Measuring the effectiveness of your print advertising campaigns is the only way to determine key performance indicators like your marketing return on investment (ROI).
Although the advertising options available to businesses have multiplied in recent years, print advertising has not lost any of its relevance. Although measuring the marketing ROI of print requires more effort than checking your Google Analytics stats, it is incredibly important to your future success.
Why Measure Print Advertising?
Measuring the impact your print advertising has on your target audience and your bottom line provides insight that will inform your future marketing decisions. If your current strategy is not creating enough business, recognizing that is the first step toward refining your strategy and trying something more effective.
If your marketing strategy is working, measurable data will allow you to analyze the source of your success and improve upon it. It will also help you to calculate key performance indicators—like your cost-per-lead and marketing ROI. You cannot manage what you cannot measure—and to manage your marketing ROI, you need to measure your print advertising.
Establishing Units of Measurement
To measure the impact of your print advertising, you must first define what success means for your business. Does effective advertising bring a customer to your event, result in a client lead, or create a sale? Determine what you want your advertising to do for you and which results are worth your marketing dollars before moving on to choosing a method of measurement. Your end goal will determine how you measure your results. Here are ways to get started:
- Ask customers of your brick and mortar store or online business, “How did you hear about us?” Keep track of the number of customers who indicate that your print advertising led them to your business. This works best when your goal is increasing awareness or foot traffic.
- Publish a coupon, discount code, or gift voucher with your print advertisement. Count the number of coupons redeemed. You can also insert QR codes into your advertisements and track their use electronically.
- Track daily traffic and daily sales before, during, and after your print ad runs to determine effectiveness. To utilize this method, all other marketing should remain consistent shortly before, during, and after the print ad runs.
This is not a comprehensive list, so whichever method you choose be sure to implement A/B testing. Release two different versions of your campaign and track the responsiveness to each. This will allow you to hone in on and refine your most successful ideas.
Evaluating Your Statistics
Once you find out how many customers called, stopped by, or made a purchase because of your advertising efforts, that information can be used to make decisions about future advertising. Ask yourself these questions to help analyze your data:
- Did you see a defined increase in business during your ad campaign’s run?
- How many customers used the coupon or redeemed the gift?
- If you employed A/B testing, which version of your campaign did better? Why?
- Did you target an audience who is likely to use your product or service?
- Which elements of your campaign worked based on your testing results? Which did not?
- How can you improve the elements of your campaign that worked?
After you answer these questions, you should have a clearer picture of what is working for you. Now it is time to start the whole process over again with the best elements of your campaign. Eventually, the process of testing, measurement, analysis, and refinement will turn your advertising into a well-oiled machine.
To measure your marketing ROI, divide the amount you spent on your campaign by the number of qualified leads or sales that resulted. With every new iteration of your print advertising campaigns, keep track of your ROI and you should see it increase as you hone in on your target audience’s desires.
To get started with a new print advertising campaign in Arkansas, contact Arkansas Graphics, Inc. at 501-263-2649 to speak with one of our customer representatives.
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