Tracking your online media efforts

Banner ads are an excellent way to determine if your affiliate marketing efforts are paying off. In my opinion, the ideal way to track banner ads is to gather the number of metrics to the site before the banner ad is launched. First, the issue of content on the landing page from the banner ad should be discussed thoroughly. It should definitely answer the “so what?” question by giving the visitor the information they need at the right time. This landing page should also focus on cross-selling—finding out what other related information you can provide that could be relevant to the visitor. This will definitely keep the visitor engaged and motive them to peruse the site. The content on this page should be A/B split tested to see what engages customers the most. Google provides an excellent website optimizer to gauge what will keep customers clicking!

Second, it would be helpful to benchmark here. By gathering statistics (either from on-hand or online), you have a target goal in mind and should be able to monitor whether the tests are going successfully or if the tests are failing.

Once the ad debuts, gather the tracking to the landing page and track the bounce rate to see if the landing page was engaging enough to motivate the visitor to peruse the site further. If the landing page has a high bounce rate, then it is a good idea to review the content and really determine if the content is valuable. If the landing page has a low bounce rate, it is still a good idea to view the reports and see what links were clicked on the most. This helps the marketer know exactly what content to push out more.