Some people may not respond to the ad until the following weekend (or later), and only then download your thirty day trial. So we're already looking at 35 days after the ad was first run, and that's assuming that they install the software as soon as they download it. Some people may even register after the trial has elapsed. So don't go writing it off as a failure on day two of your advertising campaign.

To accurately evaluate the success of the campaign, you need to go back to your original goals.

If your primary goal was to achieve a higher level of sales, then it should be reasonably easy to see how many were generated by the ad. As with everything related to advertising, your data won't be 100% accurate, but it should give you a good idea.

If the primary goal was increased exposure, then you should be looking at how many people were exposed to the ad, how many viewed the landing page content and website, and perhaps even downloaded and purchased the software.

At this point, there are four possible scenarios.

(1) The ad appears to be successful.

Your goals have been achieved as a direct result of the ad, and more advertising with this vendor may be considered for the future. Even with this success, don't rule out the fact that your figures can be further improved, but don't forget that they can worsen too.

You should also be careful not to immediately engage in a long-term contract with this vendor. Not only because there are other advertising options out there, but also because any ad has a certain lifespan until it reaches its saturation point. At the very least consider trying different products, wording (or graphics) or even a different type of offer or discount.

(2) The ad doesn't appear to be successful.

There has been little generated in terms of exposure or sales, and you can't help but feel that the venture has been a failure.

The first thing you have to do is to try to determine the reason for this.

It may be the product itself, the ad copy, the ad, or perhaps the targeting was off. It may even be as a result of the ad placement, or the offer or discount not being generous enough.

If the ad failed, it is very important to ascertain exactly why. Don't just dismiss it as a failure, or a "bad" place to advertise, and don't be afraid to go back to the vendor for feedback. If you explain that you're interested in making this work, as opposed to complaining that they didn't deliver the results you expected, you'll usually get a positive response. See what they can do to help, after all, it's in their interests that you walk away satisfied by your experience.

(3) The ad appears to break-even, but little more than this.

Go back and read number (2). Not being a success counts as a failure.

(4) You're not sure whether the ad was worthwhile or not.

There has been some response, but it's difficult to see whether it was a worthwhile experience or not.

It's very important that you get to the bottom of this. Go through your statistics again, and filter through your logs to see exactly what the visitors did, where they clicked, and why they behaved as they did.

It is extremely important that at the end of the process, you know whether it was worthwhile or not. Failure to do so will result either in a wastage of money or a wastage of opportunities.

It's all too easy to throw money away on bad advertising. It's just as easy to be scared-off by risks, or for that matter throw potential opportunities away. Like any form of marketing, there are no guarantees that you'll achieve the results you hope for. But by failing to try, you're absolutely guaranteed never to reach them. The best you can do is to prepare the ground and cover all options as thoroughly as possible, take a deep breath and then take the plunge. Be seen, be sold.

Copyright 2005 Dave Collins

About The Author

Dave Collins is the CEO of SharewarePromotions Ltd., a well established UK-based company working with software and shareware marketing activities, utilising all aspects of the internet. http://www.sharewarepromotions.com and http://www.davetalks.com