Here is everything you need to know about measuring your advertising in two words: test and improve.
There’s nothing better than free word-of-mouth advertising that comes from customer referrals. That being said, like any financial investment, it’s important to diversify your businesses’ advertising efforts. The tricky part is knowing which advertising efforts are bringing in those results and which ones are not.
1. Set Goals First
One important way to make the best use of your advertising budget is to create specific goals. Although you, in general, want to increase the traffic into your fencing showroom or onto your webpage, you can target your ads for specific purposes. Here are a few ideas:
Introduce a new fencing product
Expand into a new market
Recognize an anniversary or milestone
Offer a new service
Promote a sale
Once you have created that clear advertising objective, it can be easier to evaluate the results. Be sure to compare sales figures, before, during, and after a campaign runs, keeping in mind that many campaigns have a delayed effect on customer traffic.
Instruct your sales team to ask each new customer how they heard of your fencing company when they call the office. You can also include this question on the customer inquiry form that is linked with your website. Online ads that customers click through to get to your website or product page are easily traced from the advertisement by the online ad vendor. This information will help you discover which ads are working the best.
Print Advertising
Print ads can be in newspapers, magazines, phone directories, programs, mailers, brochures, and flyers. You can track the success of these traditional ads by including a coupon or a code that is exclusive to that publication. You can even track different ads with different codes so that you know which publications get the best results. Another way to chart the ad’s success is by printing something like “mention this ad for a 10% discount in installation” or by offering a gift along with a fence purchase and installation by a specific date.
Although you cannot be certain that everyone who sees a particular publication sees your ad, ask for circulation figures from every media source. These numbers should take into account variables, including part-time subscriptions, special issues, and digital editions.
TV or Radio Ads
A similar approach works with TV and radio marketing. Mention a toll-free number or a URL that is dedicated to that specific commercial.
Website
You can also use a code word or number that is unique to a billboard to help track people who have seen your sign.
Billboards
You can also use a code word or number that is unique to a billboard to help track people who have seen your sign.
Online Ads
Just monitoring click-through rates (the number of people who click your website banner) is not a reliable way of knowing whether your online ads are working. It is more important to know how long people spend on your website and how many pages they are viewing each time they visit. Of course, a definitive way to know your ad worked is if a customer leaves a request for a fencing estimate on your website. Then you really know the advertising has worked.
The American Association of Advertising Agencies and Internet Advertising Bureau have developed standards for online companies to follow so that business owners can estimate advertising effectiveness with some consistency across the many various channels. Measurement standards include unique visitors and clicks. Before purchasing any form of digital advertising, ask if the company follows these industry standards.
Google Analytics can measure traffic and other data, including your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) ranking. Google Analytics is a free service for advertisers, publishers, and site owners.
Pay-per-click ads created with a “Dynamic Number Insertion” code can help you to track customers. Tracking URLs are another way to accomplish this task. With Social Media Marketing, all of the major social media platforms have analytics that helps you track your posts and their effectiveness in reaching your audience.
The All-Important Return on Investment (ROI)
Running a paid advertising campaign for your fencing business can be a big investment. The part of your budget you devote to an ad campaign should coincide with the financial opportunity associated with your objective.
For example, if your goal is to advertise a new fencing product, then you need to compare how much the new fencing costs with how much you are willing to spend on advertising. Here’s an example. If the new fence costs $5,000, and your ad generates one new customer for every four leads, then it is wise not to spend more than $5,000 on the ad each month.
Knowing your advertising ROI is part of being a good business owner. You can use several metrics to help you track your ROI.
Cost Per Click
The Cost Per Click is the amount your fencing company pays each time someone clicks on your online ad. Your company should set a maximum price you are willing to pay that aligns with your advertising budget.
Cost Per Conversion
The Cost Per Conversion rate indicates how much your company spent on the ad campaign versus how many people actually became your customers. If the amount you paid is much lower than the percentage of leads that converted into customers, your ROI is high. On the other hand, if you spent a lot of money on this campaign with only a handful of conversions, the ROI was low.
Top and Absolute Top Impressions
To run a paid online ad, your fencing company bids for ranking on a keyword (or keywords) associated with your fencing product. The more you pay compared with your competitors, the higher your ad will rank in the search results.
In September 2019, Google removed the Average Position rank that shows where your ad appears in related industry search results. According to Google, its new “Top and Absolute Top Impressions provide a clearer view of where your ads appear on search pages. You can use these new metrics to optimize your ad position.”