First Steps for Direct Sales Online Advertising

Whether you are purchasing your first or your fiftieth online ad, or even using free advertising, there a few things you can do ahead of time to prepare for your advertising campaign. Taking these steps will help you determine which ads work and which aren't as successful.

1. What is the purpose or goal of your advertising campaign?
   
   A common answer to this question is "to get website traffic" but is that really all you want? Think about what you want your visitors to do once they arrive at your site. Do you want them to make a purchase, join your business opportunity, or sign up for your newsletter? Setting a specific goal focuses your campaign for greater success.
   
   
2. Get your landing page ready.
   
   Keep your goal in mind when you decide on a landing page for your campaign. If you want newsletter subscribers, don't send visitors to your home page or your shopping pages. Your ad invites visitors to do something; make it easy for them to do it by designing a landing page that walks them through the process.In some cases your landing page may be fairly short and simple. If your ad copy is long enough to presell the prospect you may not need additional marketing on the landing page. For example, a solo ad may provide enough information so that a visitor is ready to complete the offer when the arrive. But a banner ad or text ad may have just peaked their curiosity enough to get them to visit, and additional marketing may be needed to get them to follow through.
   
   Whether it's a short or long landing page, make it very clear what you want your visitors to do, and be sure to ask them to do it. Don't assume that if they see a form they'll fill it out. Specifically direct them to complete it.
   
   
3. What is your measure of success and how will you know if you've achieved it?
   
   Having a specific goal for your campaign makes it easier to track and measure success, but you will likely need to fine tune your definition of success. For example, if your goal is product sales, you can measure success by dollar value, number of units sold, conversion rate (the percentage of visitors that make a purchase), or return on investment.
   
   Your website statistics or analytics program probably provides all the information you need to track your promotions, but if not, you may want to invest in an ad tracking program or service. Or you may be able to use other methods such as sending results to to a special email address or by using a coupon code to identify the campaign.

Establishing your goals, having a well thought out landing page, and tracking results will help you recognize successful campaigns and determine what needs to be changed if you don't get results.

©2009 Linda Stacy

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