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.

Email

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.