As a business owner who has invested time and money into various advertising campaigns, it is only a matter of time until you start to wonder if your efforts are working. You may consider asking your customers how they learned about your business. Though this may provide you with some broad insight, there are more measurable indicators that will provide an in-depth analysis on just how effective your ads are.
Here are three main indicators that your advertising campaigns are working:
Increase in Brand Awareness
One of the surest indicators for determining advertising success is an increase in overall brand awareness. In addition to asking your customers how they learned about your business and its offerings, another great way to measure brand awareness is by comparing recent increases (or decreases) in social media followers, views and engagement to historical data.
It is important to note that though a social media follower increase can correlate to increased brand awareness, this may not always be the case, especially if follower count is the only metric considered. An increase of followers may be irrelevant if those followers are inactive. A more detailed engagement statistic such as an increase in likes, comments and shares on social posts may be a better indicator.
Overall Website Traffic
A successful advertising campaign should result in a boost to your website traffic. Statistics such as increased number of new site visitors, increased page views and decreased bounce rates are indicative of a marketing strategy that is reaching the right people. Check you website analytics for this data.
Just as important as website traffic are the conversions that come with each site visit. Every business may have a different conversion goal for their website such as landing on the location page, making a phone call or a filling out a form. If you are seeing an increase in website traffic, you should also see an increase in conversions which will result in more sales.
Increased Sales
The primary goal of most marketing campaign is to ultimately increase sales. The easiest way to check this is by comparing your business sales from last year to those from this year. Is there a significant increase? Is it relatively the same?
Another way to track the effectiveness of your ads through sales is by providing your customers with a promotional code that can be easily tracked. This way, whenever that code is used, you know that sale was a direct result of your advertising campaign.
It may also be worth noting the lifetime value (LTV) of your customers. If the average sale spend of your regular customers is increasing, it can be a good sign that your efforts are working.
Before starting a new marketing campaign, be sure to set and define key performance indicators (KPIs). Those KPIs will help you better track your ads’ success and determine whether you are accomplishing your goals. In addition to tracking your success, monitoring your KPIs will also tell you which areas of your campaign need work. Choosing metrics that truly measure your set goals will render more effective than choosing vanity metrics.
Read more about developing a digital ad strategy for your business in our guide on advertising.