Radio Advertising an online business?

[SamStones]

Hi All,

I was just wondering if anyone has any thoughts / experiences on using radio advertising to advertise an online retail business?

I'm considering advertising on the local radio station in the upcoming Christmas season, but am not sure how it translates for:

a) A short period of time, as it really needs to produce an ROI as it's not going to be long enough to create any real brand awareness as such
b) being an online busines, will people listen to a radio ad and log onto your web site to make a purchase?

I know plenty of companies advertise on the radio but the ones I hear usually have a retail premises or some such that people can go into, where as this would be just for advertising a web site?

 

[mangoprint]

Have you got any idea of cost?

 

[SamStones]

Have you got any idea of cost?

Yes, I have been quoted based on 20 second adverts. All between 6am and 8pm

50 Airings of the ad: £599 + VAT
100 Airings of the ad: £1,099 + VAT
200 Airings of the ad: £1,899 + VAT

All these prices include them producing a one person commercial (one voice over a background tune)

These are their "special offer" prices, and already include "discount" , but as with most advertising I wouldn't expect to pay that price.

Their weekly reach, according to their figures is 66,500 in my local area (no idea where they get these figures from).

If anyone has advertised before I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

 

[TotalWebSolutions]

Have they said whether or not their local reach is the figure quoted between 6-9am? I would check with them what their average pull is between these hours each morning as I would say that is when you would be able to get the best ROI.

Adverts on commercial radio stations such as TalkSport are very good at getting a web address into your head... some of the jingles used can be quite catchy and regular listeners (including myself) will visit the sites advertised and/or pass the details on to friends/family/colleagues. A lot of their listeners tend to be the commuters listening on the way to and from work so you might want to doa bit of research as to the best times to advertise.

 

[seanstevens]

The reach is not important, how many people tune in is the important number. They should be giving you these numbers and back them up.

 

[SamStones]

The reach is not important, how many people tune in is the important number. They should be giving you these numbers and back them up.

Sorry, unless I mis understand you I think I may have confused you with the figures:

Population: - 240,800
Reach: - 66,500
Reach:- 28%
Hours: - 725,800
Avg Hrs:- 10.9
Market Share: 13.6%

 

[SamStones]

Have they said whether or not their local reach is the figure quoted between 6-9am?

Sorry, not sure I understand this bit?

 

[localstars]

Hi Sam

The main point in this is ROI of course - which is almost impossible to measure with a radio advert. Long term marketing to build brand awareness is well proven to work (I can still remember some jingles that I heard several years ago!), but short term, one off campaigns are a whole different ball game. You need something much more direct than some random radio jingles that will only be played a few times over a short period.

More info would be useful - what kind of business are you in, and do you have a target geographical area ?

 

[SamStones]

Long term I'm sure it must work, short term perhaps not...

I have an online retail business, selling a variety of home, garden and leisure items. I normally only advertise on the internet and have a uk wide customer base.

Radio advertising for my business is quite measureable as everything has to be bought online and delivered, therefore I can look at the number of orders with deliveries to post codes in my local area to work out how much business has been generated locally.

I don't have any target geographical area, other than UK mainland.

I was hoping for some responses from people who have tried radio advertising and how they felt about it, but any other words of wisdom and thoughts are more than welcome.