{"id":112854,"date":"2012-07-25T21:29:00","date_gmt":"2012-07-26T02:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/the-best-kind-of-test-one-where-we-give-you-the-answers-2\/"},"modified":"2024-12-21T05:54:11","modified_gmt":"2024-12-21T10:54:11","slug":"the-best-kind-of-test-one-where-we-give-you-the-answers-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/en-gb\/insights\/blog\/search-optimization\/the-best-kind-of-test-one-where-we-give-you-the-answers-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Kind of Test\u2013One Where We Give You the Answers!"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Internet emerged as a new media outlet<\/a>, one of the elements that no doubt set it apart from traditional media was its reporting capabilities.\u00a0 While popular media like radio, TV, and newspapers could merely estimate usage by consumers, none of them could provide concrete statistics<\/a> on how many people actually interacted with an ad.\u00a0 The immediate, built-in tracking capabilities of online advertising is a godsend for advertisers who previously weren\u2019t sure what was working for them.\u00a0 There still may be the question of how many clicks convert to customers, but it\u2019s a step in the right direction.<\/p>\n

As great as that is, however, it still may not be the whole story.\u00a0 Whether you\u2019re advertising online or in print, you\u2019re most likely using a phone number, as well.\u00a0 If you\u2019re not tracking that phone number, you\u2019re not seeing the full picture.\u00a0 Calls coming into that number are most likely the leads with the best potential for a sale, as the customer made the decision to select your ad and make a connection.\u00a0 In order to find out the full impact of advertising, it\u2019s important to test everything.<\/p>\n

In order to have a clean test, it\u2019s vital to utilise a unique phone number that\u2019s used exclusively in the tested ad.\u00a0 The placement could be in print Yellow Pages, Internet Yellow Pages, as part of a digital program, or even in other media that support a campaign.\u00a0 By using a unique number in a single ad, it\u2019s immediately clear how many calls that ad drew.\u00a0 From there, conversion factors can be applied to estimate return on investment and\/or cost per lead.<\/p>\n

Using a unique number can be especially helpful if you\u2019re trying to see how many calls are coming into a certain Print Yellow Pages heading, or if you\u2019re comparing two placements.\u00a0 For example, print Yellow Pages publishers provide \u201csplit run\u201d directories in some markets, where two slightly different versions of directories are distributed to the market.\u00a0 If each directory includes a different ad, you can see which ad size or content drove more calls within the same context.\u00a0 Armed with that knowledge next year, you can run an ad with the confidence that it\u2019s your best option.\u00a0 Sometimes advertisers want to use the same number in their primary heading as well as a minor heading, but spending a few extra bucks on a separate number for the smaller heading can confirm if it\u2019s even worth having an ad there.\u00a0 If it is drawing calls, great\u2026 and if not, the small investment in an additional line could save significant money down the road.<\/p>\n

Sometimes testing has the potential to change an advertiser\u2019s entire philosophy.\u00a0 We recently had one client who has traditionally used a toll-free number in their advertising, and we encouraged them to do a test using both a toll-free line and a local number since we knew from past testing that customers generally prefer local numbers<\/a>.\u00a0 As it turns out, more than two-thirds of the calls to the test lines have been made to the local numbers, and without the test, the client might never have realised the impact of including a local option.<\/p>\n

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