Important Radio Advertising Tips
 Before you rush out to throw your money down on new spots for your radio advertising campaign, there are some issues that you need to consider. While it would be nice if all radio advertisement got the same results, the reality is that there are factors that can positively and negatively affect your campaign.
Radio Advertising Tip No 1: Not all radio stations are equal.
There are a lot of factors to consider before you decide to buy radio advertising time. The decisions you make will not only affect how well your advertisements perform, but they will also affect your radio advertising costs.
One thing to consider is the number of people your advertisement will reach.
Arbitron (www.arbitron.com) is a service that tracks how many people listen to the radio in every market in the US. You will be able to see which stations reach the most people, and you will be able to choose which station best suits your needs.
Another factor is the time slot you want to buy. Studies have shown that people listen to the radio when they are driving to and from work. These "drive time" spots will reach the most people, but your radio advertising will cost you more during those times.
Radio Advertising Tip No 2: Multiple Contacts
Marketing studies have shown that you need to make contact with the average customers up to 7 times before they will act on your message. Radio advertising is no different. That means you can't put an ad on the air one time and expect to get great results. You need to plan your campaign to target the same audience repeatedly in order to see good results.
There is another factor that complicates things; most people use the radio as background. That means that although the radio is playing, they may not be actively listening to what is being said. Your radio advertising message may be getting drowned out by conversations or noise.
Even without competing noises, your listeners may be concentrating on something else while your spot is being played. Your message may be reaching them on a subliminal level, but unless it is an attention grabber, it will take a lot of repetition for your message to register with the average listener.
Radio Advertising Tip No 3: Producing Your Spot
 Another factor to consider with your radio advertising campaign is the cost to produce your spot. Again, the cost will vary depending on the spot you want to produce.
It stands to reason that a 15-second radio advertising spot will be a lot less expensive than a 30-second spot, but there are other factors as well
Who is going to be the spokesperson for your ad? If you are doing the spot yourself it will be less expensive than hiring a radio personality, but there are some down-sides to that strategy.
While it is less expensive to do it yourself, nobody knows who you are. The radio personality builds a relationship with the audience on a daily basis, and they bring a lot more credibility to the advertisement
Is your commercial going to be speaking only, or do you plan on using music either in the background or as an advertising jingle? If so, that will add to the cost of your campaign. If you are having a jingle created you will need to pay somebody to create and record that jingle for you. Even if you are just using background music, you will need to pay for the ability to use someone else's material.
The hard part is, there are no easy answers about the absolute best way to build your radio advertising campaign. There are marketing firms that have produced some very expensive advertisements that have failed miserably. They have also created inexpensive spots that have performed very well.
Once you decide on the stations you want to advertise with, contact their advertising department. They should be able to help you with some of the decision making. After all, they want your business, and if your radio advertising campaign is a success, you will be coming back for more.
Points To Keep In Mind About Radio Advertising:
- Market share for different stations can fluctuate greatly.
- Different times of the day have larger audiences than other times.
- You need to think through how many times to run your spots to be sure that people hear your message repeatedly.
- Your commercial needs to be able to catch the attention of people that are not actively listening to the radio.
- Radio personalities have a relationship with their audience that you don't have.
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