radio

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How Much Radio Advertising Costs

Radio advertising consists of two primary costs: production and distribution. The distribution costs are the most expensive portion and can range from $200 to $5,000 per week depending on your location and chosen station. The cost of producing the commercial, including copywriting, voice talent, and audio and visual editing, typically costs around $300 to $1,000. Most radio stations will include spot production at no charge using their on-air talent.

Other factors that can influence the cost of your radio ad include:

The main factor that affects cost is the number of people who will be listening to your ad. Therefore, spots during the morning and evening commute will cost more than spots late at night. Likewise, playing an ad in a big city will cost more than an ad spot in a small town.

Radio stations that have an audience between the ages of 24 and 54 will also have higher prices. That’s because this age group has the highest purchasing power, and therefore many businesses want to advertise to them. You can also expect to pay more for stations that attract a wealthy audience, such as a jazz or classical station.

A radio advertising spot is not guaranteed, and usually goes to the highest bidder. Therefore, your ads may be knocked off the air if you don’t match the astronomical rates that occur during an election, for example. The same may happen during major shopping times, such as around Thanksgiving and before Christmas, where major advertisers may buy up airtime to promote upcoming sales.

There is a chance of prices changing depending on what events are occurring around town. This is because prices fluctuate depending on how many other people want to advertise during that time. For example, if there is a highly contested local, state, or national election, campaigns tend to pour money into local radio and TV at elevated rates.

Radio stations split up ad times into day parts. You probably won’t be surprised to know that the most popular times to run advertisements on the radio are during the morning and evening commutes. Frequency is the number of times your ad is heard by an individual person, while reach is the number of people who hear your ad. You can choose to have your ads shown exclusively in a certain day spot, or have an equal distribution of your ads throughout the day. We suggest you go with the first option since ads are usually more effective when the same people hear your ad multiple times. It’s easier to achieve this when you run your commercial at the same time every day.

There are a few different options when it comes to creating your radio ad. While you could create an ad yourself, chances are you should have it produced. It’s not uncommon for radio stations to create the ad for you, but you can also maintain more control by hiring a professional production company, or even a freelance producer.

Here are the best ways to create a radio advertisement:

• Have the station create the ad for you: Sometimes the station will offer to create your ad for you at no cost. These spots can range in quality from poor to excellent, depending on the people working on the spot. If you go with this option, make sure you are not obligated to use the ad if it is not up to your expectations.
• Hire a professional production company: From scriptwriting and selecting a voice to recording and adding effects, a professional production company is your best bet when producing a quality and effective radio ad. In general, expect to pay around $300 to $1,200 per commercial.
• Hire a freelancer: If you already have your script, you can hire a freelance voice actor through platforms like Fiverr to record your commercial for you.
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What about creating the radio ad yourself? Unless you have experience with voice-over acting, you probably want to steer clear of this option. Conveying a message solely through sound is a difficult task, and in most cases should be handled by a professional.

Measuring if offline marketing efforts are successful is considerably more difficult than measuring online efforts. However, there are a few tactics you can employ, including using a vanity web address or phone number, keeping track of sales post-radio ads, and, of course, you can always ask your customers how they found your business.

Here are some of the best ways to measure the effectiveness of a radio ad:

• Use a vanity URL: You can send people to a landing page on your website that has a URL that is specific to your radio ads.
• Use a call tracking or vanity number: You can create a number that is different from your everyday number. If someone calls your business using the tracking number that you use in your radio ad, you will be able to track it back to your radio ad. 
• Ask your customers: If you are able to consult with customers one-on-one, ask any new clients how they heard about you.
• Track sales: The easiest way to see if your ads are working is to simply see if your sales have gone up over the period of time that your ad was running. Note: You can’t attribute an increase or decrease of sales to your radio ad with 100% accuracy, but it can serve as a general indicator.

It’s worth discussing creative ways to measure radio ad effectiveness with your chosen independent agent. Independent agents are well-versed in working with stations.

Despite the proliferation of on-demand services, radio is still a very powerful medium to add to your marketing mix in order to capture a wide audience. With an adequate marketing budget and the information detailed in this post, you can use radio to effectively boost your marketing strategy and bring in more business.