What do I need to know about local radio advertising?
I would like to hear other's experience with radio advertising. Did it work well to create leads? How was pricing? Do you recommend it to start growing?
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Mar 4, 2015
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Jan 6, 2015
If you plan for Radio Advertising then 4 slots of 20sec in a day with the campaign running for a week will never work.. Radio ads will work if it is running consistently and you should invest on it BIG TIME.. you have to keep these ads for atleast 2 months with minimum of 20 slots a day and also multiple creatives/ads and good ones too
Dec 27, 2014
Susan,
I worked in radio, and have worked "with" it for nearly 20 years, and can offer some tips/advice:
1. It is a long term investment - repetition creates branding
2. Your ad must speak to the potential customer
3. Give listeners a reason to come in/contact
4. Bundle with online promotion or a larger giveaway for "added bonus" exposure
5. I do not recommend hiring an agency, they will take at least 15% fee. Find a great radio sales rep, build a relationship with them. They want your business long term; want you to be successful so you will see the value of radio. Let them help you through the process.
6. Clearly audience is important. If they listen to classic rock you're not going to advertise on KISS FM. A given.
7. Good points by Christian, Bill and Barry
8. Ask about remnant ads. They can be less expensive - stretch your budget further. It is not necessarily true that these only run in off hours and during overnights. This has changed over the years and worth looking into. There are companies/agencies that specialize in remnant buying and do quite well for their clients.
9. Also, the longer you're willing to advertise, the more likely the station will be to give you an ongoing discount rate.
10. Be patient. Like all advertising, even radio takes time to create brand awareness. Building a good relationship with the station can mean added bonus opportunities that can cost you nothing but provide exposure.
Hope this is helpful!
Dec 26, 2014
You should know did your potential customer interested to listen Radio ,now days very few people listen radio apart from small town
Dec 25, 2014
I used radio in the past. It is very expensive and you don't get much from it. It is like a newspaper. You have to be in the right section that readers actually read. In radio, it is my opinion that people don't catch your advertizing unless you run a ton of spots, and there goes your cost. TV is relatively inexpensive I have gotten much more from TV, you have again to get the right spots and like any advertizing, you have to have the right sales person who can work on positioning your spots so you bet your money's worth or know exactly where you want your spots located.
Best of success, Gil
Dec 23, 2014
My husband managed Radio Station advertising sales for 45 years. Radio ads are good if what you need to do, is get your presence known. You'll need a big budget, because people need to hear your ad several times before it makes an impression..and you have to catch those people when they are driving and listening. A good radio sales person, will tell you how many listeners, are tuned in, during different times , and what age demographic and area demographic they are. If you are not expert, and you are working with big dollars, you might want to work with an advertising agency so you are getting the agent's advice. Radio ads now fight the challenge of new radio like sirus that don't have ads.
Dec 23, 2014
Susan, the first question to ask should NOT be what medium or tactic to use -- but who exactly is MY SPECIFIC TARGET AUDIENCE and where do THEY hang out regularly. THAT will tell you where and how you ought to be advertising.
But that's still not enough. You also need to figure out how you're going to DIFFERENTIATE your message to that target audience and get your differentiating message to them on an ONGOING basis.
The wrong advertising running in the wrong place is pretty much guaranteed to be a waste of time and money.
Al Shultz alshultz.com/
Dec 23, 2014
I have worked with radio for nearly 36 years. Results vary widely, as does pricing. If you have a compelling offer presented to the right audience at the right time and priced attractively, you can generate substantial results. Costs are based on the size of your local market, the station's audience size and availability of commercial time. Barry Cohen, author, 10 Ways to Screw Up an Ad Campaign
Dec 23, 2014
Radio or any other media has the opportunity to succeed or fail. You need to understand your audience first. Do they listen to radio, where and to what? Radio can be an effective media assuming 2 simple things; you are saying the right thing and saying them to the right people.
