affiliate option into your ad. By doing this, your potential audience will diversify and grow, drawing in more results and more opportunities to improve your ad production.
Is it really worth your while to test and track your ads? Look at this in terms of what you are trying to accomplish. To build your empire will take trials and tests, tracking and re-tracking. Yes, it all takes time but in the end is it not true that “Good Things Come To Those Who Wait?”
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Making Money With Ezine Advertising
Sunil Tanna asked:
If you don’t want to start your own ezine, or simply want to reach more people, you could consider placing paid ads in other people’s ezines.
Many (but not all) pay per sale affiliate programs do allow you to place affiliate links in opt-in ezines – or alternatively you could place ads for your own web site in ezines.
Before advertising in an ezine, it’s a good idea to check it’s an opt-in ezine (not Spam), how many subscribers there are, and to review a simple issue (to check the ezine readers will probably be interested in your ad, and that your ad won’t be buried in too many others).
When you advertise in ezines, you may be offered several options:
- Classified Ads: These are usually short ads, and quite often ezines include a section of containing several classified ads. Classified ads, are usually cheapest, but may generate a low percentage response.
- Top Sponsor and Bottom Sponsor: Many ezines will allow you to place a large ad at the top or bottom of the ezines. As well as more prominent listing than Classifieds, you usually get more space (several lines) to explain your offer,
- Solo Ads: Some ezines send out solo ads, which are special issues that are devoted entirely to a single ad. These are, of course, highly noticeable to the recipient, with no distractions – and advertisers usually are allowed to place quite long ads of this type.
If you do place ads in ezines, you will want to know which ads are generating a response, and which are not. This information would allow you to determine whether advertising in any particular ezine is worth the money. You can use an ad tracker to find this out.
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If you don’t want to start your own ezine, or simply want to reach more people, you could consider placing paid ads in other people’s ezines.
Many (but not all) pay per sale affiliate programs do allow you to place affiliate links in opt-in ezines – or alternatively you could place ads for your own web site in ezines.
Before advertising in an ezine, it’s a good idea to check it’s an opt-in ezine (not Spam), how many subscribers there are, and to review a simple issue (to check the ezine readers will probably be interested in your ad, and that your ad won’t be buried in too many others).
When you advertise in ezines, you may be offered several options:
- Classified Ads: These are usually short ads, and quite often ezines include a section of containing several classified ads. Classified ads, are usually cheapest, but may generate a low percentage response.
- Top Sponsor and Bottom Sponsor: Many ezines will allow you to place a large ad at the top or bottom of the ezines. As well as more prominent listing than Classifieds, you usually get more space (several lines) to explain your offer,
- Solo Ads: Some ezines send out solo ads, which are special issues that are devoted entirely to a single ad. These are, of course, highly noticeable to the recipient, with no distractions – and advertisers usually are allowed to place quite long ads of this type.
If you do place ads in ezines, you will want to know which ads are generating a response, and which are not. This information would allow you to determine whether advertising in any particular ezine is worth the money. You can use an ad tracker to find this out.
Website content
Yellow Pages Advertising Advice – How To Get A Free Yellow Pages Ad
Steve Sipress asked:
Sports fans can argue all day about certain statistics from seasons past. But as soon as they look up the facts in a record book, the argument is over.
Scrabble players can argue about the correct spelling of a word. But as soon as they look up the facts in a dictionary, there can be no more difference of opinion.
These days, thanks to the rise of the internet, it’s all-too-common for small business owners to believe that “No one uses the Yellow Pages anymore.”
But the facts show that print phone books are still used millions of times every day, resulting in millions of calls and billions of dollars going to local businesses of all types.
How do we know? Well, first of all there’s a ton of research done by various organizations through surveys and focus groups. But even more powerful are reports from advertisers who actually track every single phone call from their Yellow Pages ads. They do this by using a unique phone number that appears only in their Yellow Pages ad and nowhere else, or by paying a tracking service to put a unique number in their ad and provide them with monthly reports. Sophisticated advertisers even use a different phone number to track each one of their individual ads!
If you’re going to be serious about your marketing, of course you know that you have to track everything. After all, how can you improve what you don’t track? How can you know what to do more or less of if you don’t have accurate statistics? How can you know which of your ads are doing great and which need to be improved?
But what if you don’t want to go through the time, trouble and expense of tracking your ads? Here’s the good news:
Yellow Pages publishers will often pay the tracking service’s fee AND give you an additional ad for free if you’ll simply agree to let them publish your ad’s results.
Then they can use your tracking report as proof to other potential advertisers that Yellow Pages advertising can produce boatloads of calls and cash. In return, you’ll have gotten a free ad that brings you extra calls and profits for zero cost. Everybody wins (except your competitors)!
But there’s a catch, of course: The publisher MUST KNOW that your main ad will work well (why would they want to pay to track a poorly-designed ad?). That means you’ll have to place an ad that follows enough of the rules of Yellow Pages advertising (size, content, etc.) so that it’s clear your ad will perform well. Don’t even think of placing a small ad with your company name at the top and nothing that differentiates you from your competition and expecting the publisher to want to pay to track the few calls you’ll get.
