In this contribution we review our latest achievements of combined experimental and theoretical studies to tailor the properties of optical metamaterials(MMs) at will. We give three examples of metamaterial designs that have been realized by means of electron-beam lithography and whose spectroscopic characteristics have been comprehensively investigated. In every case, our experiments are complemented by rigorous numer-ical simulations. Particular emphasis is put on the significance of such tailored effective properties of optical MMs.