How to track effectiveness of print campaigns?

Unlike Google Adwords or any online ad buys in general, how do people track effectiveness of a magazine ad? Are there some strategies you can use to figure out which print ad is working the best (A/B split testing print ads).

Offline Marketing Print Media

asked Feb 6 '14 at 22:05

Geraldine Wilson
21 points

1 Answer

Most of what I've seen is using custom links or phone numbers for each major ad variation / publication. http://oursite.com/economist, http://oursite.com/newyorker, etc.

If you're targeting an audience that will use QR codes, that gives you even more options as you can put a link with multiple parameters into the QR code:

http://oursite.com/?utm_source=economist_2nd_ad&utm_medium=magazine&utm_content=savings_value_prop&utm_campaign=OurSiteMagazineTest

http://oursite.com/?utm_source=economist_backpage_ad&utm_medium=magazine&utm_content=ego_value_prop&utm_campaign=OurSiteMagazineTest

The other popular strategy is to include a coupon code or other specific offer that varies by ad version / publication. Tracking requires some more manual entry / setup on your part, but it gets done regardless of if they go to a specific URL or reach your site by Googling you after seeing your ad.

answered Feb 7 '14 at 14:58

Jay Neely
6,050 points

+1 For the coupon code strategy. People might not type in the full distinguishing url, but they're far more likely to use the coupon code. – Chrissie Gray 10 years ago

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