Measuring the Success of Your Ad Strategy

It’s been said that ads are only as good as the people they reach. Which means it’s crucial to monitor your ad performance and ensure you’re investing your time and money in the right places to make the most significant difference. 
Of course, there are different ways to measure advertising success. The nature and objectives of your business will determine which ones are most impactful for you.
Let’s discuss some standard metrics that indicate your ad strategy is working well and how you can measure the impact of specific ads.

Signs Your Ad Strategy is Succeeding

There are many signs that your ad strategy is working. It’s crucial that you leverage analytics to dig into key metrics, like the following:

• Impressions – These can be both digital and audio impressions. This metric indicates how often your ad was displayed to users, whether they clicked on it or not. It’s a great way to measure reach and visibility among your target audience.
• Click-through rate (CTR) – As the name indicates, CTR measures how many people clicked on your ad and came through the link to your landing page. For example, if 5 people out of 100 click through to your website, your CTR is 5%. 
• Conversion rate – Conversion rate measures the number of people who followed through with a desired action, whether that was clicking on an ad, subscribing to a service, or making a purchase. Your conversion rate is usually one of the most important indicators of a marketing campaign’s success in driving results.
• Return on ad spend (ROAS) – Your ROAS measures how much revenue you make for every dollar spent on advertising. It is a powerful budgeting metric. For instance, if you only make $1.25 on every $1 of marketing, you may need to either cut back on your advertising spend (which can be counterproductive) or make your marketing more effective (which is often the best solution).
• Return on investment (ROI) – This metric is similar to ROAS but has broader application. It measures the profitability and financial impact of your overall marketing strategy. You can arrive at ROI by taking your net advertising revenue (Revenue – Cost) and then dividing that number by your advertising cost. 
• Cost per acquisition – This is the average cost of acquiring a new customer. The lower this number is, the better. Cost per acquisition is a great way to measure your ad campaign’s efficiency in bringing in new business. The formula is Ad Cost ÷ Number of Conversions.
• Customer lifetime value (CLV) – CLV allows you to take a long-range view of your business. It measures the long-term value customers bring to your brand and shows how well your company does at earning repeat business and customer loyalty.

Measuring Your Ad Impact

It’s important to remember that you can measure ad success in many ways. Moreover, the advertising channel itself plays a significant role in how companies should analyze the impact of their ads. For example, radio and television use household data to determine how many impressions a commercial makes. In contrast, digital mediums (like display ads, PPC ads, or programmatic audio) use data-tracking tools and analytics systems to provide rich insight into a target audience.
Using resources like unique landing pages and links from podcasts, social media posts, or video ads will also provide you with in-depth information about your core demographics. Coupling those tools to a CRM (customer relationship management) platform will provide even more specific insights. Such insights will help you deliver more personalized marketing to your customers and fine-tune your advertising tactics.

Increased Insight Ensures Success

Even the best ad won’t work on the wrong crowd. But combining well-developed ad creative with purposeful metrics and analytics tools will help you to put your message in front of the right people, build customer loyalty, and ultimately become more profitable.
Of course, all of this is easier said than done, which is why many growing businesses enlist the aid of an experienced media partner to audit and supercharge their strategy. In any event, continue to monitor and adjust your marketing plan as you move forward. You can count on a positive outcome if you do.