This certainly doesn't mean the desired action should necessarily blink, bounce or do flips, but it should be visible within an accepted format for the media you're using. In the case of the Internet, underlined text links, "click here" text entry boxes, and pull-down menus are all ways you can make the desired action clearly visible.
Step 7: Design the ad so it looks like it belongs on the sites where you're advertising
For instance, you may want to use the site's font faces in your text, color schemes in your background, font color choices overall, and emulate images where appropriate. Try to conform to the environment so potential customers visiting the site don't gasp in shock when they see your ad.
Step 8: Produce multiple versions of each ad
Create three or four versions of each ad, changing the promotional message, call-to-action, font faces and color schemes. This is especially important if you're doing price testing or gauging reaction to specific promotions. By splitting your advertising buy among the various versions of your creative, you can then start to optimize your buy based on the message that works best.
4.6 Advanced Ad Tracking
The need for an Ad Tracking program
There are two main factors that make an ad effective – content of the ad and the sites where it is advertised. Most experts would agree that constant testing and experimenting is the only way to ensure that you get the right combination. However, the question arises – How do you test your ads? An integral part of any advertising campaign is knowing which ads bring you the most visitors. After all, you may have banner ads, newsgroups ads, ads in newsletters and articles, ads in autoresponders, or a simple classified ad on a website.
Every marketer can only benefit by knowing:
which of the ads received the best response
whether free classified sites are worth the effort
which newsletters are the most profitable
how a sponsored newsletter ad compares to the standard one
whether animated banners are better than static ones
how effective are your email ads
does the ad at the start of an newsletter or article outperform the one at the end
Ad Tracking programs would answer all of these questions. They can help you analyze the effectiveness of every single ad and hence they should be an integral part of every marketing campaign. At the basic level an ad tracking program records when your URL has been clicked. It can detect where your visitor came from (the referring URL), the browser and operating system and the exact time. It can record total hits and unique hits (i.e. where one visitor may click several times). This data is kept in the system so you can then pull off reports on any ad campaign over any period e.g. by month, day or even by hour.
Types of Ad Tracking tools
There are two types of Ad Tracking programs. However, the operation of both these types is the same.
CGI Script
You purchase these programs outright and it is installed on your site. If you have some technical knowledge you should be able to install it yourself otherwise the supplier will charge an installation fee. There are certain minimum software requirements for programs which run on your site, including access to the cgi-bin. Hence, most free sites would not be able to install CGI scripts. However, with CGI scripts your tracking URL's carry your own domain name.
CGI Script
