e-dreaming

For decades advertising agencies have heralded their ability to approximate the size and demographics of the audience that would see or hear their clients' ads within any particular advertising venue (publication, station, etc.).  That ability is important in being able to compare costs for mass media advertising, and uses a common measurement called cost-per-thousand (CPM), or the cost for every thousand impressions (impressions being the number of folks that could hear or see that ad.)

But have you ever asked an ad man to tell you how well an ad actually worked (at bringing in new business, etc.) so that you, as the advertiser, could determine the return on your investment?  Too often, the job of determining ROI has fallen on the advertiser him/herself, by looking at fluctuations in total revenues over time, rather than getting any quantifiable data from your advertising agency.  And, truth is, on some level, the ad agency would rather the advertiser NOT know, because, especially these days, mass media often fails to deliver a good return on investment.

Today, if you are considering investing in advertising, you should be asking youself (and/or your prospective ad agency) how will we measure the success of this campaign? And if those responsible for placing those ads can't give you a good answer, STOP... and ask yourself why you are going to spend the money if you won't reasonably be able to determine how well it worked!  Because the truth is, today, you should be able to put measurement metrics in place, and have at least SOME ability to determine if your investment is paying off, for almost every form of advertising you could consider.