How does a radio station sell advertising spots is it the station cume or is it a certain demographic that dictates how much an advertiser pays for that commercial on that station. What I’m saying is does a station with a cume of 700,000 people make more money than a station with 450,000
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Radio advertising question
- Thread starter CassChopper96
- Start date
Stations don't sell cume. Ad rates are based on the average audience in the hours of the day that ads are bought.
Average audience size, expressed as Average Quarter Hour Persons, is used to calculate a metric we used to use but which helps even now to explain how ads are prices. The metric is "Cost Per Thousand", which means how much it costs to reach every thousand people.
An example of a station with a cume around 700,000 would be WXTU in Philadelphia. Its average audience size is about 10,000 persons. Another with that size cume is WBEN, with an AQH audience of around 7,500. So stations with the same cume may have very different average audience size.
Advertisers use average audience size because they want to know how many people listen to each ad, not how many people the station reaches. They decide how much each station is worth to them based on the delivery of the kind of listeners they want.
So price is based on audience size, format, age of the average listener, and a number of other metrics.
Varying rates are also established by the packaging of the sales buy. If the advertiser is willing to accept a full 5:30A - 10A as their "morning drive", they might get a substantially lower rate than the advertiser who insists on only running from 8a-10a where the most listeners usually are.
If an advertiser is willing to advertise over a broad range of dayparts including nights and weekends, then the station can give them a break on their individual daypart rates by averaging things out.
There are advertisers that are around week-in, week-out, all year long. These guys are given substantially lower rates across the board at many stations since when stations get into a heavily sold week before a holiday, the year-long guys get shoved around into other weeks within the month. An example of a year-long advertiser is someone like the Phila. Ford Dealers Assn. They're around all the time, and I'll bet you can frequently hear their spots between 5:30 and 6 AM on many days.
If an advertiser is willing to advertise over a broad range of dayparts including nights and weekends, then the station can give them a break on their individual daypart rates by averaging things out.
There are advertisers that are around week-in, week-out, all year long. These guys are given substantially lower rates across the board at many stations since when stations get into a heavily sold week before a holiday, the year-long guys get shoved around into other weeks within the month. An example of a year-long advertiser is someone like the Phila. Ford Dealers Assn. They're around all the time, and I'll bet you can frequently hear their spots between 5:30 and 6 AM on many days.
The above is 'sort of' true in certain cases but generally the best times go to the week after week long term customers who also get the better rate. Consider them the cake and the seasonal or certain times advertiser being the icing. Most stations use a Grid in pricing. Planners of advertising can get the best rate by ordering the schedules far in advance before the inventory of advertising begins to fill up. As it fills up, the price per ad increases until you hopefully reach sell out.
An advertiser that buys ROS or TAP Plans can get the the available slots versus the better slots in a daypart in peak weeks. These advertisers tend to buy in quantity and look at number of impressions versus specific times.
Another option is last minute saturation. This happens, say, when the week's ads are scheduled and say, there is 20% unsold. Advertisers can buy a percentage of available slots for a certain dollar amount that is generally far below the usual spot rate. Sure that means most of these spots play at the least desired times of the week, but bundled with the regular schedule the advertiser bought, it really reduces the cost per impression. This might mean twice an hour 7 to Midnight and some early morning times on weekends when many are sleeping in.
An advertiser that buys ROS or TAP Plans can get the the available slots versus the better slots in a daypart in peak weeks. These advertisers tend to buy in quantity and look at number of impressions versus specific times.
Another option is last minute saturation. This happens, say, when the week's ads are scheduled and say, there is 20% unsold. Advertisers can buy a percentage of available slots for a certain dollar amount that is generally far below the usual spot rate. Sure that means most of these spots play at the least desired times of the week, but bundled with the regular schedule the advertiser bought, it really reduces the cost per impression. This might mean twice an hour 7 to Midnight and some early morning times on weekends when many are sleeping in.
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