EngNet Newsletter 6 of 6 : Using Statistics to Monitor Online Sales.
Publishers
new and old are jockeying for position and competing for the prize, your
advertising budget. Strategies and
tactics are employed to reach the goal of obtaining your business. You
receive sales letters, telesales calls and email invitations all designed to
persuade you to hand over your money in exchange for advertising. The problem from a company’s point of view is that there are no bookies
giving you the odds, no trainers telling you what condition the horses
(publishers) are in, the race is difficult to see, you don't know who finishes
first, who doesn't finish and who crossed the finishing line stone last. So how do you measure
the advertising performance from one publisher to another?
I completely understand the tentative approach of companies toward online
marketing. Many of you receive
numerous invitations from publishers on a weekly basis all offering you
wonderful advertising, some even free. How
then do you filter the performers from the useless? Statistics.
The beauty of online advertising is that you can measure every aspect of its
performance. Statistics will illustrate how many people viewed your advert, how
many clicked on it and how long they stayed. Online advertising works and works very well,
in many cases better than traditional advertising, and it can be proven.
The beauty of online marketing is that results can be monitored and seen very
quickly, you can chop and change your advert, try different styles until you
have something that really works. This can all be achieved through statistics. Once
you have an advert that works, stick with it.
Here are the statistics to look at when advertising online:
- How many impressions is your ad or directory listing receiving?
You need to rely on the advertisers’ statistics; they should be able to
provide you with a monthly report of the activity of your advert. It is also very important that this report indicates how many people
clicked from the advert to your website. If
your advert received 1000 impressions and no click throughs, your advert is not
performing. Therefore, you need to
change the advert or the advert is on the wrong position or website.
- Which websites are providing the referrals?
Your statistics program you install on your website should have the facility to
indicate which websites your visitors are coming from. On this report you will be
able to see the websites that provide the most visitors. Some publishers will send you
statistics that show your advert or listing received 200 impressions for the month. What
they don’t tell you is that many of these impressions are from search engine spiders gathering information and
not actual users accessing the advert, therefore the figure is exaggerated and
not a true reflection. This is why it is important to have statistics on your website that indicates how many
actual users were referred from their website to yours.
- Landing Page?
When designing an advert for a specific product, you can have the advert direct
to that specific page, which will increase its effectiveness. Make
sure you spend time designing the advert, as well as the landing page, for
maximum effectiveness.
At EngNet we know what makes a website effective and successful. For a free no obligation analysis of your website
for it’s advertising effectiveness, send an email to mcooney@engnetglobal.com.
>> Don't have a statistics system? Go to www.engnetglobal.com/tips/stats.aspx
>> Would like assistance in optimising your website to improve sales? Email
sales@engnetglobal.com
>> Would like to receive the previous 5 EngNet Statistics newsletters?
email mcooney@engnetglobal.com
Kind Regards
Michael Cooney
Email - mcooney@engnetglobal.com
EngNet - www.engnetglobal.com | www.engnet.co.uk | www.engnet.co.za
