WHO ARE YOU TRYING TO REACH? The cost of advertising depends on the medium, production costs and how many people the ad reaches. It can range from free for some classified newspaper ads to millions of $$$’s for national TV time. A qualitative factor used in the selection of promotional media is impact. Who are you trying to reach?

HOW MANY PEOPLE DOES THE AD REACH? TV ads are considered the most expensive due to production/placement. An avg. annual cost for producing a 30-second ad is approx. $350,000. Placement varies greatly by size of audience for the channel and program. At the high end, a Super Bowl ad has run between $2,000,000 to $3,000,000 during the first decade in the 21st Century.

RADIO ADVERTISING

Radio advertising also includes production and placement costs, but not to the level of TV. Strategic Media suggests a budget of approx. $20,000 for a typical 3- to 4-week test run.

Radio ads are usually purchased in volume and rotated over the course of 1 week.

RADIO ADVERTISING CONT. Size of the mkt. has a great influence (# of listeners being reached). Much of radio advertising occurs in local markets. If small business wants to sell shipment of goods by the end of week - a good way is to purchase spot ads on a local radio station. Before sponsoring a radio show - one should be familiar with the show's ratings.

NEWSPAPER ADVERTISING Newspaper advertising costs can vary considerably. Newspapers are distributed locally, statewide, regionally and nationally. The wider the distribution, the more expensive.

Smaller businesses often rely on affordable box ad placements. Running larger ads in more widely distributed newspapers are expensive. A full-page black/white ad in "The Wall Street Journal" natl. edition had a cost of $164,300, as of 2011. Preferred position in newspaper ads are most costly. Appropriate ads for local newspapers: used vehicles, hardware stores, grocery stores, dry cleaners, etc.

NEWSPAPER ADVERTISING CONT. The most appropriate media scheduling strategy for advertising food and other frequently purchased items is continuous advertising.

A business owner can save $$$’s by contracting with a local newspaper to purchase a series of ads over a period of time. This entitles them to a volume discount. Another way some newspapers sell ads is at a sliding scale rate. The more ads the business buys, the cheaper the rate to advertise.

MAGAZINE ADVERTISING Magazine ad rates depend on size of the publication & location of distribution (circulation). Local access magazines differ greatly from nationally distributed magazines that draw millions of readers. Costs for magazine ads are affected by size, placement, amount of color and # of words. Startup Biz Hub suggests an "average" selling magazine may charge approx. $200 for a 10-word ad placement. However, a similar ad in a large magazine may cost approx. $10,000 or more.

ONLINE ADVERTISING The Internet is the newest traditional media and offers a vast array of advertising options and price points. Many Internet ads are sold based on the cost per media, CPM. This measures the avg. cost you pay per every 1,000 impressions your ad makes. This gives you a sense of how efficient your placement is relative to other opportunities. Smaller websites offer very reasonable rates, often under $100, for basic banner and text ads; while high traffic sites may charge $1,000’s for ad placements on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

BILLBOARD ADVERTISING Costs of billboards vary greatly based on the economy of the area in which your ads are placed, the billboards' location (VISIBILITY), and the potential daily estimated traffic (number of exposures). Typical placement ranges from $700 to $2,500/mo. Billboards are rarely purchased in singular packages in a metropolitan area, though you often buy signage as a package.

BILLBOARD ADVERTISING CONT. Buying space on 10 billboards for one month, at the high end, could cost up to $25,000 per mo.

Though this sounds expensive, a billboard in Chicago or NYC could potentially get 100’s or 1000’s of daily views based on the # of people passing in a day. Costs have decreased as technology has developed computergenerated vinyl sheeting for sign creation vs. hand-painting.

DIRECT MAIL Direct mail is everywhere - - pieces of unsolicited mail from misc. businesses packed full of info./coupons. While direct mail ads can be a high profit, low cost advertising medium, receivers of direct mail pieces tend to appreciate OR hate these informative & sometimes cost-saving mail advertisements. Direct mail is effective when trying to reach a target market. An acct. executive for a pro. team may send direct-mail advertising letters. It would be necessary to develop a more detailed copy than used in a print ad. The most effective way to address a direct mail letter is to the name of the recipient. DO NOT address such letter to the name of the company.

An advantage of direct mail with coupons is the results of the advertising can be measured. A disadvantage is many people consider the mail to be junk and will discard before reading.

DIRECT MAIL CONT. When using direct mail, you create a letter, postcard or package to send to your target market.

Postcard marketing is the least expensive with packages with samples being the most expensive. Since you are sending out mail en masse you can qualify for a bulk rate which save 20 cents/piece. USPO requires a business to pay a $200 annual mailing list fee to get the bulk rate.