The Ultimate Guide To Promoting Your Brand On The Radio

Updated: October 8th, 2022

What Is Radio Advertising?

Radio advertising is a form of marketing strategy that uses the radio to promote a product or service. While marketers seem to focus on digital advertising, radio advertising is still a relevant marketing strategy.

According to statistics, over 90% of Americans listen to radio weekly. Besides, online radio consumption has been on the rise over the past years.

Therefore, radio advertising continues to be a relevant approach to marketing products and services.

article

Topic
Print + Traditional
Cost
High
Difficulty
Easy
Result
Brand Awareness
Cost Details
Radio advertising costs range from $200 to $5,000 per week, on average, depending on location and the size of the listening audience.

Radio Advertising Key Takeaways

  • Timing your ad has a major impact on who hears it
  • The radio station format impacts the core demographics that the radio ad will reach
  • Radio ads depend on repetition to be effective

Understanding How Radio Ads Work

Advertisers pay radio stations for airtime and radio stations broadcast the advertiser’s commercial to the listening audience.

Radio advertising makes your business memorable resulting in more sales. In addition, ads on the radio give a business a personality since listeners create a picture of what they hear.

Finally, radio adverts provide excellent penetration levels, increasing the chances of reaching larger audiences

The Different Radio Commercials

In radio advertising, the advertiser can choose numerous types of commercials. The different types of radio commercials are:

  • Radio Live Reads: Where the radio presenter reads out the advert live on air
  • Radio sponsorship: The advertiser sponsors a program on a particular radio station
  • Radio testimonials: just like online reviews, radio testimonials feature people giving a real-life account of how they found a product or service.
  • Personified Commercial: The advertiser creates a story to get the listener's imagination working

Radio is trusted media and offers advertisers a great advantage when it comes to pushing sales and building brand awareness.

Examples of Successful Radio Adverts

Here are some of the top radio Ads of all time, for your inspiration

1. Dove Cellucure Radio Ad That Boosts the Confidence of Women

Dove wanted to promote Cellucure, one of the companies products. The radio advert wanted to communicate to the target audience in the most creative manner.

They created a compelling radio advert that puts a new perspective and boosts the confidence of women while rooting for realistic beauty expectations.

The radio Ad was nominated as one of the top adverts of 2016.

2. Volkswagen Mystery Radio Advert That Sold

Volkswagen created one of the most famous and successful radio ads that resulted in more sales. In the radio advert, features Stephen Hawking as he explains the universe's mysteries to the audience.

The advertiser explains that the new model available at a low price is one of the mysteries of the universe.

The masterpiece is believed to be behind the massive sales experienced when the advert premièred on Radio

Getting Started With Radio Advertising

  1. Define the target audience
  2. Build a buyer persona based on their interests and micro-influencers
  3. Consider the quality of advert production
  4. Identify appropriate radio station
  5. Choose the appropriate timing
  6. Define how you will measure ROI
  7. Record the radio copy
  8. Test and Deploy

Coming up with a radio advert requires creativity. Thus, you may need to hire a production manager and a voice-over artist.

Check out freelancer sites like Upwork and Fiverr for radio advert production experts and reliable voiceover artists.

Upwork

The largest freelancing website, where businesses connect with talented freelancers.

Businesses using Upwork:

569 successful businesses are using Upwork ➜

Get Upwork ➜

Fiverr

Freelance services marketplace at affordable costs.

Businesses using Fiverr:

507 successful businesses are using Fiverr ➜

Get Fiverr ➜

meet the author
Pat Walls

I'm Pat Walls and I created Starter Story - a website dedicated to helping people start businesses. We interview entrepreneurs from around the world about how they started and grew their businesses.