What Metrics Do You Use to Identify a Successful Print Ad? [Poll Results]

Where are you advertising your company? Is it through email marketing, online measures, social media platforms, print ads, guerrilla methods or events?

Comprising a marketing plan and budget with a mix of the above is effective in capturing leads in a plethora of ways. Adding to the effectiveness of your marketing plan is measuring how well your different ads perform.

In this case, let's talk print advertising. We asked our network what metrics do you use to identify a successful print ad?

Respondents were able to choose from the following:

  • Phone calls
  • Website visits
  • Audience reach
  • Coupon/special offer redemptions
  • Mix of the above
  • Other

Through our results, 44% of respondents use phone calls to identify a successful print ad while 39% use a mix of phone calls, website visits, audience reach and coupon/special offer redemptions.

Keeping track of how well your ad performs is crucial in making sure you're getting your ROI. 

Here are four ways to help you measure your print ad's success:

  • Include a unique phone number and email address in the print ad. This will help directly tie any phone calls and emails you specifically receive from the ad. 
  • If you don't want to create a unique phone number or email address, always ask how the lead found out about your company/promotion. Remember, this can be tricky as leads can correlate their most recent encounter with your business to where they found out about you. For instance, they might've seen your print ad first and then checked out your website. Ask clear questions like, "Did you happen to see our ad in XYZ?"
  • Include a trackable website link in the print ad, such as a bit.ly link. You can go even further by creating a landing page that continues your potential customer's journey from the print ad. 
  • Create a different coupon/special offer for the print ad versus including the same one you have in all of your other marketing promotions.

Lastly, it's important for marketers to understand that print advertising generates brand recognition. Though this is difficult to directly measure, it's valuable as people are more willing to do business with a brand they know and trust compared to one they're unfamiliar with. 

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