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Using Landing Pages to Measure
Advertising ROI
Q:
My company runs advertising
in our local newspaper, and we always put our Web address in the ads. Is there
any way to tell if someone visits our Web site when they see our ad?
. . . . .
. . . . . . .
A.
Have you
ever heard the saying, “I know 50 percent of my advertising
works, I just don’t know which 50 percent!” ? Consider using
your Web site to help you get the answer by building a “landing
page” to help you measure advertising response.
What is a Landing Page?
Simply
explained, a landing page is a Web page that can only be reached
by using a unique address that gets typed in by the visitor.
You include that unique address in your ad, commercial or
mailing, and then measure exactly how many people visit that
page.
For example,
perhaps you plan to run a Halloween special event at your shop.
You run an ad in your local paper that tells readers they can
find a coupon at a unique address:
www.yourshop.com/halloween The “halloween” page is a
special page, a landing page, you have developed only for that
ad, which cannot be reached by linking from anywhere else on
your site.
Once the
visitor types that specific page address into his browser, your
server’s statistics program will register a new visitor to that
page, and you will know someone went to your Halloween page in
response to that ad. As long as the page cannot be accessed by
any other means (no links from anywhere else on your Web site),
you will have an exact count.
Once the
promotion is over, or a few days have passed since the ad was
run, access your site statistics, and you’ll be able to measure
whether the number of visitors to your site were worth the cost
of running the ads or commercials.
What does it take to make all this work?
You’ll need
to engage the services of your Web master to help you put all
this together. Here are the steps you’ll need to take:
1. Make
sure your hosting server can measure the visitors to individual
pages on your site. If not, there are ways around that. Check
out www.http-411.com for advice on making that work.
2. Develop
your promotion, or design your ads or commercials. Ask your
webmaster to put together a landing page, using a unique web
address for the page similar to those listed above. Consider
including a greeting such as, “Welcome Union Herald Readers”.
Then include whatever information you promised them in your ad.
3. Make
sure the landing page links TO your regular Web site homepage.
Yes – even though you do not want the landing page linked FROM
your site (because that will interfere with your measurement of
your ad response), it’s a definite plus to send visitors to your
regular homepage, proving them with an opportunity to learn more
about doing business with you.
4. The
content you include on the landing page is important because the
stronger the impact when visitors get there, the more likely
they will be to visit again when you try to measure for
something else. Coupons, discounts, or other important
information can help make that strong impact.
A Landing Page in Action
I’ve
developed a landing page specifically for readers of this
column, so you can see an example in action:
www.http-411.com/OctoberSSA
You’ll find
more information there, plus an opportunity to consult for free
on building a landing page for your business. Offer is
good through December 31, 2005. Check it out!
© 2005 Trisha Torrey
Trisha Torrey, owner of IntegriMark Communications and author of http://411, has been helping businesses score on the Web since the mid-1990s. From large corporations, to non-profit organizations, to individual entrepreneurs, her advice, planning and development services have helped raise the Web marketing bar while keeping a keen eye on the bottom line.
Email questions to her at: questions@http-411.com .
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