The end goal of all advertisement campaigns is to increase their brands revenue and/or profitability. But how do you determine if your ad campaign has actually contributed towards an increase in your revenue and/or profitability? The answer is to use key performance indicators (KPIs). In the case of print advertisements, there are a number of relevant KPIs that companies can make use of. These include:
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Monitor website traffic during campaign
As soon as a print ad campaign starts companies should track the traffic to their website. Even though this does not give an exact picture it provides a general idea on the performance of the campaign. For instance any sudden spikes in website traffic during a campaign is typically a result of a print ad campaign, as long as no other campaigns are running at the same time.
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Unique point of contact
Companies can also create a unique point of contact for their print ad campaign. This basically means to create a custom: email id, phone number, or any other contact channel that is only used in their print ad campaign. As a result, any leads/clients that the business develops through such contact channels could have only been generated through the print campaign.
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Coupon codes
Another great alternative is for companies to create a custom coupon code that is only used for their print ad campaign. As a result, any purchases made using the coupon code from the print ad campaign could have only been generated through the campaign.
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QR codes
For companies wanting to track their print ad campaigns performance with the least amount of effort, QR codes are a great solution. There are a number of online platforms that allow companies to generate coupon codes that are linked to a landing page. These platforms further tend to track the number of scans and other relevant indicators for the specified QR code.
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Ask your customer
Another alternative for companies to track the performance of their print ad campaign is to directly ask their customers. A classic question companies may ask is “Where did you hear about us?”. Such questions are then followed by a drop down list amongst which the print ad campaign is presented as an option to the customer. These questions can be presented to customers by sending out surveys, asking them at the point of purchase (conversion), or any other way a company may see fit.
To conclude, a company has a number of options to track their print advertisements campaign. No matter what the objective of a print ad campaign is, companies can follow the steps below to track their campaigns ROI:
- define the objective of their campaign (e.g. increase website traffic)
- create a KPI for measuring the objective (e.g. website traffic)
- measure the KPI prior to launching the campaign allowing companies to create a benchmark (e.g. track website traffic for 1 month before launching the campaign)
- measure the KPI during the campaign to determine the effect of the print ad campaign
