Commercial stations programme your spots according to their statistics on who is listening and when. Industry advice says you want to be sure that your target audience has the opportunity to hear your ad, a minimum of three times each week you’re on air.
Plan to advertise for a minimum of four weeks, ideally longer. Remember that radio works on repetition over time.
The fight for weekend retail business means that airtime is often more expensive towards the end of the week, but usually there are more listeners at the beginning of the week. Be smart about where you book your airtime.
Overnight spots are usually cheaper, but unless you’re targeting insomniacs or shift workers, you may be better paying more for spots when people are awake and listening.
Do not avoid drive times because you think people won’t be able to write down your number. You know that writing down your number is not the purpose of your advertising. The purpose of your advertising is to create the need to find your number.
Select the station or mix of stations that best match your target audience and your budget. It might be better to have more listeners in your target market than more listeners in general.
The first thing you’re going to want to know is whether you can afford radio advertising. A short rule of thumb is, If you can afford print advertising you should be talking to your local radio stations as well.
The cost of both elements of your radio advertising – creative and airtime, is largely dictated by the number of listeners. Bigger stations cost more.