| 1) Measure All Your Advertising Results | | | | those that bring in sales. |
| Did you happen to spend your money (or your | | | | 5) Measure Your Newsletter Readership |
| valuable time) on fruitless advertising techniques | | | | Have you ever wondered how many of your |
| that didn't bring a single visitor to your site, let | | | | subscribers actually open and read your |
| alone sales? Every Internet marketer went | | | | newsletter? For a newsletter sent in HTML |
| through this experience. That's why you should | | | | format, it's very easy to get an answer to this |
| always use an ad tracker to monitor your online | | | | question (using an ad tracker, of course). Just |
| marketing strategies. In essence, a good ad | | | | place a small transparent image that activates a |
| tracker will tell you how many surfers clicked | | | | tracking URL in your message. This is a very |
| your ad, how many sales (or other actions) each | | | | effective method to test different subject lines |
| ad generated and how successful your advertising | | | | for your email message and see which of them is |
| campaign was, in terms of profits or losses. So | | | | more compelling. If your newsletter is distributed |
| you can know exactly which ads actually work | | | | in text format you cannot use this technique, but |
| and cancel immediately the campaigns that do | | | | you can still put tracking links in various places |
| nothing than waste you money. | | | | (articles, ads, special offers etc.) and find out |
| 2) Split Test Your Ads | | | | which elements get the most attention from your |
| Did you know that making a small change to your | | | | readers. |
| headline could make you 3-4 times more sales? In | | | | 6) Provide Tracking Statistics To Your |
| advertising, you can never know in advance what | | | | Advertisers |
| works better. The only way to find out is | | | | If you want to sell advertising space on your |
| constantly try different ads, track each one of | | | | website or newsletter, you must be able to offer |
| them and measure results. Ad trackers come to | | | | your advertisers some reports on how their ads |
| the rescue again, because usually an ad tracker is | | | | are doing. At a minimum, these reports should tell |
| also an excellent split testing tool. You can use it | | | | them the number of clicks and unique clicks for |
| to test different ad channels (pay-per-click search | | | | each ad. But what about using a first-class ad |
| engines, e-zine ads, e-zine articles, forums, | | | | tracker that gives them some key numbers like: |
| reciprocal links etc.) or different ad elements | | | | daily and hourly visitors, number of sales, |
| (headline, body, call to action, price, photo and so | | | | conversion rate, cost per sale, campaign cost, |
| on). Just compare the results to see what works | | | | campaign profit, return on investment and so on. |
| better for you. | | | | You'll have much better chances to convince your |
| 3) Track Every Link On Your Site | | | | potential advertisers to do business with you if |
| Which links get more clicks to your order page: | | | | they know they can track and test every ad |
| the top ones or the bottom ones? The text links | | | | campaign. |
| or the image links? Where is better to place a link | | | | 7) Hide Long And Ugly Affiliate Links |
| to your special offer: in the left side or right side | | | | Ad trackers are very useful for affiliate |
| of your home page? Which sections of your site | | | | marketers, too. Let's say you just wrote a |
| convert better your visitors into buying | | | | glowing review for a product you promote as an |
| customers? An ad tracker helps you monitor | | | | affiliate. At the end, you provide your reader a |
| each and every internal link and understand in | | | | link to the merchant's site, looking like this... |
| some measure your visitors' behavior. | | | | [ |
| 4) Double Check Your PPC Reports | | | | Guess what? Your reader is kind of turned off, |
| Even if the pay-per-click ad vendors provide | | | | because she just figured out that you are an |
| advertisers with tracking capabilities, it's always a | | | | affiliate and thinks that your wonderful review is |
| good idea to have your own tracking system in | | | | only a sales pitch. So the chances to get a click to |
| place. There are two main benefits to this: first, | | | | the merchant's site plummet. Sometimes, your |
| you are able to verify the vendor's stats at any | | | | reader will just cut your affiliate code and type in |
| moment and second, you can obtain more | | | | the homepage URL. This means a lost sale (and |
| accurate information about how your campaigns | | | | commission) for you. |
| are doing. A good ad tracker will give you not | | | | Now let's suppose that you use an ad tracker to |
| only the raw number of visitors for each | | | | redirect your visitors, and your readers see a |
| keyword, but also the number of sales, the net | | | | short, elegant link like this one... |
| profit and the ROI (return on investment) for that | | | | Big difference, isn't it? Now your affiliate link is |
| keyword. This way you can easily drop the | | | | practically invisible and your affiliate commission is |
| keywords that lose you money and keep only | | | | fully protected. |