It's the Online Advertising Objective, not the method!

If you talk to one group of people, they are all about the clicks.  Talk to another and they only want to talk about leads, another…sales, others…impressions.  Talk to me and I’ll tell you that it depends…upon your online advertising objective. 

Impressions are a ridiculous stat that doesn’t mean a whole lot, but if you want to be seen and you get a really, really good rate, it might be worth advertising that way.  Clicks are a way to measure response to an ad, but some ads don’t drive clicks.  Additionally, clicks don’t take into account the exposure to a business that didn’t result in a click.  On the other hand, if someone does click do I just want traffic, or do I want someone to buy?  Leads are great, but do you have the tools to track the effectiveness of the leads, is your business suited to a lead and then a phone sale?  Sales are a fantastic way to measure the actual result of an ad, and in a business where sales are the objective, it is a great way to reduce your risk to near zero.  Sure, paying for advertising based upon sales will cost more per sale, but at least the cost is fixed. 

The truth is, all of the different options work.  There is no best way.  The education industry buys leads and they are proud of it.  They have everything down to a science they track each lead—who provided the lead (checking for quality of a lead generator), percentage of leads that can be reached by phone, the percentage of those reached that come for a tour, the percentage of those that fill out an application, then those that fill out student loan paperwork, then finally those that show up and actually pay.  They pay less to bad lead generators and more to better ones.

In the end, you have to match up the online advertising objective with an ad that will get the desired result and then pay for the advertising in the manner that works for you and the entity you are paying for advertising.  When it all is done right, everyone is happy.  Most of the time either the objective, the ad, or the method of payment is adjusted to get the desired result for an agreeable price.

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