If you’ve ever dealt with any form of traditional advertising (and if you’re reading this I’m guessing there’s a check mark next to that box) then you’ve probably heard or read some salesperson’s pitch about readership, viewership, eyeballs or foot traffic. You know, all the catchy phrases they come up with to hide the fact they have no idea about how many the marketing message they’re trying to get you to purchase will actually reach.

Sure, there’s some good guesses.

Our publication has a circulation of 125,000 units per month in the greater metro area. Each unit is on average viewed by 2.47 people; that’s over 300,000 sets of eyeballs! In a recent survey (2003) 85% of readers who responded to our survey recalled seeing advertising in our publication. 64% of those people recalled the name of at least 1 advertiser. 48% of those people acted upon the advertising from our publication and 17% of those people made a purchase.

Soooo… how many people actually bought something? Answer: Fred, Lucy and Wanda.

With paid search, these ambiguous statistics are thrown out the window. Instead of taking rough estimates of what you think might have happened, you can tell exactly how many times a phrase or word was searched for, how many times and which ad they clicked on, how much those clicks cost and how many people did what you wanted them to do on your site.

Paid search creates accountability where other “traditional media” lacks it.

But this blog isn’t about tooting the paid search horn, it’s about taking all of the neat little statistics I just told you about with a grain of salt.

Yes, for the first time in advertising history there is a way to absolutely track everything and I’m telling you to take Ron Popeil’s advice and “SET IT, AND FORGET IT!”

Why? Well, first, you’ll give yourself a heart attack. “Yesterday’s click through rate was 4.71% and today it’s just 1.83%! The world is over!?

But second, instead of micro-managing everything to death, you need to take a macro view of what is happening. Even with all of this built in accountability you can’t predict the future or mold the minds of the masses. So what if your click through rate is down? So what if your cost per click is up 17 cents? So what if there are 3 less conversions this week?

When’s the last time you gave that much attention to your other marketing efforts? “Only 4,562 people walked past my bus stop ad today and YOU said there’d be an average of 10,000!” Um, no, I didn’t think so.

Like a good pot of soup, all of the ingredients of a paid search campaign need to work together. Sure, the salt might have been off the first time you made it, and maybe too much broth the second time. But overall (macro view)… this soup’s some good eatin’!

We’ve all seen the little old lady at the family restaurant making a huge fuss that her bowl of soup had 12 carrot slices while her daughter’s had 18. Nobody likes that little old lady. You don’t want to be that little old lady. Don’t be that little old lady.

In review: “Eyeballs, what?” Fred, Lucy and Wanda. “SET IT, AND FORGET IT!” Micro bad, macro good. Little old ladies annoy me.

Photo credit: basykes