So make sure to create a great ad, and then ask your local rep if the publisher will offer you a free ad. Even if they won’t, they may at the very least offer to foot the bill for the tracking number and reporting service. Either way, you win!
Website content
Sports fans can argue all day about certain statistics from seasons past. But as soon as they look up the facts in a record book, the argument is over.
Scrabble players can argue about the correct spelling of a word. But as soon as they look up the facts in a dictionary, there can be no more difference of opinion.
These days, thanks to the rise of the internet, it’s all-too-common for small business owners to believe that “No one uses the Yellow Pages anymore.”
But the facts show that print phone books are still used millions of times every day, resulting in millions of calls and billions of dollars going to local businesses of all types.
How do we know? Well, first of all there’s a ton of research done by various organizations through surveys and focus groups. But even more powerful are reports from advertisers who actually track every single phone call from their Yellow Pages ads. They do this by using a unique phone number that appears only in their Yellow Pages ad and nowhere else, or by paying a tracking service to put a unique number in their ad and provide them with monthly reports. Sophisticated advertisers even use a different phone number to track each one of their individual ads!
If you’re going to be serious about your marketing, of course you know that you have to track everything. After all, how can you improve what you don’t track? How can you know what to do more or less of if you don’t have accurate statistics? How can you know which of your ads are doing great and which need to be improved?
But what if you don’t want to go through the time, trouble and expense of tracking your ads? Here’s the good news:
Yellow Pages publishers will often pay the tracking service’s fee AND give you an additional ad for free if you’ll simply agree to let them publish your ad’s results.
Then they can use your tracking report as proof to other potential advertisers that Yellow Pages advertising can produce boatloads of calls and cash. In return, you’ll have gotten a free ad that brings you extra calls and profits for zero cost. Everybody wins (except your competitors)!
But there’s a catch, of course: The publisher MUST KNOW that your main ad will work well (why would they want to pay to track a poorly-designed ad?). That means you’ll have to place an ad that follows enough of the rules of Yellow Pages advertising (size, content, etc.) so that it’s clear your ad will perform well. Don’t even think of placing a small ad with your company name at the top and nothing that differentiates you from your competition and expecting the publisher to want to pay to track the few calls you’ll get.
So make sure to create a great ad, and then ask your local rep if the publisher will offer you a free ad. Even if they won’t, they may at the very least offer to foot the bill for the tracking number and reporting service. Either way, you win!
Website content
Use A Simple Tracking Technique To Increase Profits
Jo Mark asked:
One of the most important activities required if you are marketing articles is tracking your results. It is extremely important to know which of your efforts are paying off and which ones are wasting your time and or money.
It is important to know which article submission sites are working for you. If you are not getting any results from a particular site, stop wasting your time and submit to someone else. Maybe the clientele from that site is not interested in your particular niche. If you are diligent in tracking your results, you will know this right away and can stop wasting time with them.
It is particularly important to know which of your ads are working. This is even more critical if you are using paid ads. If the profit an ad generates is less than the cost of the ad, you need to advertise elsewhere. This type of information is readily available if you are tracking your results. Too many people write up several ads and send them out along with a check week after week. Because they are happy with the total results, they never bother to check which individual ones are working. With diligent tracking, you can see if a particular ad is profitable.
Good tracking will also allow you to test how an ad performs. Keep good records on the results from each ad. Change just one thing on your worst performing ad and watch the results. Continue doing this with each ad and you will improve your profits by significant amounts.
I get a lot of questions on how to track an ad (or article). It is actually quite simple. At the end of your URL, enter a question mark and the name of the test, ad, or Ezine that you are tracking (for example-blahblahblah.com?ad1). Each time your website gets a hit from that source, your counter will log that information. By comparing hits from competing ads, or articles, you can determine which are the most successful. Before you commit to any substantial tracking campaign using this method, do a simple test to ensure that your website works properly with the question mark test. Some servers do not recognize it and will return a “site not found” notice. If this is the case, you cannot use this simple tracking method.
Of course, you also have to have a good counter for this to work. You can find many free counters on the Internet by doing a search.
When tracking your paid ads, eliminate the less profitable ones. Then, commit more money (for bigger ads) in those publications that are profitable. If you do not want to use larger ads, seek out other publications to replace those less profitable ads.
The same is true if you are using free ads. Replace non-performing ads with free ads in other publications. By doing this, you will continually upgrade your ad performance, and ultimately, your profitability.
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One of the most important activities required if you are marketing articles is tracking your results. It is extremely important to know which of your efforts are paying off and which ones are wasting your time and or money.
It is important to know which article submission sites are working for you. If you are not getting any results from a particular site, stop wasting your time and submit to someone else. Maybe the clientele from that site is not interested in your particular niche. If you are diligent in tracking your results, you will know this right away and can stop wasting time with them.
