• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Per Inquiry spots

N

Nostalgia

I scrolled back a few pages and have not seen any mention of Per Inquiry spots. I would like to know of stations experience with them and the brokers who handle them. Any particularly good ones, any ones to avoid? It seems like a way to get something for unused inventory unless they are especially obnoxious 800 number spots screaming the number a zillion times. But from what I have read you can pick and choose what you want and when you want to run them.

Look forward to your comments and suggestions.
 
I have used some spots from SMP Direct Response and gotten a little $ with them.

Basically, they will send you a list with the clients they offer and the rate per inquiry you'll receive.
It works best if you pick spots that fit your format, instead of using all the different spots available.

The ones that worked for us (country) have been Mantis Tiller, MY-TV, Invent Help and some CD set offers.

But right now things are really slow. I stand a better chance of selling cookies on the corner than I do selling ads on my Internet only station. And the last one I sold, I couldn't collect from. So right now I'm running totally commercial free to try to figure out what I should do next..in radio and life in general, I reckon.
 
We sold lots of Icy Hot (competitor to Ben Gay). We sold lots of Watkins (spices) products, a zillion diffrent magazines, Wall Street Journal and USA Today, and many "music collection" record albums.

Ads ran mostly on Sat and Sun, and weekdays after midnight, and in unsold newscasts.
 
Prais,
Who was the rep for those?? Among the ones I have contacted or have contacted me, most have debt relief ads, ect. None of the ones you mentioned.
 
There's almost no "decent" products being sold on PI anymore to my knowledge. E&M Media has a fairly wide variety of PI clients to choose from, at least moving beyond the debt help crud.

For me, the only reason to run PIs is to fill out breaks in a strict clock environment. (Satellite music, sports, whatever) You're probably not looking at more than a few hundred dollars a month, depending on listener base and the number of airings you give them.

Note that lots of syndicators are going for the same PI revenue that you have, so you'd be well served to choose different PI campaigns than your network(s). For example, I hear lots of "Tax Debt Relief Center" spots in Dial Global programs.
 
If you are a dg affiliate, it may be GOOD to run the debt relief spots in addition to what dial global runs. It could be the spot YOU run that motivates the sale.

Also note that bigger media (like maybe dg or on TV, wtbs) get paid a load in ADVANCE of running pi spots. That's part of the deal.
 
IIRC, I think the only ones we had measurable success with were quicken loans and occasionally sears siding/cabinet. I think Media Advantage out if Chicago handled both. I would not run the debt consolidators because I generally don't believe in the product.

Don't forget you can check out the product/service on sites like ripoffreport.com or bbb.org.
 
Nostalgia,

We also ran a couple of PIs from Magnum PI/Nectar Media recently. One of them was a Yasmin lawsuit ad. Apparently we got some response, because I received a check from Nectar Media recently. Another compnay is buying them so they have a new name and I can't remember what it is.

I worked out a different package that's cheaper for my station. It's mostly listener supported anyway so I've dropped all my ads.

That way I can keep my stream while concentrating more on freelance writing.
 
NE Miss Radio said:
IIRC, I think the only ones we had measurable success with were quicken loans and occasionally sears siding/cabinet. I think Media Advantage out if Chicago handled both. I would not run the debt consolidators because I generally don't believe in the product.

Don't forget you can check out the product/service on sites like ripoffreport.com or bbb.org.
Click to expand...

And you are good to not run the debt consolidation spots. From personal experience, I can tell you, though they may be able to help a few people here and there, it is very possible that some of these companies can put you into a situation where your debts actually rise, and then when it comes to having to pay the bill, the amount of money they tell you to "save" in your "plan" comes nowhere close to the amount needed to settle with your creditors.

I wonder how many people get rooked by these companies...
 
Tried Airtime for a while. Got a check for a client we weren't even running. Then after several months with no checks, we "tested" a few of the numbers and still got no check so we dropped most of them.

Same guy reads almost all of the spots and does do ALL of the phone numbers at the end. The first time he reads the number his voice ends the number with an "up inflection" so the second read of the number sounds like a continuation of the first. Had several people ask us why the numbers are 20 digits long.
 
Our station ran inquiry spots and received nothing. In my view, our job as broadcasters is to get the spot out over the air, not get the product sold. Thus, we should get paid for playing the spot, regardless of the outcome. We no longer air inquiry spots...
 
My experience is Per Inquiry spots are a waste. Copy/Creative is not really listener friendly and payout is minimal. We got $20 here or there (based on a station with no ratings in a major market).

The other option is the companies that call everybody in the phone book and pay you 10% or so of the take. The spots these companies sell are very expensive...generally 10 times the amount you want. The drawback is they might only call one type of business resulting in 10 spots in 5 hours for, say, a funeral home. All would have the same copy...only the business name, address and phone changes.
 
I saw this on RBR and thought it may clear up a few things. Selling for over 20 years, I can tell you from experience that if the product matches your audience and geography, their phone will ring. I can also tell you there is a point of diminishing return, like fishing out a small lake.

More here: http://www.rbr.com/features/sales-marketing/25542.html
 
Based on our experience, you're better off supersizing clients' schedules for a buck, or even a dime, than running PI spots.
 
I had a daily feature on a few stations a few years ago, and I worked with Peter at Higher Power Marketing. I was very impressed with the service and the payouts, and I was a very very small player.
http://www.hpowermarketing.com/
 
Stewy said, "Play another song instead of PI's, unless your listeners would rather hear ads."
_____
I was not in business to play songs, but make cash playing ads. Often, people judge your "success" by the number of ads you run.

I'd MUCH rather "sound successful." It's good psychology to make listeners believe you ARE and advertisers THINK "if they have all those ads, it must be a good place to advrtise.

Perception is EVERYTHING.

.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom