Is Radio Advertising Still Effective?

Despite radio becoming popular over one hundred years ago, it is still a very relevant source of entertainment. This past week we sat down with Brad Clark from BOB FM to discuss the benefits of advertising through the radio. Does it still make sense for business owners to invest money into radio advertising? Yes – now let’s dive into why.

Seven Facts about Radio Advertising

Is your business taking advantage of radio advertising? According to a post written by Jungle Communications, there are several benefits to marketing your business through radio, including the following:

1.  Radio’s Extensive Reach

Studies have shown that radio reaches over 92% of American adults. This means, that more people are listening to the radio, than using websites or apps for online search, social media, e-commerce, and video. If you’re spending money on advertisements on social media, why not try advertising on the radio? It has an even bigger reach!

2.  Selective Targeting

Through radio, advertisers can tailor messages to local audiences. Business owners can direct their messages to specific demographics, psychographics, and geographic locations. As an advertiser, you can also choose to advertise during a particular time of day to reach your target audience.

3.  Cost-Effective

Advertising can be a very expensive cost for businesses; However, radio advertising is worth the cost. A joint study done by Nielsen and Catalina Solutions found that a product that was advertised on the radio delivered $12 in sales for every $1 spent on advertising.

4.  Improving Brand Awareness

Because radio is audio only, it enables the consumer to form a mental image of your brand’s tone, attitude, and message. Overall, radio advertising will help increase your brand awareness to consumers hearing your advertisement multiple times throughout the week. Although brand awareness can be hard to track, it is a benefit to radio advertising.

5.  Anytime, Anywhere Medium

Nielsen’s data shows that 69% of radio listener consumption is done outside of the home. Radio accessibility enables listening in places (and potentially times) that are hard to reach through other channels such as social media advertising, Google advertising, etc. 

6.  Measurable Results (KPIs)

It is always nice to know that your advertisements are working, right? Well, through radio advertising, you can track metrics such as cost per lead, cost per order, revenue per order, and return on media investment. This allows you to understand how well your advertising is working for you.

7.  Integrated Marketing

Consistent messaging across multiple channels is crucial to the success of your marketing. Radio can help drive organic traffic and paid advertising campaigns. 

Learn more about these seven benefits by visiting Jungle Communications.

Companies with Radio Advertising Success

Well, we’ve already shown some of the benefits of radio advertising. And yes, radio advertising works! Let’s look at some of the companies that utilized radio advertising the most in the past couple of years.

According to a post done by Radio World, these five companies ran the most radio spots in 2020:

1. Progressive
2. GEICO
3. The Home Depot
4. Lowe’s
5. Babbel

Now most, if not all of these companies, are very recognizable, household brands. If they’re willing to put that much money into radio advertising, they must be getting the return on investment that they’re looking for.

Now of course it can depend on your company’s demographic. If you are aiming at children ages 12-16, radio advertising might not be as effective as Instagram or Snapchat advertising. However, if you’re aiming for that 34-50 aged homeowner (like we do), radio advertising might just be exactly what you need to help your business flourish. 

Types of Radio Advertising

During our interview with Brad Clark from BOB FM (Total Country), Brad breaks down a couple of radio advertising techniques to ensure your advertising goals are met.

Sprint Campaign

A sprint campaign is essentially what it sounds like. It’s all about speed, and the speed you reach your customer at. For instance, because we service storm damage, it is essential for us to advertise quickly after a storm, to notify the customer that we are here to help. A sprint campaign will run a lot of advertisements within a short period of time. 

Marathon Campaign

Again, a marathon campaign is exactly what it sounds like. It is set to run advertisements over a long period of time. Menards, for example, is a company that has run consistent advertisements for as long as we can remember. Everyone knows the jingle “Save big money at Menards”. 

Brand Awareness from Radio Advertising

Now despite there being many KPIs (key performance indicators), you are able to measure including the following:

• Cost per lead
• Cost per order
• Revenue per order
• Return on media investment

You can not always track the impact advertising has on brand awareness. Brand awareness is the extent to which consumers are familiar with the qualities or image of your brand. Many people might hear your advertisement on the radio, and subconsciously begin to transmit your brand into their memory. Then, when they are selecting a company to do business with, they might choose your company simply due to brand awareness and recognition. 

Again, this isn’t always trackable. There isn’t a code that your consumer is entering or a pixel that is tracking the lead source. Brand awareness is just one of those bonus positives that come along with advertising.

Your Radio Advertising Needs

Just as we hope you’d do business with us regarding your exterior remodeling needs, we hope you choose to do business with BOB FM (Total Country), when beginning your radio advertising campaign. The people at BOB FM are incredibly genuine and will make sure you receive the attention and service you deserve.

Feel free to contact Brad Clark directly at 763-412-4643 and as always, don’t forget to turn your knob to BOB!