n this blog which should take you just a few minutes to read, we will share with you some of what’s happening in radio, how you can choose the right station for your advertising campaigns and what you might expect to pay.
In a world where advertisers want to measure the impact of every pound they invest in advertising, radio is often overlooked in favour of digital campaigns including social media or pay per click advertising where the audience may demonstrate more purchase intent, or we can track the number of clicks and subsequent actions on our website.
So, does radio advertising still have a role to play in helping you grow your business in 2023 and beyond?
Who’s Listening?
According to Radio Joint Audience Research (RAJAR), the independent organisation responsible for audience research in the radio industry, 49.4 million people in the UK listen to radio every week – that’s 88% of the population. In fact, in the UK, 1 billion hours are spent every week listening to our favourite radio stations.
With the average listener tuning in for around 20 hours each week and the opportunity to talk to almost 9 in 10 people, radio seems like a no brainer.
Two Killer Strengths of Radio
Radio has the benefit of ubiquity – not sure what that means, don’t worry, it’s not a term you here in the local pub every night – effectively radio is everywhere, listened to in the car, at home, in the workplace, on mobile devices and is often played in public spaces and retail environments. So now we know our radio advertising campaigns can be heard while people are carrying out relevant activities – think about the new car advert you hear while driving your three year old, no longer loved vehicle you have just been thinking about changing, or that job advert you hear at work where you hate what you do and feel undervalued. Reaching people in relevant times and places is a really cool feature of radio advertising.
Radio is known as a frequency media – a well-planned campaign will often be heard by your target audience, 2,3 or more times each week. This is a powerful tool in building brand awareness, positioning your business as top of mind so when the customer is in the market for what you sell, your business is the one they think of first! We can all name the world’s most popular fast food burger – the BigWhopper right???? And those brands have used radio as part of their media mix for years.
A Changing Landscape
The UK radio landscape has changed a lot in recent years. The biggest media groups in the industry Global and Bauer have set about building high quality national brands that we all know and love – stations like Magic, Kiss, Greatest Hits Radio, Capital to name just a few. However smaller groups that provided super local radio serving only a few towns or a single city and its suburbs have been swallowed up.
The benefits are arguably a smaller number of stronger brands with more distinct audiences, a simpler media buy – these groups can promise you the listeners you want in the areas you want across their portfolio, but there are some considerations for advertisers. Regional Account Managers are reducing the facetime and on the ground support a local advertiser may have once enjoyed. Few owners in radio, means less competition and in some areas has resulted in rising prices.
An exciting development is the launch of small scale DAB (Digital Audio Broadcast) which has led to many of the presenters and commercial teams of what were successful local radio stations, launching new brands, providing hyper local content with great music – this is creating a lower entry point to radio in terms of cost with a super local audience – for a small independent business that could mean less wastage than buying a regional radio station, but be careful to understand the audience – these stations’ audiences are often not measured by RAJAR, but other metrics such as website traffic, social media following and anecdotal evidence can all help you make a smart decision.
New Technologies Deliver Greater Targeting
One of the most exciting developments in radio is the introduction of platforms like DAX (Digital Advertising Exchange) from Global and Bauers Instream – both allow you to buy an audience across multiple radio brands and other audio products which can make your business hugely credible – think about a small local independent business that is being heard on a national brand like Absolute Radio – it all feels pretty wow! But where your advertising is heard is only one part of this new digital audio advertising technology. Much like buying advertising with META, you can cap frequency (the number of times a single person hears your ads) and you can even schedule for specific ads to be played to the same person in order – imagine telling a story to Laura in East Yorkshire in 3 parts – the first advert the beginning, the 2nd advert the middle, and the 3rd advert – a climatic end! It really is incredible. This solution only serves listeners on select platforms. While this comes at a cost, it really is exciting to see radio staying relevant by increasing the ability for advertisers to target specific audiences.
Choosing the Right Station
Radio advertising like other media allows you to target a specific geographic location with stations having a defined transmission area and often the ability to target a smaller part of it if they have multiple transmitters – maybe a mast to help the station be heard in 2 parts of the same county.
You can target audiences with clear demographics or behavioural interests – think about Jazz FM versus Heart – it’s not hard to imagine the difference in the age and lifestyle of these listeners. Be mindful that which stations have in depth insights into who is listening to what station and when, you are still going to be buying a broader audience than if you picked a really niche publication or created a targeted Facebook advert aimed at 45-55 females interested in rock climbing!
So what should you pay for Radio Advertising?
While you can buy various “packages”, the most common ways to buy airtime on radio is either on Cost Per Thousand (CPT) – where you pay a fixed price for every thousand impacts, times your adverts are heard. Alternatively many local or smaller radio stations will charge a simple spot rate that may vary by time of day, day of the week or volume of spots you purchase.
Cost per thousand is a great tool if you are buying multiple stations as effectively it gives you a comparable measure of value – if you pay £2 cost per thousand, it doesn’t matter if the radio station can deliver you 100,000 impacts or 1million, the value you receive is comparable.
Cost per thousand can vary greatly – working in radio in 2003 you could see national advertisers paying less that £1 CPT and local stations looking for £2.50 or more. New digital solutions with ever more capable targeting can see that CPT rise to £12-£14.
Today with fewer media owners in the market, prices have certainly increased but with the right knowledge, experience and buying power an advertising agency like The Word Agency will be able to help you get best value on your station of choice.
Need some help?
The Word Agency team has over 20 years of experience working in radio for the groups and stations you are thinking of advertising with. Our knowledge of the stations and existing relationships with the biggest groups mean we can secure you excellent rates and advise you on the campaign plans that will make the biggest impact. We are also now media buyer for countless businesses advertising on radio – we do the research, we buy the media and we make the ads.
If you want support in planning your radio campaign, be it your first, or your next, contact us.