Assertaining ROI or determining your Visitor to Sales Ratio ...

Greetings List:)

While I think it is important to be able to calculate ones ROI with respect 
to advertising, it is also equally important to be able to distinguish 
between your sites Visitors to Leads Ratio, Your sites Sales to Leads Ratio 
and your ROI with respect to advertising.

Let me explain.

To understand my point, first redefine what it is you really want to 
know.  To simplify this task I have provided you with a list of selections.

a) I want to know how many visitors visit our site.
b) I want to know how many visitors are visiting as the result of a 
particular ad.
c) I want to know of our regular site visitors (non ad related), how many 
request more information.
d) I want to know how many visitors who visit as the result of an ad 
request more information.
e) I want to know how many site visitors contact us directly by telephone 
(inbound calls)
f)  I want to know how many of your visitors that visit as the result of an 
ad contact us by telephone (inbound calls)
g) I want to know how many people from those who actually visit our site, 
request additional info and then become clients (i.e., buy).
h) I want to know how many people from those who visit with us (as the 
result of an ad), request additional info and then become   clients (i.e., 
buy).

A site's Visitors to Leads ratio is the number of leads that are generated 
from the number of Visitors a site receives.  If you get 1000 unique 
visitors and as a result receive 100 leads then your Visitors to Leads 
Ratio is 10:1.  If one of your goals as outlined in your web strategy was 
to generate 1000 leads then you know you would have to attract 10000 unique 
visitors.

A site's Sales to Leads ratio is the number of Sales that result from the 
Leads one receives, understandably, not all leads close and you may be 
unable to capitalize on all your lead opportunities, as such, your sites 
Sales to Leads ratio will be even smaller than that of your Visitors to 
Leads Ratio.  If one of the goals in your web site strategy was to gain 50 
new clients or sell $XXXX.XX dollars worth of goods or services then you 
would have to attract XXXXXX visitors.

On the other hand, ROI calculations typically refer to the amount of 
revenue generated as a direct result of marketing/advertising initiatives 
less the cost of those same activities/initiatives.  If people visit your 
site as the result of an ad or promotion and don't request more information 
or buy does this mean the ad failed?  I would think that if people visit 
your site as the result of seeing or hearing an ad, then the ad worked.

If on the other hand, you failed in your attempt to have these same 
visitors ask for additional information or buy anything then this is a 
whole other problem.  Failure to stimulate the outcome you desire from site 
visitors once they are at your site is a far more complex issue and is 
related directly to the content of your site and/or the way you have 
elected to organize the material.  If you failed to "sell" them, I would 
guess your content is weak.  A solid first step to correcting this would be 
to review your web site's copy.

Lastly, the only way you'll be able to begin getting a clearer picture as 
to the number of visitors you are obtaining through advertising is 
to  promote a slightly different URL in each of your ads and measure from 
there.


Regards,


Simon Rolfe, Senior Partner
Creative Genius Communications
ideas(at)creativegenius.ca

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