3 Ways to Measure Your Advertising Campaign

02 Jan 3 Ways to Measure Your Advertising Campaign

There’s a well-known business concept that says that you can only manage what you can measure. After 11 years in the business we’ve learned a thing or two about measuring advertising effectiveness. Many of our customers have been with us since the beginning and get great results from their Local Directory advertising campaigns. So we’ve tapped into that combined experience to bring you some great tips for recording the effectiveness of your Local Directory adverts.

Analysing the results of your advertising campaigns isn’t rocket science, but it does require a scientific and organised approach. You should make sure that your adverts are measurable in the first place and then have the processes in place to record the responses. Only by knowing what works and what doesn’t will you be able to track the return on your investment and spend your marketing budget wisely.

1.    Design an advert that can be measured

The best way to track if your advert is working is to have messages and offers that require a response from customers. For example, the most effective direct response adverts include a call to action that asks their audience to do something very specific, e.g. call this number, visit this website, etc. Don’t forget to include the benefit customers will get by responding, e.g. get more information, ask about our offer, claim your discount.

2.    Test different concepts

If you’re not sure what will work for you, try creating two or three adverts for the same product or offer but slightly change something in each version. You can then test which version works best by either:

• Running each advert in turn in consecutive issues of your chosen Local Directory magazine(s)
• Run all versions of the adverts in the same month but in different editions of the Local Directory (i.e. different regions)

Remember to only change one key variable in each version of the advert or you won’t know which element is making the difference.

3.    Make your advertisement unique to the Local Directory

It’s tempting to reproduce successful adverts that you’re currently using elsewhere, and while we’re all for economies of scale, that approach can create problems for you when it comes to measuring your Local Directory advert’s effectiveness. To get an honest picture of how well the Local Directory works for you, we suggest the following: –

a.     Have an exclusive ‘Local Directory’ offer or discount

Consider using your Local Directory advert for a special offer or discount that is unique to our readers. Then if a customer responds wanting that discount or offer you’ll know immediately that they have seen that particular advert. You could ask customers to quote a unique Local Directory promotion or discount code.

b.    Promote a particular ‘Local Directory’ item or service

You can use your Local Directory advert to promote a product, service or proposition that you don’t specifically advertise elsewhere.

c.     Create an advert that’s unique to Local Directory

Rather than duplicate advert content or copy that you already use elsewhere, create a new advert that only gets placed in the Local Directory.

d.    Create a bespoke Local Directory readers’ landing page on your website

Consider using your advert to promote a URL that you’ve customised especially for readers of the Local Directory. You should tailor the content of the page to match the offers or products in the advert, delivering a consistent customer experience. Plus, this approach is easily trackable – only Local Directory readers will know about the page, so you can track the resulting hits in full confidence that they’ve seen your advert. But don’t just duplicate existing content from other pages on your website as it will harm your Google page rankings.

e.     Direct calls to a unique phone number

If you anticipate that the offers or promotion in your Local Directory advert are likely to create a lot of demand, consider setting up a bespoke phone number that will only be used for this advert. Not only will this keep your main phone lines from becoming congested, it’s also a fool-proof way to track responses to the advert.

By planning your advert so that responses to it are easily identifiable and can be measured, you will soon discover just how effective advertising with the Local Directory can be. We’ll be happy to welcome you to our growing family of successful local businesses, but if you need more information about advertising with Local Directory, contact our sales team. We’re on hand to help.