“So how much money did you spend on advertising last year?”, I asked a client.
My client showed me the overall dollar number. I whistled and said, “That’s a big chunk of change”.
“Yes”, she replied. “We keep it as a percentage of overall revenues.”
“Ok”, I said, “so which marketing vehicles produced the best results from a revenue standpoint? In other words, what’s working?”
A blank stare. “Not really sure, she replied.”
“Ok”, I said, “Let’s take your two biggest ad spends and see how much traffic they're actually driving to your website.“
“Oh, hold on”, she said, “I do have a report from the directory sales rep.” She showed me the report and said “Look at all the people searching for our company!”
“Fine”, I said, “But don’t you want to know how many people are actually coming to your website from this service? Isn’t that why you bought it in the first place?”
“Yes” she said.
“Well good news”, I said. “I’ve got your Google Analytics report here. It shows you what’s actually driving traffic to your website and what’s not.”
And so we looked at the numbers and she decided to scale back on those vehicles that weren’t working and increase dollars on those that were. It’s a simple strategy that will help you stop wasting money and become more effective with your advertising dollars.
It’s amazing what your website visitor data will tell you. But you have to look at it.
And if you need help making sense of the numbers, give us a call.