Dec 23, 2014
Radio advertising is another tool. It really depends on the product or service, and your goals as to it being the right method to reach your customers/clients. It goes to a concept "the point of contact" ...where you're going to meet your customers or potential customers. Where are your customers? Who are your customers? What and When is their sweet spot? Depending on your area pricing will vary, but so will the results. I wouldn't run advertising with less than 20 to 30 spots, it takes roughly that many times for a listener to be called to action when hearing a commercial. Many times, if your business is local, it is a great way to get your message out there, and get customers - but it is not the only great way. I'd need to know more to be able to reach into my experience (previously a radio station general manager) to be able to better answer your questions.
Dec 23, 2014
Even before the advent of digital media, radio has always been a limited reach medium. Years ago, if you had purchased every station in a given market, you would have been lucky to achieve a 60% reach of your target. With many more digital music options these days, I suspect that number is much lower. Those you do reach may hear your message with greater frequency though.
At the same time, don't be fooled by thinking digital alone is the answer either. While you have a better ability to target (if you have a tight definition) and see response here, Even with a healthy budget, the actual reach of your potential target is likely to be much, much lower.
While a lot of people have forecast the death of TV, it actually remains the most effective reach medium and is by far and away where larger advertisers spend the most money. This said - it is not a direct response medium. While a lot of retailers use it to drive short term sales, this only tends to work with highly compelling and limited-time offers. Also, it will continue to be more and more difficult to reach a younger target with traditional TV though, since fewer and fewer Millennials and Gen Z watch - at least in a traditional fashion.
It may be best to think 'content first' in connecting with your target. Where are they spending their time and why? What do you have to say that may be worthy of an interruption? It had better be good, because, especially in a digital world, we tend to tune out advertised messages (which is why click rates tend to be less than 1%).
Dec 22, 2014
Jeff makes some good points below. The other option is to test various media campaigns and see where you get the most traction. Not knowing your market I would be curious to know what you are trying to accomplish? Is radio a last resort you are thinking of testing?
Dec 22, 2014
Susan ...Radio in of itself and by itself isn't going to achieve your goals. You have to integrate into digital and/or print display ads, landing page design, public relations, social media, email, etc.
The issue with any communication is having realistic expectations. All too many times, advertisers have been unreal expectations.
One of the issues with radio, especially broadcast radio, is the ability to attribute achievement of success to radio. Too many times advertisers don't have a specific web address, coupon code, or telephone number to do that.
Another issue is reaching your target audience when they are listening. So you have to run your commercial across almost all dayparts to reach them.
Can it be economical? Yes, depending on the market and how you integrate it with all the aforementioned into a comprehensive campaign.
For example, use radio to drive traffic to your website landing page. There you attempt to capture contact information or complete the action (e.g., sale of product/service). As they leave whether they sign-up/buy or not you tag them with a cookie and as they travel the Internet you follow them and serve up display ads for your product/service. If you capture an email address, follow up with email campaign. You can target them with an email campaign via renting a geotargeted list of your target audience as well.
Lastly, I believe before you get to far, you need to define what a lead is to you and what you are willing to invest per lead to achieve your goals. Then ultimately businesses are using revenue generated per lead generated as the determining metric for campaign success.
If you decide to move forward with radio, I would highly recommend that you reach out to an independent media buyer or an agency to help you determine what radio station(s) would be best suited at the best rate possible.
I agree with Brian. TV won't die, but it has changed. Due to bi-directional communication of HDTVs and cable boxes, cable networks are better able to feed targeted advertising — based on viewing habit and data from the box information — as compared as before. As can streaming networks like Netflix, Hulu and alike. According to eMarketer (http://bit.ly/1AX0KXq), in 2014, TV represented 38.1% of all ad spending. digital is 28.2%, print 17.7%, radio 8.6%, outdoor 4.0% and directories 3.5%. Here's an excellent chart (http://bit.ly/1E89GyT) showing the breakdown. A recent 2014 Forrester report (http://bit.ly/1tw5DnU) states that digital will overtake TV in 2016 and be 36% of all ad spending by 2019.