You’ve got a lot on your plate already. From managing employees to budgeting, social media, and so much more. You simply don’t have a lot of time to measure your ad campaign’s success.
It’s true that you’re probably short on time, but it’s also true that not measuring your ads can have an extremely detrimental effect on your business. Not paying attention to how your ad campaigns are doing can put you in the red, if you aren’t careful. It deserves your attention.
Don’t worry! Measuring your ad campaign’s success doesn’t have to dominate your schedule. Once you get the hang of how measuring ad data works, it’s something you can do quickly and relatively painlessly.
Here’s what to measure, how to measure it, and which metrics you should pay attention to.
But first, let’s get crystal clear about why you should bother measuring your ad campaign in the first place. When you know just how important it is, you’ll be motivated to do it.
Why Measure Your Ad Campaign?
The bottom line is that ad campaigns can cost you more than they’re worth. Ineffective ad campaigns can have a low ROI, which means they cost more money without making much money.
If you don’t keep an eye on how your ad campaigns are doing, you could end up spending more on your ads than you’re making in revenue.
It doesn’t have to be quite as dramatic as that, but it can still affect your bottom line. You might make more than you spend but find yourself breaking even at the end of the month.
If you don’t measure your ad campaign’s success, you may also make assumptions that aren’t true, which can lead to bad decisions. For example, you might feel that the solution to slumping revenue is to push out more ads, when in reality, it might be the type of ad—not the number of ads—that’s causing the problem.
It literally pays to measure your ad campaigns. The more you pay attention to how they’re doing, the more money you can potentially make.
Metrics to Measure
So, exactly what can you measure? There’s a lot more to it than measuring how many ads you ran compared to how much money you made.
Here’s a complete list of the metrics you may decide you need to measure.
- Return on investment (ROI)
- Return on ad spend (ROAS)
- Conversion rate
- Cost per lead (CPL)
- Cost per acquisition (CPA)
- Website visits
- Website visits by traffic source
- Click-through rate
- Cost per click
- Impressions
Return on investment (ROI)
This metric allows you to see how much you earned compared to how much you spent on your ads. ROI measures the return or gain on an investment relative to its cost.
Return on ad spend (ROAS)
This metric can tell you how much you earned from ads compared to how much you spent on them. Once again, a high number here means you earned more from those ads than it cost to run them.
Conversion rate
This metric can tell you how many people made a purchase, signed up for an email newsletter, or signed up for a free download, depending on the details of your particular ad campaign.
Cost per lead (CPL)
This metric enables you to see how much money you spent on each lead. It can be a great metric to measure for businesses that have to nurture leads before converting them to customers.
Cost per acquisition (CPA)
This metric tells you how much you spent on each new customer. Because it can include things like email sign-ups as well as product sales, it’s a great thing to measure if you want to expand your reach, in addition to attracting new customers.
Website visits
This metric allows you to see if website traffic increased as a result of your ad campaign. More visits means more opportunity, so it’s a good metric for everyone to measure.
Website visits by traffic source
This metric lets you go beyond just measuring how many people visit your site and it measures exactly where that traffic is coming from. It’s a great way to see which of your ad campaigns is most successful at driving traffic to your website.
Click-through rate
This metric measures the number of people who clicked on your advertisement. It can help you determine how enticing your ad is.
Cost per click
This metric enables you to get down to the nitty gritty of what it costs every time someone clicks on your ad. The lower the cost per click, the more effectively you’re targeting your audience.
Impressions
This metric allows you to see how many times people saw your ad. It can help you determine if you’re using the right targeting strategies.
What Should You Measure?
Before you get overwhelmed at the idea of measuring it all, know that you don’t have to! It’s much better to choose the metrics that are most relevant to your situation.
Start by establishing a clear goal. Whether it’s brand awareness or growing revenue, knowing exactly what your goal is will ensure the information you’re measuring will actually be helpful.
For example, if you sell a modestly priced product, there may be no reason to measure your cost per lead. Instead, you might want to focus on cost per acquisition.
It’s also true that you might measure one metric for a while until it’s resolved, then move on to another metric. For example, you might work on measuring impressions to make sure plenty of people see your ads before determining your cost per click.
How to Measure
Once you decide what you’re going to measure, you have to get crystal clear about how to measure it.
After you have determined your goals, you can narrow down the metrics you want to focus on. Specify a time frame so you aren’t tempted to keep putting it off.
Is the idea of figuring out what to measure and actually measuring it scrambling your brain? Let us help!
Sierra Media Productions is a data-driven, full-service marketing and advertising agency. We know how to measure ad campaigns—and more importantly—we can help you tweak them to get the most ROI possible. Contact us today to learn how!
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Email: info@sierraproductions1.com
Website: Sierraproductions1.com
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