If not, it's time to get a better handle on your advertising ROI. After all, why waste money buying advertising that isn’t working?

What you need to look at are two things: Which specific ads bring in customers and what advertising media results in new business. An ad placed in a weekly shopper-type publication may draw new business week after week, while the same ad place in a weekly local tabloid-format newspaper may not attract any new customers. Or, vice versa.

You can find out which ads and media are producing customers by tracking responses to your ads.

One common way to track ads is to code coupons so you know what publication or mailing they came from. For instance, if you're running a 15%-off coupon in several local publications, change the ad slightly for each publication by including the initials of the publication or some other identifying information in very small print just inside the coupon dotted line. Be sure you or your employees collect the coupons and at the end of the promotion, tally them up to see which local publication produced the most new customers.

If there is a significant difference in response, consider dropping the publication with the lowest response rate and substituting another in its place.

If customers call your business rather than sending in coupons, you can track advertising results by telling people to call special extension numbers or to ask for a specific individual. For instance your radio ad might say to call Jack for details. Your print ad, might say to dial your phone number and ask for extension 25. Whoever answers your phone would keep a list of all incoming calls, noting what extension or name was asked for.

You can track pay per click advertising, too. Most pay per click ad networks let you include tracking code on the end of each ad you write. (You put a slash at the end of the url, and following the slash a question mark and the tracking code.)

Track your ad results until you have enough data to make an informed decision. Then, analyze the data to see which ads and which placements work best for you. Reallocate your ad spending accordingly.

More: 11 Monstrous Small Business Marketing Mistakes

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