Testing and Tracking Your Marketing Strategies
Developing and implementing a strategic marketing plan is an
essential part of your success. However, unless you're testing
and tracking your strategies, you may be losing a great deal of
time and money.
You can dramatically increase your sales simply by taking the
time to test and track your results. Not only will it help you
to determine what's working and what's not, but it will also
enable you to focus your efforts on the strategies that produce
results.
When testing your marketing strategies, keep in mind, a strategy
that produces results for one person may not produce results for
you. There is no 'set in stone' strategy that works for
everyone. You must develop your own style and technique and test
your results to determine what works for you. Below are some ad
tracking resources to assist you in your testing and tracking
endeavors.
Ad Tracking CGI Scripts
LnkinLite http://www.dtp-aus.com/cgiscript/lnkinlte.shtml
If you're looking for a simple way to track clickthroughs, then
LnkinLite may be your answer. This free script will enable you
to easily keep track of the number of clicks a specific link
receives. Instead of using your standard link within your
advertising, you can use a link created by this script. It will
track the number of clickthroughs and instantly redirect your
visitors to your URL.
Willmaster's ProLinkz http://www.prolinkz.com/
This powerful script is a link creator, tracker, disguiser and
manager all in one. It will enable you to create uniquely coded
links that redirect to any URL you specify and count all hits
and referrers. Cost - $45.00
AdTrackZ http://www.adtrackz.com/
This script will enable you to set up an entire ad tracking
campaign including statistical reports for referring URLs, what
browsers your visitors have installed, what operating systems
your visitors are using and much more. Cost - $47.00
Ad Tracking Services
LinkCounter http://www.linkcounter.com
A free service that tracks the clickthrough rates of your links.
In addition to tracking your links, LinkCounter hides the URL of
the link destination. This will prevent users from removing or
changing your affiliate ID when visiting an affiliate site
through your link.
HyperTracker http://www.hypertracker.com
The PRO version of HyperTracker contains a number of advanced
features including: unlimited advertising campaigns, tracking of
sales and actions, special scripts that let you promote your own
website address in your campaigns and much more. Cost - Starting
at $10.95 mo. They also offer a free version.
Adminder http://www.adminder.com
An online tracking system that will enable you to track an
entire advertising campaign. It will enable you to see how many
visitors were generated by each of your ads, keep track of sales
that were generated by each ad and calculates the
cost-per-click, cost-per-sale, and click-to-sale ratios for each
ad. Cost - $19.95 mo. (for a limited time)
ROIbot http://www.roibot.com
ROIbot is a complete collection of tools for increasing your
"Return on Investment." One of their many tools is the ROIbot Ad
Tracker. This powerful system will enable you to track your
clickthroughs, where they come from, what browser your visitors
are using, what operating system, and more. Cost - $17.00 mo.
Statcruncher http://www.Statcruncher.com
Statcruncher tracks and reports exactly which ads, banners and
links are producing results. They provide you with access to
their powerful web-tracking system that will enable you to track
your ad campaigns 24 hours a day in real time. Cost - $49.00 yr.
If you'd rather not use any of the products and services listed
above, you can use some alternative methods. Below are some
example tracking methods you can use to track your response
rates:
URL
You can track your ads simply by adding some special coding to
your URL. To code your URL, add a question mark followed by a
special tracking code to the end of your web address. Your coded
link will still open your web page. Your code should look
something like this:
http://www.yourdomain.com/?ad1
The text after the question mark should identify a specific ad.
You can code it however you'd like.
To view your results, you'll need to look at your log files.
Your code will be displayed within your log files beside your
URL.
Email
You can track your email responses to specific ads by using the
email subject. Select a specific word to be placed within the
email subject for each ad. Although you can request that a
certain word be placed within the email subject, many times it
won't be supplied. To avoid this problem, you can create a
special email link that will automatically fill in the subject
when clicked on. Your link should look something like this:
mailto:you@yourdomain.com?subject=ad1
Testing and tracking your strategies is an essential part of
doing business. By concentrating your efforts on strategies that
produce results, you can not only increase your sales, but
you'll also save yourself a great deal of time and money.