The previous article examined some of the basic ideas involved in advertising. We looked at why a company may want to advertise, the factors involved in choosing a suitable venue also the costs also time involved. We or else explored some of the practicalities to consider also how to research your potential venue.

Once you've chosen where you're going to advertise, the next critical factor will be how well you know the target audience. The more information that you have to hand, the better you can tailor your content around their needs also expectations.

You need to make sure that you speak in their language, try to give them what they're already used to, or grab their attention with something new. But be warned, these are pushy also innovative times. Whatever gimmick or spin you use to stand out may well have been tried many times before, so don't over-rely on it.

Like a good informative web page, the ad needs to first of all catch their attention, also compel them to click on it.

There should be more focus on the benefits of the software than the features, also the ad should really push the download or sale. It should or else be as compelling also striking as possible - not easy when you're limited by a number of characters, file size or space to work with!

Bear in mind that like any strategy, your advertising will only be as strong as its weakest link. Don't spend thousands of dollars on good placement, only to use some awful home-created banner that you knocked together with Paint Shop Pro four three years ago.

If graphic design is not your strong point, then get a firm to design some decent graphics for you. The same goes with writing the ad copy. Most people can write, however few are writers. Try to make sure that someone with more than a thesaurus-dictionary gift set writes your copy for you.

Aside from the wording, the basic market principles apply. Grab their attention, tempt them, also compel them to act. "50% discount" is eye catching, as is some form of "only valid today" type of offer.

But when the potential customer clicks on your ad, you're only half way there. You now need to make sure that the page they land on carries on the good work. Realistically, many will click on the ad out of idle curiosity, also very few (if any) will have made up their minds to purchase already.

You should therefore use a separate landing page, as opposed to your regular main website page. It should contain the same information also use the same language, tone also focus of the ad, however now you're not restricted as to what you can do, or how much space you have to work with. Here, you have all the space you need to go all-out with the sales drive.

On a technical level, make sure that your landing page is not linked from anywhere in your website, so as to ensure that everyone coming to this page has been driven there by the ad.

If you're sharing a landing page, then at least make sure that you use a unique referral string. To be able to evaluate the success of the ad, it's critical that you can distinguish these visitors from the regular site visitors.

This brings us neatly onto the subject of tracking, without which you are effectively deaf, dumb also blind to the effects of the ad. A unique landing page on your website is ideal, also if possible, make this point to a separate payment page as well. You can or else use cookies or referral strings in order to sharpen the accuracy of the tracking.

Usage of decent web log analysis software should let you see how many people came to the landing page, how long they spent there, which links they then clicked on, who downloaded from there, who purchased, also perhaps even who came back to the website later.

The analysis also follow-up of the campaign is surprisingly often completely overlooked. This is a great loss, as in some respects this is one of the most important stages of the whole process.

When it comes to gauging the level of generated sales also registrations, you need to take into account the final date of the ad, plus the full length of the trial version also then add a little extra time. Some may view the ad, click, download the software, however may not install it for a few days or even longer.

As an example, a company may choose to run a series of ads in a newsletter that is sent out from Monday to Friday of a given week.

Some people may not respond to the ad until the following weekend (or later), also only then download your thirty day trial. So we're already looking at 35 days after the ad was first run, also that is assuming that they install the software as soon as they download it. Some people may even register after the trial has elapsed. So don't go writing it off as a failure on day two of your advertising campaign.

To accurately evaluate the success of the campaign, you need to go back to your original goals.

If your primary goal was to achieve a higher level of sales, then it should be reasonably easy to see how many were generated by the ad. As with everything related to advertising, your data will not be 100% accurate, however it should give you a good idea.

If the primary goal was increased exposure, then you should be looking at how many people were exposed to the ad, how many viewed the landing page content also website, also perhaps even downloaded also purchased the software.

At this point, there are four possible scenarios.

(1) The ad appears to be successful.

Your goals have been achieved as a direct result of the ad, also more advertising with this vendor may be considered for the future. Even with this success, don't rule out the fact that your figures can be further improved, however don't forget that they can worsen too.

You should or else be careful not to immediately engage in a long-term contract with this vendor. Not only because there are other advertising options out there, however or else because any ad has a certain lifespan until it reaches its saturation point. At the very least consider trying different products, wording (or graphics) or even a different type of offer or discount.

(2) The ad does not appear to be successful.

There has been little generated in terms of exposure or sales, also you can't help however feel that the venture has been a failure.

The first thing you have to do is to try to determine the reason for this.

It may be the product itself, the ad copy, the ad, or perhaps the targeting was off. It may even be as a result of the ad placement, or the offer or discount not being generous enough.

If the ad failed, it is very important to ascertain exactly why. Don't just dismiss it as a failure, or a "bad" place to advertise, also don't be afraid to go back to the vendor for feedback. If you explain that you're interested in making this work, as opposed to complaining that they didn't deliver the results you expected, you will usually get a positive response. See what they can do to help, after all, it's in their interests that you walk away satisfied by your experience.

(3) The ad appears to break-even, however little more than this.

Go back also read number (2). Not being a success counts as a failure.

(4) You are not sure whether the ad was worthwhile or not.

There has been some response, however it's difficult to see whether it was a worthwhile experience or not.

It is very important that you get to the bottom of this. Go through your statistics again, also filter through your logs to see exactly what the visitors did, where they clicked, also why they behaved as they did.

It is extremely important that at the end of the process, you know whether it was worthwhile or not. Failure to do so will result either in a wastage of money or a wastage of opportunities.

It is all too easy to throw money away on bad advertising. It is just as easy to be scared-off by risks, or for that matter throw potential opportunities away. Like any form of marketing, there are no guarantees that you will achieve the results you hope for. But by failing to try, you're absolutely guaranteed never to reach them. The best you can do is to prepare the ground also cover all options as thoroughly as possible, take a deep breath also then take the plunge. Be seen, be sold.

Copyright 2005 Dave Collins

About The Author

Dave Collins is the CEO of SharewarePromotions Ltd., a well established UK-based company working with software also shareware marketing activities, utilising all aspects of the internet. http://www.sharewarepromotions.com also http://www.davetalks.com