It is particularly important to know which of your ads are working. This is even more critical if you are using paid ads. If the profit an ad generates is less than the cost of the ad, you need to advertise elsewhere. This type of information is readily available if you are tracking your results. Too many people write up several ads and send them out along with a check week after week. Because they are happy with the total results, they never bother to check which individual ones are working. With diligent tracking, you can see if a particular ad is profitable.
Good tracking will also allow you to test how an ad performs. Keep good records on the results from each ad. Change just one thing on your worst performing ad and watch the results. Continue doing this with each ad and you will improve your profits by significant amounts.
I get a lot of questions on how to track an ad (or article). It is actually quite simple. At the end of your URL, enter a question mark and the name of the test, ad, or Ezine that you are tracking (for example-blahblahblah.com?ad1). Each time your website gets a hit from that source, your counter will log that information. By comparing hits from competing ads, or articles, you can determine which are the most successful. Before you commit to any substantial tracking campaign using this method, do a simple test to ensure that your website works properly with the question mark test. Some servers do not recognize it and will return a “site not found” notice. If this is the case, you cannot use this simple tracking method.
Of course, you also have to have a good counter for this to work. You can find many free counters on the Internet by doing a search.
When tracking your paid ads, eliminate the less profitable ones. Then, commit more money (for bigger ads) in those publications that are profitable. If you do not want to use larger ads, seek out other publications to replace those less profitable ads.
The same is true if you are using free ads. Replace non-performing ads with free ads in other publications. By doing this, you will continually upgrade your ad performance, and ultimately, your profitability.
Caffeinated Content – Members-Only Content for WordPress
How to Setup PPC Conversion Tracking on Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and MSN AdCenter
Alex Minnaar asked:
Conversion tracking is indispensable when it comes to constructing a thriving, profitable PPC campaign. Unfortunately, very few internet marketers really know how to set up conversion-tracking correctly. This article will explain to the reader how to successfully setup conversion tracking on the three major PPC ad networks – Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and MSN adCenter.
Setting Up Conversion Tracking With Google AdWords
When conducting a PPC campaign in Google AdWords, conversion-tracking is a tool that can be found in the “Campaign Management” tab. First you must create a new action (such as a sale or purchase or newsletter sign up or lead generation) then copy the code that AdWords provides you with and paste that code onto the page in which the completed conversion takes place (for example a thank you page). Now AdWords can determine how many of the hits that your website gets from AdWords ads result in successful conversions. This allows AdWords to be able to calculate the cost-per-conversion of your PPC ads – a very valuable statistic.
Setting Up Conversion Tracking With Yahoo! Search Marketing
With Yahoo! Search Marketing, the user has two conversion-tracking options – “Conversion Only” and “Full Analytics.” “Conversion Only” shows the user only the cost-per-conversion statistic whereas “Full Analytics” shows the user much more information. To set up either of these options, the user must click the “Administration” tab, then click the desired conversion tracking option, then click the desired “Revenue Value Setting”, then click activate. Yahoo! Search Marketing then provides the user with the tracking code which the user applies the same way as with Adwords above.
Setting Up Conversion Tracking With MSN adCenter
In order to set up conversion-tracking with MSN adCenter, the user must join Gatineau, MSN’s PPC advertising analytics package. Like the previous two ad networks, MSN adCenter provides the user with a tracking code that the user puts on the page in which a successful conversion is completed. This allows the user to only view cost-per-conversion data, but if the user places adCenter code on every page of his or her website, more data would become available.
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Conversion tracking is indispensable when it comes to constructing a thriving, profitable PPC campaign. Unfortunately, very few internet marketers really know how to set up conversion-tracking correctly. This article will explain to the reader how to successfully setup conversion tracking on the three major PPC ad networks – Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and MSN adCenter.
Setting Up Conversion Tracking With Google AdWords
When conducting a PPC campaign in Google AdWords, conversion-tracking is a tool that can be found in the “Campaign Management” tab. First you must create a new action (such as a sale or purchase or newsletter sign up or lead generation) then copy the code that AdWords provides you with and paste that code onto the page in which the completed conversion takes place (for example a thank you page). Now AdWords can determine how many of the hits that your website gets from AdWords ads result in successful conversions. This allows AdWords to be able to calculate the cost-per-conversion of your PPC ads – a very valuable statistic.
Setting Up Conversion Tracking With Yahoo! Search Marketing
With Yahoo! Search Marketing, the user has two conversion-tracking options – “Conversion Only” and “Full Analytics.” “Conversion Only” shows the user only the cost-per-conversion statistic whereas “Full Analytics” shows the user much more information. To set up either of these options, the user must click the “Administration” tab, then click the desired conversion tracking option, then click the desired “Revenue Value Setting”, then click activate. Yahoo! Search Marketing then provides the user with the tracking code which the user applies the same way as with Adwords above.
Setting Up Conversion Tracking With MSN adCenter
In order to set up conversion-tracking with MSN adCenter, the user must join Gatineau, MSN’s PPC advertising analytics package. Like the previous two ad networks, MSN adCenter provides the user with a tracking code that the user puts on the page in which a successful conversion is completed. This allows the user to only view cost-per-conversion data, but if the user places adCenter code on every page of his or her website, more data would become available.
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