Return on investment from advertising
Return on investment from the advertisingThis blog is in response to questions from the blogs below re advertising.
Firstly, thanks for the questions. Assessing return on investment is a critical aspect of making your business a success. But it's often easier said than done.
"This form of advertising must be successful for you ...
Can you tell me how many time you will run the add?
Have you used this publication before?
How many publications did you try before you found the ones you use?
When the prospects call is your company familiar or completely new to them?"
* We run the ad in lots of 5. It's in the Friday business section of the newspaper - it's run of page, which means it could be anywhere. So far it has received great spots (top right of right hand side page).
This ad will run: Friday, Wednesday, Friday, Friday, Friday, Friday.
* Yes, we have used this publication before. We'd previously run 5 ads on a Wednesday (Wednesday is the 2nd biggest readership day) when Wednesday was the day that had the business section.
* We've tried probably 5 different newspapers with different ads, different days, etc.
* No, the person calling does not usually know the company.
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"Can you tell us what sort of return you get on these ads?
I'm thinking more number of enquiries and conversion rate, rather than $$ :)"
* Sure can - last time the ads generated 7 jobs for an initial gross return of $12,460. The ads cost $1,480.
Add-on sales contributed another $750.
Of those 7 sales, 3 have become ongoing clients for an additional $5,200 pa (approximately).
The ads generated 9 leads for those 7 sales.
As you can see, exceptionally strong leads with a great return on investment.
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This time around
This time around I got a 'deal'. Because the newspaper had moved the business section to Friday, I was offered 5 Fridays for the price of 3. I also took an additional Wednesday. Total price $1,344.
I wasn't too concerned about the move to Friday. After all, businesspeople read the newspaper every day, right?
Well, maybe not.
The ad has been in 3 times (Friday, Wednesday, Friday). Total calls: 2. Total leads: 1 (I have a meeting on Thursday with the first person who called).
It's important here to say that repetition is critical in advertising and the subsequent 4th and 5th and 6th exposures of our ad should (in theory) result in greater awareness and a higher likelihood to generate a lead. Like I say, that's the theory!
It's actually looking like a waste of money. And the only major variable altered has been the day of publication. (Small variables can have a big impact, but the change of day may well be the reason for the reduced response.).
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And probably what I'd like to say here is that with any bit of marketing you do, all it has to do is give you the 'right' client and you can grow your business for years. I remember a small classified ad in the local free newspaper once gave a us a client that was a substantial source of income for us for quite a while.
The lesson as always with advertising? Test, measure, test, measure.
Cheers
Brendon
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