Can you remember the last time you wanted to look up a business and used the Yellow Pages?
For me, it has been a least a decade. There was a time when the Yellow Pages was the most efficient way to find services and products. But because of the internet, those times have changed.
The same thing applies for radio advertising. There was a point in time when radio ads where a company’s best bet at bringing in new business. But those times have also changed.
Here are two reasons why:
1. Radio ads are not track-able
When it comes to creating efficiency in advertising, being able to track your results in an ABSOLUTELY MUST! Otherwise, you have no clue how well the ad is performing and you inevitably can’t tell whether you are wasting your money or not.
The only real way you can track the success of a radio campaign is to survey the listeners of the ad. If you send them to a phone number, the operator can ask where they heard the ad. If you send them to a website, there can be a survey asking where the visitor heard about the site.
But even that method of tracking is not full proof because now you are at the mercy of the ad listener to say that they heard about the company on the radio.
So if you cannot automatically track whether a visit comes to your site or calls your number as a direct result of hearing your ad, you are simply gambling with your money.
2. Radio are not scale-able
Scale-ability is not huge component of efficient advertising. If you spend $1 on an ad and it results in a $2 profit, then now you know you can expect a $4 profit, if you spend $2. You can just spend more money to increase the reach of the ad.
Not so with radio advertising.
The effectiveness of radio advertising is not worth the money for most business models. There are far better advertising options out there are allow advertisers to be more precise with their message while being cost-efficient.
Your ability to correctly target and accurately track your ad’s performance can make or break your business.