The first thing to understand about radio advertising is that no two radio advertising campaigns are alike. That being said, no two campaigns will cost the same amount either. So, how expensive is radio advertising? That all depends on the scope and size of your campaign – as well as the cost of air-time in your city. The larger the city, the more it will cost every time your commercial airs.

Lets look at two identical businesses in a case study. Both have the same budget, but both are in very different size cities. Because of this the expense of airing a commercial will be quite different in each station. Both campaigns can be effected, however the times and layout of the campaigns will be quite different.

Business Type: Dental Office
Target Customer: Adults 25-54 (more female than male) with mid to high levels of income.
Total Budget to Spend on Radio Each Month: 4K

Let’s see how this would play out in city “A”. 
City A has a population of 200,000 people. The most popular station with this dental office’s target demo is an Adult Contemporary station.

The radio station is high in the ratings and will get their message in front of nearly 6,000 potential customers each time a radio commercial airs in prime time and around 2,000 outside of prime time.

The cost to air a commercial on that station in prime time is $75, the cost to air it outside of prime time (nights 7p-11p and weekends) is $35.

Based on these facts, a mix of prime time airings and non-prime time airings would get this client the best exposure for their budget of 4k.

I would put together a plan that gives them 25 airings in prime time and 60 out of prime-time airings. This will get them constant exposure with their target audience at all hours of the day.

The plan would reach 270,000 gross impressions. This is a very healthy campaign.

Now, let’s see how this would play out in city “B”. 
City A has a population of 1,000,000 people. The most popular station with this dental office’s target demo is an Adult Contemporary station.

It is high in the ratings and will get their message in front of nearly 30,000 potential customers each time a radio commercial airs in prime time and around 8,000 outside of prime time.

The cost to air that commercial on that station in prime time is $275, the cost to air it outside of prime time (nights and weekends) is $100.

Based on these facts, a campaign that only focuses on non-prime time airings would get this client the best exposure for their budget of 4k.

Why only non-prime? Because the total budget would be eaten up far too quickly if we focused on prime time airings. Granted more people would hear it each time in prime, but they wouldn’t hear it frequently enough for it to be effective or to see consumers take action. Our best bet is to reach the night and weekend listeners with the radio commercial on a frequent basis.

I would put together a plan that gives them 40 airings in non-prime hours. This will get them constant exposure with their target audience.

The plan would reach approx 320,000 gross impressions. A very different radio advertising campaign when compared to A, yet still a very healthy one.

The lesson of all of this – No radio plan is created equal.

Plan B airs less frequently, costs more per airing and never airs in prime-time.  Yet, it reaches more people due to the size of the city and audience. Sure we could have bought ‘prime time only’, but it would not reach the audience enough to be effective. This is a move I often see take place with in-experienced business owners or media buyer, and they regret every penny spent.

Plan A has a balance of prime and non prime airings. It gives them balanced exposure all day long and optimizes their budget for exposure. Putting all the funds into prime-time alone would not give them the depth of exposure that mixing in off-prime does.

Do you need to worry about any of this?

No, that’s why I’m here! This is what my agency does, and we don’t charge you a penny for our knowledge and expertise. We help you determine the best ways to buy radio advertising and answer the age-old question of “how expensive is radio advertising?”. A question with many different answers based on where the radio commercial is going to air. Call me direct if you could use some help 231-468-9972.