Testing and Tracking Your Marketing Strategies

Developing and implementing a strategic marketing plan is an

essential part of your success. However, unless you’re

testing and tracking your strategies, you may be losing a

great deal of time and money.

You can dramatically increase your sales simply by taking

the time to test and track your results. Not only will it

help you to determine what’s working and what’s not, but it

will also enable you to focus your efforts on the strategies

that produce results.

When testing your marketing strategies, keep in mind, a

strategy that produces results for one person may not

produce results for you. There is no ’set in stone’ strategy

that works for everyone. You must develop your own style and

technique and test your results to determine what works for

you. Below are some ad tracking resources to assist you in

your testing and tracking endeavors.

Ad Tracking CGI Scripts

LnkinLite

http://www.dtp-aus.com/cgiscript/lnkinlte.shtml

If you’re looking for a simple way to track clickthroughs,

then LnkinLite may be your answer. This free script will

enable you to easily keep track of the number of clicks a

specific link receives. Instead of using your standard link

within your advertising, you can use a link created by this

script. It will track the number of clickthroughs and

instantly redirect your visitors to your URL.

Willmaster’s ProLinkz http://www.prolinkz.com/

This powerful script is a link creator, tracker, disguiser

and manager all in one. It will enable you to create

uniquely coded links that redirect to any URL you specify

and count all hits and referrers. Cost - $45.00

AdTrackZ

http://www.adtrackz.com/

This script will enable you to set up an entire ad tracking

campaign including statistical reports for referring URLs,

what browsers your visitors have installed, what operating

systems your visitors are using and much more. Cost - $47.00

Ad Tracking Services

LinkCounter http://www.linkcounter.com

A free service that tracks the clickthrough rates of your

links. In addition to tracking your links, LinkCounter hides

the URL of the link destination. This will prevent users

from removing or changing your affiliate ID when visiting an

affiliate site through your link.

HyperTracker

http://www.hypertracker.com

The PRO version of HyperTracker contains a number of

advanced features including: unlimited advertising

campaigns, tracking of sales and actions, special scripts

that let you promote your own website address in your

campaigns and much more. Cost - Starting at $10.95 mo. They

also offer a free version.

Adminder

http://www.adminder.com

An online tracking system that will enable you to track an

entire advertising campaign. It will enable you to see how

many visitors were generated by each of your ads, keep track

of sales that were generated by each ad and calculates the

cost-per-click, cost-per-sale, and click-to-sale ratios for

each ad. Cost - $19.95 mo. (for a limited time)

ROIbot

http://www.roibot.com

ROIbot is a complete collection of tools for increasing your

“Return on Investment.” One of their many tools is the

ROIbot Ad Tracker. This powerful system will enable you to

track your clickthroughs, where they come from, what browser

your visitors are using, what operating system, and more.

Cost - $17.00 mo.

Statcruncher

http://www.Statcruncher.com

Statcruncher tracks and reports exactly which ads, banners

and links are producing results. They provide you with

access to their powerful web-tracking system that will

enable you to track your ad campaigns 24 hours a day in real

time. Cost - $49.00 yr.

If you’d rather not use any of the products and services

listed above, you can use some alternative methods. Below

are some example tracking methods you can use to track your

response rates:

URL

You can track your ads simply by adding some special coding

to your URL. To code your URL, add a question mark followed

by a special tracking code to the end of your web address.

Your coded link will still open your web page. Your code

should look something like this:

http://www.yourdomain.com/?ad1

The text after the question mark should identify a specific

ad. You can code it however you’d like.

To view your results, you’ll need to look at your log files.

Your code will be displayed within your log files beside

your URL.

You can track your email responses to specific ads by using

the email subject. Select a specific word to be placed

within the email subject for each ad. Although you can

request that a certain word be placed within the email

subject, many times it won’t be supplied. To avoid this

problem, you can create a special email link that will

automatically fill in the subject when clicked on. Your link

should look something like this:

mailto:you@yourdomain.com?subject=ad1

Testing and tracking your strategies is an essential part of

doing business. By concentrating your efforts on strategies

that produce results, you can not only increase your sales,

but you’ll also save yourself a great deal of time and

money.

About the Author:

Shelley Lowery is the author of Web Design Mastery - Learn

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