It’s not enough to get a pile of money and just throw it towards advertising.  The sad fact of the matter is many companies do just that.  When you ask them what their most profitable means of advertising is, they can usually tell you what media works the best for them but, they can’t give you exact numbers.  The nice thing about using the internet to test your advertising is: you can cut off the campaigns that are not making you a profit and take the money saved to invest in areas that you know are profitable.

Here’s an example for you, say that we are using Google ads to drive traffic to our website.  You’re a diligent person and you’ve found 1000 keywords that match your market and should bring you some targeted web traffic.  You setup the ad and let it run (on a strict budget of course) using those 1000 keywords.  At the end of the week you look at your advertising campaign and figure out that you are ahead so you keep the ads running, taking home this meager profit.  The ads have yielded a decent Return on Investment (ROI), keep them running right?
  

Yes definitely keep them running!  However, how do you know what keywords are converting into sales?  The short answer is you don’t and it’s costing you money.

Here’s what I would do, yes I know that it takes time but it will be worth it in the end:

Setup a tracking link for EVERY KEYWORD, it takes time but you will glean information that others will not have!  After a few weeks you will notice that some keywords convert into sales frequently and most do not.  Some of the keywords that you advertise under will not convert at all but will still cost you money.

Now, all that you have to do is drop the keywords that are not converting from your campaign and you are instantly bettering yourself.  Take the money that you are saving and bump up the cost that you will pay per click on keywords that are converting well and you have effectively raised your sales without spending any more money per month.

Some of the keywords that you advertise under will not convert at all but will still cost you money.Another advantage of using this tactic is you can often take a campaign that is losing money and break even or even turn a profit.  If you can get users to your site and build a list of sales leads while breaking even on your sales you are actually way ahead because you have built an asset for your company!

You ARE collecting sales leads aren’t you?  I’ll save that subject for another day…