Print Ads Are Trackable!

Shweiki Media Printing Company is excited to announce that they’ve once again teamed up with Ryan Dohrn—founder of Brain Swell Media, Publisher of Sales Training World, and creator of the 360 Ad Sales Training system taught to over 4,000 sales people around the globe —to talk about print ads.

Are you tired of hearing that print ads or offline marketing is not trackable?  Me too.  In nearly all of my ad sales training workshops I hear the above as one of the most common objections from advertisers.  So, here is the answer.

8 Tips to Maximize Your Print Ad Buy

  1. The person that answers the phone at your office is NOT the best person to track your print ad response.  A research study performed in 2014 showed that “64% of incoming calls, tracked over a four month print ad campaign, resulted in no question being asked about the advertising source.“
  2. Be sure to run a unique web site address in each different print ad that you run. These are called “Vanity URL’s.”  For example, BobJones.com is your main web site.  Go to GoDaddy.com and register another dot come name like, BobJonesChevy.com to run in print ad #1 and GoBobJones.com to run in print ad#2.   After you register your Vanity URL, you will need to follow some very specific instructions.  Those are located at the end of this blog.
  3. DO NOT use a dot com name like, BobJones.com/BlueMag . This will fail almost every time!
  4. Be sure to run a unique tracking phone number in each ad.  Call tracking numbers have been around for years.  Sure, phone volume is way down these days, but tracking your calls from print ads is super easy.  Companies like CallRail.com can offer you this service for as low as $30 per month.  Or, a cheaper route is to buy a TracPhone® from Walmart®.   If you truly want to know who is calling from your print ad, put your cell number in the ad.  Why not?  Are you afraid you will get calls?
  5. Track your Google® analytics. Everything a user does is tracked in your Google® Analytics.  Most business owners just do not fully understand how to read their Google® Analytics.  Other than Google®, traditional media, like print, is the second best way to drive traffic to your web site.  Be sure to track when your print campaign started and ended in GA.  You will almost always see a lift in web site traffic during a print campaign.  Be sure to filter out all the other things you are doing online to see the best result.
  6. Run unique content in each ad. Ad agencies are notorious for running the exact same ad in multiple magazines.  Do NOT do this.  Instead, feature different content in each print ad to better gauge results.  It can be as simple as changing the color of the product you feature or the image in the ad.  Do something to give you a chance to see the results.
  7. Spend time checking your marketing results.  This is imperative, so ask your media sales rep for help.  It’s your money… track it.
  8. QR codes. While not the rage as they were intended, why not.  Feature a unique offer to readers willing to scan the QR code that is pointed to a unique landing page and offer on your web site.  Free QR code: http://www.qr-code-generator.com

As promised, here are the VERY specific instructions on how to set-up your Vanity URL so that Google Analytics can read it.

  1. Buy Your Vanity URL: I recommend buying your vanity URL from GoDaddy as they offer quality phone support.
  1. Create A Trackable URL:

Visit Google’s URL Builder tool: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033867

Enter your real website URL (not your vanity URL) where it says “Website URL”

Under “Source,” add where people are coming from (ex. mailer)

Under “Medium,” add the type of marketing it is (ex. print)

Under “Name,” add something specific (ex. “50percentoff” – do not add spaces between words)

Click “Submit”

Copy that URL to your clipboard

  1. Forward or Redirect Trackable URL to Real URL:
    Log into Godaddy.com or the site where you bought the vanity URL, open the account settings for that URL, and in the “redirect” or “forward to” option, paste in the URL you generated with Google’s URL Builder. Do not make this a site alias as an A record or C name.
  1. Test It! And, learn to set up a report in Google Analytics.

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Ryan Dohrn

Ryan Dohrn, CEO of Brain Swell Media LLC

Ryan Dohrn is an Emmy award winning TV producer, has overseen over 3,000 Web site builds, is a nationally acclaimed speaker, has been featured in USA Today, on ABC, CBS and FOX TV stations, on Forbes.com and has personally impacted millions of dollars in online and related media revenues for media companies large and small.

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