Advertising Results, How to Measure Your Results!

Advertising Effectiveness, how to measure it Henry Ford, along with a number of other people, are credited with saying, “I know that half of my advertising is working, I just don’t know which half.” Regardless of who said it, it is true. If you talk with enough advertisers, you’ll find some interesting ways to track advertising.

I have listed two. Ask people how they heard about you. My problem with that plan is it makes people feel like you are much more interested in finding out how they heard about you then helping them. They didn’t come into your store to tell you how your advertising is working. Put a coupon or “special offer” My problem with that plan is it tests the offer not your advertising. Invite people to come in for free $100 dollar bills and you will get much better response then a 10% discount off offer.

Here’s the issue, you are investing to advertise your business. If you are fanatical about measuring that investment, you may not be capitalizing on your advertising results. So what do you do? Measure these four areas of your business. Store Traffic (How many people came to the store) Weather Conditions (Sunny vs Cloudy – Cold vs Hot – Dry vs Precipitation) What you are advertising/specials The mediums you advertised When you measure all of these, you get a complete picture of reality.

If store traffic is up and sales are down, this is not an advertising problem. It could be price, staff, inventory, etc. If store traffic is down and sales are up, you need to pat your team on the back. I once worked with a client who purchased a fifteen minute radio program for 26 weeks. When talking with him about renewing his contract, he told me that no one had mentioned the program. After further analysis, he told me that their business had picked up significantly. When I asked what he was doing differently during the uptick in business, he said just our program. It was like a light bulb came on, after further review he stayed on the program. If he would have measured Traffic, Weather Conditions, What you are advertising, and The Mediums, he would have known that things were going very well for him.

Be consistent This needs to be a part of your culture. Measuring your advertising results are just part of the benefit. You can plan staff, understand the best time to have sales, look for training opportunities for your team. Remember, you can’t manage what you can’t measure. Don’t make major decision based on minor measurements Emotional decisions are dangerous at best. Don’t make long-term decisions based on short-term results, look for trends. Remember, this may not be an advertising issue, it could be staff, product, weather etc. Advertising takes a commitment. Do you have it?