Keying your ads: How to know which ads are working.

There are a number of ways to easily track the effectiveness of your ads, both online and off. These methods will, hopefully, help you turn you ad into a clean, mean, money machine! Advertising is not an exact science, so you need to give yourself every advantage, when it comes to determining where to spend the dollars, and how to track them.

Part I:
ONLINE AD TRACKING USING AUTORESPONDERS
When you place your autoresponder info at the end of an ad, place this simple code *after* your autoresponder email address:

?subject="YourTrackingCodeHere"

Example:
YourAutoresponder@YourISP.com?subject="YourTrackingCodeHere"

Always use a short descriptive "TrackingCode", and always keep a record of which "TrackingCode" accompanies which ad. Keying your ad will allow you to monitor which ad is working, as all responses to that ad will arrive in your email box with the "TrackingCode" visible in the subject line of the email.

Example: If you were to place an ad in this newsletter, and your method of contact is your email address or autoresponder, you could use a code like this to track the ads performance:

AD COPY------> Here is my ad!
AD CONTACT---> myname@MyEmailAccount?subject=CC

The "mailto" tag will automatically launch the inquirers email program when they click on it, and the " ?subject= " will automatically insert the SUBJECT into the subject line of the inquirers email.

When you receive that email from someone inquiring about your ad, the subject will automatically show up in the email, as "CC" (my code for Classified Club), then I know that inquiry came from the Classified Club newsletter.

You can use any KeyCode that makes sense to you, just be sure to keep a log of which codes you used for which ad(s). I have dozens of ads running at all times and if I didnt key my ads, I wouldnt know which ones were getting the best response.

Part II:
OFFLINE AD TRACKING USING TRACKING CODES
The same basic principle applies to OFFLINE advertising as online advertising. While you cant use some fancy HTML code to help you track your ads response, you can still monitor each and every inquiry and know exactly where that inquiry came from.

Lets say your selling the Cookie Cutter. In your ads you ask your readers to write or call for more information. (Note, any classified ad should only invoke a response for further information--never try to sell anything directly from a classified ad.)

When giving your address, always tag the address with a department number or code, like this:

For more information, write to:
ABC COMPANY
123 Main St. Dept CC-100
Anytown, USA 12345

Notice the department number after the street address? This is your "keycode". The post office will ignore this number, so dont worry about not getting your mail.

Knowing that department CC is "Cookie Cutter System" and the number 100 is the publication you placed the ad in, know if you receive 50 inquiries from DEPT CC-100, and only 5 inquiries from DEPT CC-200, you know you wont be advertising in publication 200 anymore, and youll certainly be increasing your ads in DEPT-100.

OFFLINE AD TRACKING USING TELEPHONE TRACKING CODES
The same technique may be used when advertising phone numbers. Whether its an 800#, 900#, or even your home office phone line. Simply place an "extension number" at the end of your advertised phone number.

When someone calls your number at (555)555-5555 and asks for extension 55, youll know exactly which ad and what paper that call came from!

About the author:

Joe Bellshaw is the developer of the Online Classified Club. His web site publishes the largest list of free online classified ad sites and offers an impressive list of internet marketing tools. classifiedclub.com

:To contact see details below.


admaster@classifiedclub.com
http://www.classifiedclub.com