Posted By Industrial Web Solutions Marketing Team on January 19, 2011

I read a great post by Harry Gold for ClickZ recently. He received a question from a reader who was trying to wean a client off of view-based conversions as a success metric. The question was “if we can’t rely on view, what level of click revenue is considered a success?” Harry made a great point that there is no viable “industry standard” that applies across the board. He said, “Only you and your client can say what a good “ROI” is.

And he’s right! The only way you can truly understand what you are achieving is to clarify what you are trying to achieve and what you are doing and spending to achieve it.

First of all you have to establish clearly defined goals. And “make money” isn’t a clearly defined goal. A clearly defined goal specifies such things as:

• What is the ultimate desired action you expect your respondent to take? Call you? Buy something? Register?
• Price, if that is a factor
• Every step in the conversion process –what are all the steps required to get a person to do what you want them to do ultimately?
• What channels are you using to promote the success of that goal?
• What are all your associated costs?
• From soup to nuts, how long does it take for that goal to be reached?
• And lastly, where are you starting from? What is the benchmark against which success can be measured?

Tracking success is a discipline. Results are skewed if any element is missing. The best way to measure true “ROI” is through historical tracking offline and online of clearly defined criteria that impacts your results.

If you need help understanding how to track and manage your online success or a specific marketing initiative, call Industrial Web Solutions at (800) 399-9859.

Categories: business development, conversion, industrial marketing, internet advertising, mobile web marketing, online marketing, tracking
Tags: campaign results, campaign tracking, conversion, conversion tracking, measuring roi, tracking online advertising