Marketing Profs

Thanks to technology, you've got a big file of data available for your review and analysis. But what to do with all those numbers? How do you change them into English? How do you help them tell you a story about an advertising campaign?

Search engine advertising tools like Google AdWords have helped many a business see a leap in numbers, but few have found the magic formula for measuring success.

Read on for valuable suggestions from our readers about making metrics work for your organization.

Show me the numbers

We're a small company, and one of our challenges is creating metrics to help us ascertain how well our advertising and marketing efforts work. A few advertising campaigns we currently have in progress include a search-engine-results-page text ad, newspaper ad, email newsletter ad, and an event sponsorship. What are the methods for measuring the effectiveness of an advertising campaign, and which is best?

—Marisol, Marketing Assistant

Don't drown in data. Instead, start small with these three steps:

1. Review your business model and objectives

2. Keep your metrics simple

3. Assign a unique identifier for every campaign