What Does Ad Tracking Do and Is It Worth Investing In?

Editing and designing creative copies is one of many things to help you achieve your ad goals. So, what’s the other thing that will help you create an effective ad campaign for your business? The answer is ad tracking.

Ad tracking is a process that will help you understand what impacts your advertising channel has, and whether it is hit-or-miss. Earlier, when people used advertising, the ROI wasn’t something that they would focus on (talking about before the 1900s). The term ROI wasn’t even familiar.

But now, ROI is the heart of an ad campaign. So to get the maximum ROI (return on investment) ad tracking is important. In this article, we will learn more about ad tracking and if it is worth investing in, let’s move ahead!

What is Ad Tracking?

Ad tracking is a process of monitoring the effectiveness of online advertising campaigns and measuring performance metrics, such as click-throughs, impressions, and conversions. It allows advertisers to track how many people have seen their ads, how many clicked on them, and even which ones converted into customers or leads.

It also helps marketers improve the targeting of their ads, optimize their budget allocation for different campaigns, and increase ROI. With ad tracking, businesses can gain valuable insights about their target audiences and use these insights to make more informed decisions about future campaigns.

Why should you invest in ad tracking?

As said, it is a powerful tool for businesses to track the performance of their digital advertising campaigns. Let’s understand why you should invest in ad tracking!

1. Paid ads supplements organic performance

No matter what Google says, it’s proven that paid ads do supplement organic search. Multiple brands have seen a boost in organic search after their ad campaign.

And this isn’t the case with SERPs only, the same thing applies to social media too. Once you go for the paid ads, you will see significant organic exposure to the targeted audience. You will be able to get an idea about this if you invest in ad tracking!

2. Get valuable insights about your target audience

When you track your ads, you get valuable insights into your targeted audience as to how they are behaving, what they are expecting, and much more. Having such deeper information about the target audience, you can provide them with a personalized experience.

3. Improves ROIs

No one wants to spend money relentlessly and with no expectation of results on anything, even if it is an ad campaign. With ad tracking, you can dive deeper and create ads that your target audience will click on! Ultimately, it will help in improved ROIs.

4. Helps in creating better ad campaigns

When you know what works for your target audience and what not, you can create and shape a better ad campaign. Running ads that are created and directed at your target audience providing the exact solution will get you definite results.

5. Integrate marketing efforts across platforms and channels

Today, no brand or business focuses on only one platform for marketing. Multi-channel advertising is picking up the pace. And when you advertise or market your brand on different platforms, it is necessary to keep track as well, which is kind of tedious.

That is when the ad tracking comes to your rescue. With an ad tracking platform, you can track the result of your campaign on different platforms. After that, leverage those results in improving marketing efforts on all platforms altogether.

What can you track with ad tracking?

Now that you know about the benefits of ad tracking, let’s see what you can track with it. As a marketer, you might have multiple channels for running advertising and marketing campaigns. However, tracking them is equally important. Then let’s look at what ad tracking can do for you.

• Paid Ads (Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Bing Ads, etc.)
• Partners’ advertisements (affiliate marketing and referral marketing)
• E-mails
• SMS campaigns
• Direct Placement
• Programmatic Channels

Tracking ads on these channels needs a different approach, but still, it is essential for your marketing efforts. After that, how does it work? How about we learn about it next?

How does ad tracking work?

Knowing what ad tracking isn’t enough to formulate the ideal campaign or knowing if ad tracking is worth inventing! You need to know how it works and what different tools help you in tracking ads. Let’s see what are they:

1. Tracking link

A tracking link is a URL consisting of tracking parameters or identifiers that help you track the performance of online marketing campaigns. It allows marketers to measure how effective their campaigns are, by providing insights into the number of clicks, conversion rate, and user engagement.

Tracking links can also be used to identify which sources are bringing in the most traffic and conversions. This helps marketers optimize their campaigns by targeting the right audience with the right message. All you have to do is add this tracking link to your website or the campaign and get the results.

Example of tracking URL: https://www.xyz.com/a-b-c/?utm_campaign=test-campaign&utm_source=email

2. Paid Ads Tracking (PPC)

Paid Ads Tracking (PPC) has become an essential part of digital marketing. It helps marketers to track the performance of their campaigns and determine the most effective channels and strategies for their ads.

With the help of PPC, marketers can measure the cost-effectiveness of their campaigns, optimize them in real time and make sure that they are reaching their target audience. It also provides valuable insights into user behavior and helps marketers understand what works best for them.

This data can be used to create more targeted campaigns and maximize ROI. PPC tracking is also a great way to identify potential opportunities for growth and improvement in a campaign.

3. Cookies

Cookies are small text files that are used to store information about a user’s browsing activity, such as the websites they visit and the items they purchase. You can use this information to create targeted ads that are tailored to each user. By tracking users’ activity with cookies, you can ensure that their ads reach the right people at the right time.

4. Tracking Pixels

The tracking pixel is a 1px by 1px image that you can add to the website, image, email, or any other ad campaign. When loaded fully, it sends a signal to your tracking tool that the user or targeted audience has viewed the content. Along with that, it can also give you insights into the way your target audience is behaving or interacting with your ads.

What is the goal of ad tracking?

Before coming to an end, it is important to know about the goal of ad tracking. Although you might have gotten an idea of what ad tracking is and how it works, it’s time to be direct and understand its exact purpose.

The goal of ad tracking is not to have you spend more money, instead, it helps you get a clearer picture of what, how, and where you are spending and if it is really giving you the result.

As said, in the introduction part, ad tracking is a process of monitoring the effectiveness of online advertising campaigns and measuring performance metrics to help you make informed decisions for your future ad campaigns.

Is ad tracking worth investing in?

So, is ad tracking worth investing in? Well, our answer would be yes. According to Oberlo, the total digital ad spend of 2022 was around $600 billion, which is expected to surpass the $800 billion mark by 2025.

If you are spending this much money on digital ads, you should be able to track their effectiveness. Right? You need to know if it’s working or not, and if not, what are the reasons, and how can you improve them?

So, to summarize the article – ad tracking gives you a clear picture of your ad campaigns regardless of the platform and helps you in making informed decisions. Hence, it is worth investing in ad tracking.