RadioActive Media : Marketing, Promotions and Advertising: Radio, Television, Magazine, Internet.

By the RadioActive Media Team

Are you getting the results you need and want from your radio schedule? No, perhaps you don’t have enough frequency. This determines how many times your target audience hears your message.

There is no magic formula for the right frequency, but with a little history on your side, you can figure out what works for you. First, look at what you have done in the past and the results you have from those schedules. What has worked and what hasn’t? Take a good look at your schedule – how many spots did you run and over what time period? Did you run more spots in those schedules that did well? If your schedule gave you the results you were looking for, check out what frequency you had on the schedule and keep that number of spots in mind whenever you put a new schedule together. If you didn’t get the best response, you might want to up the number of spots you are running and get a better frequency. Your audience will need to hear your spot more than one time before they move to action.

If you are working with a radio station rep who suggests less than a 2 frequency using PPM measurement or a 3 frequency in diary measurement, he doesn’t have your best interests at heart. As you build a radio history, you will learn the best frequency that will work for your product – sometimes it’s a 4 frequency and sometimes it’s an 8 frequency over several weeks. RadioActive Media has the experience to guide you through the process of finding just the right frequency for your business.

More articles in this series:

Give It Enough Time: Make a Commitment to Your DR Radio Campaign – Common Mistake #1

Finding the Right Radio Station for Your Product – Common Mistake #2

Create engaging copy – Common Mistake #4

Tracking Results of your Radio Direct Response Campaign and Making Changes – Common Mistake #5

@radioactivemed

By the RadioActive Media Team

It seems like every advertiser is only interested in one of two demographic groups: those who are 25-54 or those who are 18-49. These are pretty large demo groups and cover a lot of different types of people. There are so many radio stations to choose from and their ratings  can be within tenths of each other. How do you decide?

Direct response advertising doesn’t necessarily rely just on ratings. Your focus needs to be more on the psychographics of the individual station. If you are selling lawnmowers, you don’t want to advertise on a station where the majority of listeners live in an apartment even if they have the highest ratings in the 25-54 demo. That would be a waste of money and your results would not be stellar.

Most radio stations should have available some type of psychographics for their station. The information can be syndicated like Scarborough or Media Audit or proprietary, gathered by station personnel or a third party. This data can give a better insight into the people behind the numbers. It can tell you where they fall in the 18-49 demo. Are they on the younger end or the older end? Do they have children? Do they own a home? Are they planning on buying a home, a car, a computer or a pair of eye glasses? What is their household income? Where in the metro area do they live?

This type of information is vital to you when you are deciding where to place either your short form or long form advertising. At RadioActive Media we can direct your advertising to the best station for your product.

More articles in this series

Give It Enough Time: Make a Commitment to Your DR Radio Campaign Common Mistake #1

Creating Enough Frequency – Common Mistake #3

Create engaging copy – Common Mistake #4

Tracking Results of your Radio Direct Response Campaign and Making Changes – Common Mistake #5

@radioactivemed

By the RadioActive Media Team

We live in an age of instant gratification. People want what they want and they want it NOW! We are impatient for results. If you want to make sure that your target audience hears your ad enough times to take action, don’t skimp on the length of your campaign. You should plan on a minimum of a 13 week commitment for your schedule. Anything less won’t bring you the results you are expecting and you just might miss some potential customers.

With radio direct response campaigns you will already be getting a sense of performance with great frequency at its inception that sets the benchmark for improvement as the campaign progresses.

For clarification let’s make sure we are defining radio direct response in the same way. Long Form direct response is 30 or 60 minute shows that you’ll most likely hear on the weekend or in the evenings, but can be scheduled whenever the station has airtime available. Most common show themes include mortgage, financial, home repair, real estate type shows, but Sunday morning religious shows can also be considered long form direct response. Short form is, well, shorter! They run a minute or less (:5, :10, :15 or :30) and ask you to do something – call, e-mail, text – take some kind of action.

Let’s look at long form. You can promote the heck out the show on the station you are running, but it doesn’t mean everyone will tune in the first show out of the gate. It might be 2 to 3 weeks before the public becomes aware of the show’s existence or remembers to listen to the show. Sometimes a listener will stumble upon a show and will think wow – great show, but it can take a while before it becomes a habit. Statistics show it takes any where from 4 to 6 weeks to create a habit and to tell others. Remember you are building your audience over time and allowing your expert to build a rapport with listeners.  Don’t shortchange your program by pulling it after a month because results aren’t what you wanted or expected.

What about short form?  Do you know how many times someone needs to hear your ad before they act? Some people will respond right away, but most people will take several hearings before they take action. Depending upon your product or service, it might take 6 to 8 times before someone is moved to act. With an ever evolving radio audience you want to make sure your message gets the proper exposure and you don’t want to pull your ad before that happens. When your Account Executive shows you a schedule, the frequency absolutely has to be a minimum of 2 using PPM ratings and a minimum of 3 using diary ratings. (Check your market to see what rating system is currently being used.) Any less frequency won’t work and you can bet your AE doesn’t have your best interest at heart.

The bottom line is don’t be impatient with your radio advertising campaign. Give it time to capture its audience: 13 weeks for long form and make sure your short form campaign has a good reach with a 6-8 frequency for your listening audience.

More articles in this series  

Finding the Right Radio Station for Your Product – Common Mistake #2

Creating Enough Frequency – Common Mistake #3

Create engaging copy – Common Mistake #4

Tracking Results of your Radio Direct Response Campaign and Making Changes – Common Mistake #5

@radioactivemed