The Secret to a Great Local TV Ad

Evaluate your adveritsing needs to ensure you get the most bang for your buck

Many small professional service businesses advertise successfully on television. They include law firms, real estate agencies, financial advisers and medical practices in competitive fields such as Lasik surgery or dental implants. Most buy TV ad time on local broadcast or cable channels, looking to expand their clientele in the community. 

Can this same strategy work for you? Before jumping in, you’ll want to consider these three issues:

1.) Weigh professionalism vs. commercialism and find the right balance for how you present yourself and your services.   

2.) Know your customers.  Your target audience will determine the time of day, the programming you buy into and ultimately your cost.  

3.) Be ready for a big response.  They don’t call it a mass medium for nothing, even on a local level, so be sure you are prepared to handle phone calls, information requests or other demands.  

Where to start?
The main elements of a television campaign are creating and producing the commercial, buying the ad time and tracking the response. You can put yourself in the hands of a local full-service ad agency, or go a la carte and make your own deals with a local outlet. Thanks to the Web, you can even order a low-cost commercial spot made from stock footage and buy ad time by filling out an online form specifying your geographic and demographic targets. Some  low-cost options for getting a TV ad produced include SpotRunner.com, TVadvertising.com and Cheaptvspots.com.

How much does a local TV ad campaign cost?
To figure costs, first know your goals. In particular, know who you want to reach, how large a viewing audience and in what territory (a local cable operator can target one part of town, a broadcast station a metro area), and how much repetition you want (the more competitive your business, the more repetition).   

Costs vary based on the type of spot you want to create and the time of day you want it to run. A low-budget commercial might cost a few thousand for the creative and production. Low-budget ad slots on local cable can start in the hundreds; while a broadcast buy may run $5,000 or so.

What results can I expect?
Big national brands spend lavishly on image ads. On the other end of the spectrum are direct-response ads that promise a once-in-a-lifetime deal if you call in the next 10 minutes.

Professional businesses should strike a balance to appear respectable while making sure ads deliver some bang for the buck.   A toll-free number that rings to a call center or a special Web site are both proven ways to track ad response and handle a large volume at the same time.  You’ll also want to track calls to your regular number and walk-ins attracted by your new visibility on TV. 

As for that bang/buck ratio, the bottom line is this: Your agency or media buyer should give you a cost-per-impression or rating point that tells you roughly what you paid per prospect. 

Jeff B. Copeland is content specialist at Business.com, the web’s largest business-to-business searchable directory and home to more than 35,000 business how-to guides.

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