If only success were as easy as buying online ads and then sitting back and waiting for sales to go up. However, if you have a trade or local content website, you know it isn’t that easy.

The truth is that if you’re going to have online ad campaigns, you need to be prepared to manage them so that you’ll know:

• Which ads are working

• Which ads aren’t working

• Which platforms are most effective

• Which platforms aren’t earning their keep

To do this, you need to be able to organize data from your ad campaigns including dates of the ad campaign, fill rates, and CPM data. When you can analyze this information alongside other important data, such as social media metrics, you can design and plan ad campaigns so that they’ll reach your target customers better and get better results. Here are 4 tools to help you manage online ads.

1. Google DoubleClick for Publishers

DoubleClick offers web publishers an ad revenue engine that’s designed to help them streamline operations and maximize the value of every ad impression through ad serving, optimization, and sales management.

• Ad serving technology lets you manage digital ad operations across the web and the mobile world.

• Optimization comes via Google’s advanced machine learning algorithms, letting you match ads to users who are most likely to respond.

• Sales Management tools from DoubleClick include proposal and finance management tools that give you better control over ad sales management.

2. AdHQ by Integrate

AdHQ is a comprehensive workflow management solution for advertisers and media buyers. AdHQ allows you to effectively plan, launch, analyze, and optimize marketing campaigns across all media, digital and traditional. This platform lets marketers manage the complete life cycle of paid media campaigns in one unified system. The intuitive interface helps you plan your media buying strategy, and real time reporting and analytics let you compare performance among all ad channels. AdHQ automates manual processes, simplifying workflow and making your ad campaign management more efficient. As a result, you’ll be able to allocate marketing resources optimally across various ad channels and accurately track key performance indicators.

3. Raven Tools

Raven Tools is designed to integrate with Google AdWords and Google Analytics so that you can track ad spending and how effective that spending is. Raven Tools gives you a simplified interface with Google AdWords so you can more easily create, pause or start campaigns and even manage multiple ad campaigns and accounts. Role Manager functionality helps you assign tasks to specific ad team members and easily track who is doing what on which ad campaign. Raven Tools also comes with an iPhone and iPad app that allows you to access your ad campaign wherever you are.

4. Social Media Planning Spreadsheet by Socialfresh

Suppose you’re new to ad campaign planning. Maybe your website is new and you need a simple way to organize your ad and social media campaigns. You can download a free Social Media Planning Spreadsheet template created by Lisa Peyton, Digital Marketing Strategist, that helps you build a solid social media and ad strategy. The template includes a “measurement” tab that lets you track metrics, including:

• Number of LinkedIn connections

• Number of Twitter followers

• Number of Retweets, replies, and mentions on Twitter

• Number of Google+ connections

• Your Klout score

This helps you find out if you’re moving steadily toward your social media goals. You can easily add sections for ad cost and performance metrics to this spreadsheet so you can focus your advertising efforts on platforms where people are engaged with your brand.

If your ad campaign is part of your site’s overall monetization strategy, we invite you to learn more about RealMatch recruitment advertising solutions for media companies and digital publishers.

Photo Credits: stockimages / freedigitalphotos.net, Stuart Miles / freedigitalphotos.net