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Rule 3 Of 7 Rules To A Successful Print Advertising Campaign
(Article first published in Oct '07. It has been modified slightly to suit its publication on our site)
Are You Definitely MAKING money from your ads?
Many business owners make the mistake of running ads month after month without any idea if they are working. So how do you know that the ads are effective and most importantly paying for themselves?
The first thing that needs to be understood is that you should never advertise without a tracking system in place. The simplest way to track an ad is to assign each one a code and then ask for that code when people call you. Each ad in each publication would have a different code and it is best to also change the code for each month that the ad is run. However even if you simply asked people which publication they saw the ad in and the date of the publication then you still get a good idea of which ads are generating a good response and which are not.
The next thing that needs planning is how you will track the break-even point for this investment. In simple terms, if you spend €100 on the ad and you are advertising a product or service that makes you €10 per sale in margin then you need to make 10 sales before you start to even make money on the investment. So let's say that on month 1 you don't advertise and make 5 sales and on month 2 you do advertise, the break-even point is 15 sales. Anything over 15 and the advertising was worthwhile, but less than 15 and there is something wrong. In reality it's a little more complex than this because you need to take the cost of advertising out of your margin and so the number of sales needed for your business to make the same money while advertising goes up accordingly, but the above example gives you the general idea.
You may not get it right first time, so don't give up straight away. Advertising is all about testing and reviewing different approaches and publications and even when you find a combination that works it won't work like that forever, so you need to continue to measure your return on investment for every ad.
Ultimately, you need to be ruthless about your advertising investment. Don't run ads that don't make you money and if print isn't working investigate other media such as on-line.
Next edition we look at the actual design elements required for an effective ad.
Franco De Bonis has worked in the field of sales and marketing promotion since 1990 and was most recently the global marketing manager for a major international technology company before setting up DG Group in January 2007.
DG Group is dedicated to delivering all the marketing solutions any company may require. Whether it's a website or leaflets and brochures, or even some product packaging; DG Group will manage the whole project and even provide guidance along the way.
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