Tracking your advertising spend

Some time ago I read a very interesting article Internet advertising - The ultimate marketing machine about both the power and effeciency of online marketing. I've been doing a lot of swatting up on AdWords recently as, try as they might, Yahoo!, Microsoft and the just can't wrestle the Google dominance of Search engines away from them.

Google's Analytics is becoming increasingly advanced. When Google choose to do something, they generally do it well and Analytics is another example of that. You can very easily track the success of your AdWords campaigns as well as those through other ad systems.

What does this mean to an advertiser? It means you know where your spend is working and where you are wasting money. It puts you i the position to make informed decisions about your advertising campaigns. Information that is very difficult to gain from traditional advertising mediums.

Interestingly, Google has recently been experimenting with offline advertising too including print and TV ads. This is something I'll be keeping my eye on very closely. If Google can successfully deliver 'Business Intelligence' into the more tradition ad media, advertising will become a very different kettle of fish!

A couple of links of interest:

Google Announces TV Ads Trial
Can Google bring business intelligence to offline advertising?
Google, Moving to Offline Advertising