Don't Overreact to Your Marketing Stats

by 12 replies
15
No matter what forum I'm at, I read threads where newbies are freaking out, because their marketing stats aren't performing up to their expectations. That's because in most cases, they haven't given their marketing campaign enough time to actually work, before they start making all sorts of wholesale changes.

For example, many newbies start bouncing off walls when they don't get a few conversions out of every 100-200 click-thrus. Here's why you shouldn't panic. There are far too many variables involved to be able to gauge whether or not a marketing campaign is working after only a couple hundred click-thrus. Not the least of which is traffic quality, and the competency of your marketing materials. I always tell my clients, wait until you've received a minimum of 1000-2000 click-thru's, before you make any adjustments. Here's why: It's possible you might not get a single sale in the first 100-200 click-thru's. But in the next 100-200 click-thru's, you could get 10 sales. That's marketing. You just never know in which batch of hundreds those sales are going to be in. Again, assuming everything else is in order. That's why it's important not to overreact.

Also, when you do need to make adjustments to your marketing materials, don't change everything all at once. Make one or two changes at a time, and carefully monitor those changes to see if they improve results, before you make any additional changes. Here's why: If you change everything in one fell swoop, you won't know with any degree of certainty which changes were responsible for the improved results. For example, sometimes, just changing the headline of your ad or sales letter, and nothing else, can improve conversions significantly.

One last thing...don't worry about traffic fluctuation. Traffic goes up, traffic goes down. It could be because of the season, weekend, holidays, summer vacations...a variety of things. Don't worry about the peaks and valley's. The main thing you want to look for is consistency. That's why when you read your stats, it's important to look for patterns and trends.

Again, the key is not to overreact. Because many times when you think there's a problem, there isn't one.

David Jackson
#main internet marketing discussion forum #marketing #overreact #stats
  • David you are absolutely correct, however, you have to understand that the overreaction is all a part of the newbie learning curve. Sound advice anyway but unrealistic to think the total newbs are going to heed it.
    • [1] reply
    • keadams26, I realize not every newbie is going to heed my advice. That would indeed be unrealistic. But whenever I give advice in a forum setting, I have one goal, and one goal only. If just one person takes advantage of my knowledge and experience, the thread will have served its purpose.

      David Jackson
  • David, I try to explain this to my people constantly but some just don't get
    it. Testing and tracking takes time.

    From my own personal experience, I've found I can get a pretty good handle
    on things between 500 and 1,000 clicks. Some campaigns though fool me.

    They'll start out like a house on fire and then peter out as the months go
    by, usually because the competition has gotten out of control (think MOMU)
    and I didn't do enough tweaking and extra work necessary to keep up.

    But just because something starts out slowly doesn't mean it's going to be
    a failure. You need to learn patience.

    Ah yes...patience.

    My father in law has a saying about patience.

    "Patience is a virtue given by God and abused by man."

    How true.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Steven, proper testing and tracking does take time. The problem is we live in an "instant gratification" society. So most newbies don't want to take the time and effort necessary to do any testing at all. To be fair, a lot of veterans don't either. Many marketers just want to run a bunch of ads, and make a bunch of money, without having to do any type of real work. If only it were that easy.

      Wanna know what the real irony is? The real irony is proper testing and tracking can actually improve your conversions, and as a result, increase your income. So it's worth the extra effort!

      David Jackson
  • I was looking at some of my PPC campaigns and thinking how I can get better conversions, costs are ridiculous
    • [1] reply
    • Getting better conversions is every marketers goal - something we're always striving for. At least, it should be!

      David Jackson
  • Great tips David. Even as a fairly experienced marketer I still find myself looking at some of my affiliate campaigns and I seem to get into "tweak and damage control" mode before I even give a campaign a chance to work.

    This really should be one the basics for internet marketing, but so many people forget it, including myself from time to time!
    • [1] reply
    • Thanks, Matt. Sometimes we all need to be reminded of the basics from time to time...newbie or otherwise.

      David Jackson
      • [1] reply
  • Look on the positive side. You'll eventually realise that poor short-term numbers probably means more conversions to come quite soon.

    Meaning, if you have a consistent conversion rate and/or visitor value and things go down for a short time, they'll balance out in the longer term.

    I think of it as the "pressure" of the incoming traffic is eventually going to push conversions/visitor value back to their "comfort zone".

    Cheers,

    Neil
  • I'm fairly new in this game and traffic is not my strong point at the moment (working on it), but when I started with IM I promised myself that I'm going to check my stats once a week only (Kay King) and since then I've managed to keep it that way. In one of my niches (a tough one) I consistently make 1 sale a week for the past 4 months. Appreciate all your input - so I learn from the best.
    • [1] reply
    • You're quite welcome. All the best!

      David Jackson
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    Don't Overreact to Your Marketing Stats

    No matter what forum I'm at, I read threads where newbies are freaking out, because their marketing stats aren't performing up to their expectations. That's because in most cases, they haven't given their marketing campaign enough time to actually work, before they start making all sorts of wholesale changes. For example, many newbies start bouncing off walls when they don't get a few conversions out of every 100-200 click-thrus. Here's why you shouldn't panic. There are far too many variables involved to be able to gauge whether or not a marketing campaign is working after only a couple hundred click-thrus. Not the least of which is traffic quality, and the competency of your marketing materials. I always tell my clients, wait until you've received a minimum of 1000-2000 click-thru's, before you make any adjustments. Here's why: It's possible you might not get a single sale in the first 100-200 click-thru's. But in the next 100-200 click-thru's, you could get 10 sales. That's marketing. You just never know in which batch of hundreds those sales are going to be in. Again, assuming everything else is in order. That's why it's important not to overreact.