If you're in business, you know you have to advertise. Without advertisement, consumers don't know about the products or services you offer. They don't learn more about the solutions you provide or the help you can give them. Advertising gets the word out and lets people know your business exists. It also helps trigger the urge to purchase.

Promotion can be expensive, though. A big question business owners have is whether the advertising they choose is worth the investment. Was the campaign effective? Did the returns justify the expense? Did advertising improve the business or have little effect on it?

A few key elements determine the success of advertising campaigns:

The type of media you choose

The budget you can afford

The objective of your campaign

The quality of your advertising

The quantity of advertising you do

The location of your ad placement

The strategies of your marketing

The consistency of your campaign

The targeting of your market

Take notes of the effectiveness of your chosen campaign. Keep track of the movement in your sales. Pay attention to the spikes in interest of your services or products. When did they happen? What might have been the cause? Watch for which consumers become new clients, too. Your advertising may have attracted them. Most importantly to new businesses on tight budgets, was your campaign cost-effective?

Some ways to measure impact involve consumer surveys. These give a portrait of how effective your campaign was, and whether it had the desired effect. Surveys can be done before you release your campaign to hone and tailor advertising based on consumer response.

Areas to measure include the sales, profit, attention, persuasion and communication of your campaign. It's important to know how well consumers remembered your campaign, too. Another test to perform is recognition of your business brand, product, or service. When it comes to advertising, if it sticks in the minds of consumers, it has a greater capacity to achieve the goals you set for the campaign.

Surveys also allow you to improve your product or service based on consumer response. You can evaluate your product or service, and then incorporate changes to achieve increased revenues.

Whether you chose to use surveys or not, measure and assess the advertising campaign you chose each step of the way. This helps determine which option is best for you and your business in future campaigns. Finding the right advertisement that lets consumers know about your business helps ensure survival and success.