Metrics for Measuring Ad Campaign Effectiveness

Advertising is not an exact science. There's no precise way to measure the success of an ad campaign. You can't, for example, determine how many sales dollars are generated by each advertising dollar

To assess the effectiveness of your advertising campaign, you can monitor sales, new customers, requests for information, phone inquiries, retail store traffic, Web-site traffic or clickthrough rates. Use these tactics to gauge the power of your ads:

• Track retail traffic by counting the people who enter your store. Don't forget to monitor traffic before you start the ad campaign, so you'll have a basis for comparison.

• Compare sales before, during and after an ad campaign. Keep in mind that advertising often has a cumulative or delayed effect, so ad-driven sales may not materialize immediately.