Whether I'm working one-on-one consulting with a customer or conducting group training sessions a common question often arises: "What is the most effective way for me to advertise?" The question seems simple enough, right? One should be able to answer with just a couple words, direct mail or television, for instance, or social media and circulars or...fill in the blanks. The truth is that the question is not that easy to answer because there are variables; variables in product, variables in location, variables in competition, variables in fill in the blanks again.

An equation for effective advertising has to consider the following elements: Cost per exposure, cost per sale, profit per sale and then finally ROI on the original investment. If your cost per exposure is low, then the results don't have to be dramatic to produce attractive returns on investment. That's probably the reason that social media, web sites and email campaigns are so enticing. The cost per exposure is low! Contrast that against almost any traditional media and you'll see why there is a dramatic shift in the way companys are advertising.

Of course, considering ROI on advertising expenditures does not address the intangibles created by a repetitive and structure campaign but still it's a great place to start. We have placed an advertising ROI calculator at the bottom of this page to help you estimate your ROI on advertising.