Conversion Ruler
Ppc management & monitoring tools
On first glance, Conversion Ruler appears to be a fairly typical web analytics tool that concentrates on tracking your ad campaigns and reporting back statistical information on conversions.
Conversion Ruler is set up to handle types of advertising other than pay per click, and especially targets email marketing campaigns, so it can be a useful tool for those who are interested in email marketing in addition to pay per click.
Although the website has a friendly, casual feel to it, and plenty of screenshots show you what information you will receive from tracking your advertising campaigns, Conversion Ruler’s descriptions of how to install tracking code, etc. into your landing pages and “thank you” pages are filled with jargon that novices may find difficult to understand.
Actions that can be tracked include clickthroughs, newsletter signups, catalog requests and orders, but others can be customized during setup of the program.
The techniques for setting up your advertising campaigns using Conversion Ruler are pretty much the same as those offered by other tracking services, but if you require assistance in setting up your campaigns, there is a $75 per hour fee charged.
Descriptions of how to set up the code needed for conversion tracking are not very clear and include repeated statements emphasizing that proper code placement is the responsibility of the advertiser. Although some examples of sample code are included, the lack of clarity in directions makes this information useful only to more experienced web people. The PDF User Manual begins by saying how Conversion Ruler’s emphasis is on ease of use, but throughout is filled with descriptions of code needed that uses many terms that only those familiar with Javascript and HTML would understand.
Although Conversion Ruler has been on the market since at least July of 2003, they have yet to refine the product to include many options standard in other comparable tools.
In their Frequently Asked Questions section, many of the questions posed are answered with imprecise answers and speculation. For example, when answering a question concerning whether or not they offer an affiliate program, the answer provided is “We don't have a formal program yet, but can probably work something out that makes sense for all parties”. As another example, when answering a question about customized reports, the answer requests that the advertiser send an email to the company detailing exactly what kind of report he or she would like and their budget.
Until the information on this website is a little more certain of the breadth of its product offering (many additions or stand-alone modules are in the planning stages apparently), novices in particular should use caution in trying this tool.
Conversion Ruler’s owners themselves admit that the product is not yet as complete as they wish it to be. Such statements do little to inspire customer confidence in the long-term future of the software, as so much about Conversion Ruler still seems to be undecided.
Conversion Ruler does still offer their 30-day free trial (from 2003), but also still state it may only be offered for a short time. As written on the website, “Conversion Ruler is a new product and our support staff's capacity is still somewhat limited considering the level of service we want to provide our customers. Therefore, this free trial offer will only continue up to the point where our paid client base is small enough so that we have some extra Customer Service capacity.”
The pricing of the basic product for a small advertiser is quite reasonable, starting at $19.99 for data on 4 actions, one of which is clickthroughs and the others can be defined by the user, but only covers 2,000 clickthroughs.
Iif you have higher traffic levels, additional clickthroughs will be billed to your account using various ranges, with the minimum price per month increasing if you do have traffic in higher ranges. For example, if you have more than 25,000 clickthroughs during a month, you will be charged a base price of $73.99 instead of the $19.99, with additional charges for clickthroughs from 25,001 to 100,000, for a total maximum monthly spend of just under $150.
Overall, although Conversion Ruler appears to be capable of becoming a player in the ROI tracking market, right now it doees not appear to be undergoing the kind of enhancements needed to make it comparable to other products.
Even though it is priced lower than many other options, the uncertainty about its future offerings (there does not appear to be any means of detecting click fraud, for example, at this point) and the need for some coding knowledge (unless you wish to pay additional charges) make this a tool that should be approached and used with caution.
On first glance, Conversion Ruler appears to be a fairly typical web analytics tool that concentrates on tracking your ad campaigns and reporting back statistical information on conversions.
Conversion Ruler is set up to handle types of advertising other than pay per click, and especially targets email marketing campaigns, so it can be a useful tool for those who are interested in email marketing in addition to pay per click.
Although the website has a friendly, casual feel to it, and plenty of screenshots show you what information you will receive from tracking your advertising campaigns, Conversion Ruler’s descriptions of how to install tracking code, etc. into your landing pages and “thank you” pages are filled with jargon that novices may find difficult to understand.
Actions that can be tracked include clickthroughs, newsletter signups, catalog requests and orders, but others can be customized during setup of the program.
The techniques for setting up your advertising campaigns using Conversion Ruler are pretty much the same as those offered by other tracking services, but if you require assistance in setting up your campaigns, there is a $75 per hour fee charged.
Descriptions of how to set up the code needed for conversion tracking are not very clear and include repeated statements emphasizing that proper code placement is the responsibility of the advertiser. Although some examples of sample code are included, the lack of clarity in directions makes this information useful only to more experienced web people. The PDF User Manual begins by saying how Conversion Ruler’s emphasis is on ease of use, but throughout is filled with descriptions of code needed that uses many terms that only those familiar with Javascript and HTML would understand.
Although Conversion Ruler has been on the market since at least July of 2003, they have yet to refine the product to include many options standard in other comparable tools.
In their Frequently Asked Questions section, many of the questions posed are answered with imprecise answers and speculation. For example, when answering a question concerning whether or not they offer an affiliate program, the answer provided is “We don't have a formal program yet, but can probably work something out that makes sense for all parties”. As another example, when answering a question about customized reports, the answer requests that the advertiser send an email to the company detailing exactly what kind of report he or she would like and their budget.
Until the information on this website is a little more certain of the breadth of its product offering (many additions or stand-alone modules are in the planning stages apparently), novices in particular should use caution in trying this tool.
Conversion Ruler’s owners themselves admit that the product is not yet as complete as they wish it to be. Such statements do little to inspire customer confidence in the long-term future of the software, as so much about Conversion Ruler still seems to be undecided.
Conversion Ruler does still offer their 30-day free trial (from 2003), but also still state it may only be offered for a short time. As written on the website, “Conversion Ruler is a new product and our support staff's capacity is still somewhat limited considering the level of service we want to provide our customers. Therefore, this free trial offer will only continue up to the point where our paid client base is small enough so that we have some extra Customer Service capacity.”
The pricing of the basic product for a small advertiser is quite reasonable, starting at $19.99 for data on 4 actions, one of which is clickthroughs and the others can be defined by the user, but only covers 2,000 clickthroughs.
Iif you have higher traffic levels, additional clickthroughs will be billed to your account using various ranges, with the minimum price per month increasing if you do have traffic in higher ranges. For example, if you have more than 25,000 clickthroughs during a month, you will be charged a base price of $73.99 instead of the $19.99, with additional charges for clickthroughs from 25,001 to 100,000, for a total maximum monthly spend of just under $150.
Overall, although Conversion Ruler appears to be capable of becoming a player in the ROI tracking market, right now it doees not appear to be undergoing the kind of enhancements needed to make it comparable to other products.
Even though it is priced lower than many other options, the uncertainty about its future offerings (there does not appear to be any means of detecting click fraud, for example, at this point) and the need for some coding knowledge (unless you wish to pay additional charges) make this a tool that should be approached and used with caution.
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