In an Instant Track banner-ad performance in real time to find out who's paying attention.

When you want to determine which of your banner ads aredelivering the most cost-efficient results and which are simplydraining your bank account, take a valuable lesson from themarketers who track customer responses in real time.

Using a process known as real-time optimization, you can uncoverinformation, like how many customers have clicked on a banner ad,the ad's conversion rate (the total number of transactions fromthat ad divided by the total number of visits during any givenperiod) and even customer response to individual aspects of anoffer, such as the price or the message itself. That informationhelps entrepreneurs "optimize the ads that are running, pushWeb sites that aren't performing to do better and, ifnecessary, cancel contracts with them," says Brad Aronson,president of i-Frontier, an interactive advertising agency inPhiladelphia. "One advantage of Net advertising is that youcan measure results daily and use that information to increaseefficiency."

Analyzing results every day-or even in real time-is paramount,because if you find shoppers aren't responding to your bannerads, you'll want to make changes as soon as possible."Tracking response in real time allows entrepreneurs to adaptfast," confirms James Vogtle, director of e-commerce researchat strategy consulting firm Boston Consulting Group Inc. "If you'respending money on an ad campaign [that's not] working, you wantto know immediately so steps can be taken to adjust it."