One of the most important parts of an advertising campaign is ensuring that it is successful and measuring its performance. Before internet-based advertising, tracking a campaign’s successes and failures was mostly hit or miss and required customers to leave feedback. However, with internet-based advertising and Google Analytics, tracking advertising through pay per click (PPC) is simple.
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Track Visitor Movement through Google Analytics
The goal of all advertising campaigns is ultimately to drive sales, so even if your PPC ads are increasing traffic to your website, the ads still need to also be able to generate revenue. One of your most important tools in Google Analytics is the ability to track where visitors go after they arrive at your website. This can not only let you know if the ads people are following end in a purchase but also let you know what part of the website they get to before they leave. If visitors are arriving at the site but all leaving before checkout, the issue may not be with the ad but with the checkout system for the website. Knowing where your problem lies will allow you to fix it.
Track Your Website’s Bounce Rate
Additionally, if your ad generates a large number of click-throughs but most visitors leave the site immediately, you know that your ad is not successful. Either you are misrepresenting what the visitor should expect when clicking your ad, or you are not targeting your correct audience. Google analytics allows you to track your visitor bounce rate, which is the number of people who left the site without visiting any pages except the entrance page. By tracking the bounce rate caused by your ads, you can determine which are most successful at leading customers to a site that they will stay on or purchase from.
Find Out Where Click-Throughs are Coming From
Another great tool provided by Google Analytics is the ability to monitor where the click-throughs from ads are coming from. If you find that there are very few coming from a particular site, you know that you need to either change your ads or find another site to advertise on. Additionally, you can use the analytics tools to show you which search engines are providing the most click-throughs, along with the keyword searches visitors used to get to the results that showed your ad. Knowing what keywords are attached to your ads can help you get a sense of what customers are looking for or expecting on your website.
Isolate Unsuccessful Media
While the goal of pay per click ads is not to simply get visitors to your website, you still need people to click on ads to get them in the door. If you have an ad that is getting no clicks, you either have it in the wrong place or it needs to be redone. The AdWords tracking in Google Analytics allows you to follow click-throughs from links, banners, embedded keywords and a variety of other sources. This lets you know what medium is the most successful and where to put your advertising dollars.
Target Different Audience Demographics
Finally, one of the best things about web advertising is how specifically it can target potential customers. Using the tools provided by Google analytics you can see which ads are successful and where they are successful. Instead of using a one size fits all application to marketing, with pay per click ads you can target different demographics by simply uploading a new ad.
Sam is an Internet marketing blogger and a contributing writer for QuickSprout. He enjoys writing about a variety of marketing topics ranging from social media trends to SEO techniques.
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