by : Brandi Cummings

Would you trust a financial advisor that was not able to track your investments and tell you which ones were doing well and which ones should be reconsidered? I bet you wouldn't. But I would also bet that there are a lot of real estate agents out there that are doing the same thing with their own money. Every piece of advertising and marketing that is sent out, posted and published is an investment. It's an investment in your business, an investment towards future profits. So why would you run ad campaigns and not be able to track which ones are doing well for you and which ones should be reconsidered?

Real estate advertising takes a multi - medium approach. Most agents will advertise in newspapers, Homes magazines, with postcards, property signs, etc. One way to see which advertising is generating the most response is to track the number of calls coming in from those ads. You could keep a tally by asking every person that calls you what ad they are calling from. However, this approach has draw backs. First of all, it disrupts the natural flow of any conversation and rapport that you are trying to establish with the caller. Secondly, most people won't remember where they saw the ad or picked up your number so the information may not be reliable.

A much easier and dependable way to track your advertising dollars is to have the tracking be automated. This can be accomplished with a phone number with multiple extensions that can be applied to each ad. Here is an example. Say you are advertising a property on 123 Elm Street. To get maximum exposure for the listing you are going all out and posting an ad in the newspaper, having postcards printed, you are highlighting the property on your website, having full color brochures available at the location and providing a toll free number on your sign rider for people to get information.

With an ad tracking toll free number, each of these ads can have a different extension yet the same information about the property on 123 Elm Street will be in each one. This makes figuring out which ads are good investments a no-brainer. Ad tracking toll free number systems will generate reports for you daily, weekly, monthly, etc. This allows you to concentrate on the leads coming in while the system gathers the data and puts it together for you to evaluate your advertising investments.

To get the widest possible exposure for advertising and property listings, it is often necessary for real estate agents to throw a wide net. This is a good strategy if you can then streamline and focus your advertising on what works the best. You wouldn't trust your money with a financial advisor who couldn't track your investments. Why would you do the same thing with your advertising dollars?