Why Buy TV Advertising?
Television is an attractive use of an advertising budget since it maximizes the reach of a commercial message and provides the opportunity for your potential customers to visually understand your service or product. In addition, if your product or service is visually appealing TV advertising may showcase that product better than other media. Television is captivating and holds an audience's attention and TV viewership continues to grow.
What is a Rating? A rating is the percentage of households tuned to a particular program from the total available TV households in a designated area.
What is a Share? A share is the percentage of TV households with sets turned on that are watching your program. In the case of program "A" you divide 1,600 into 500 and get 31 as the audience share for program "A". The share for program "B" would be 18.75 or 19.
What is Reach, Frequency and Gross Rating Points? Media planners often define the communication goals of a media plan using the three interrelated concepts of reach, gross rating points, and frequency. Media planners use reach to set their objective for the total number of people exposed to the media plan.
Typically, television stations will accept spot lengths of 10, 15, 30, and 60 seconds with prices increasing as you increase the length of your spot.
Media planners often think in terms of gross rating points because ad prices often scale with this measure. As a rule of thumb, it costs about twice as much to obtain a GRP of 20 as it does to obtain a GRP of 10. A media plan that calls for a GRP of 20 doesn't necessarily mean that the advertiser must buy 2 spots on a program with a reach of 10. The advertiser could also buy 5 spots on a show that has a rating of 4 (5*4 = 20) or buy a larger number of spots (say 20 spots) that have a rating of 1.
How to Buy TV Advertising
Choose your target audience. Who is your core customer? Try to advertise during the programming that attracts your target audience. Think about their demographics and psychographics.
Combine reach and frequency. Media planners want the highest reach possible because that means more people will be exposed to the campaign, which should lead to more brand awareness, customer loyalty, sales, and so on. Media planners also seek high frequency if they feel that consumers will only take action after multiple exposures to the campaign.
Timing and seasonality. Identify any days or seasons that have the greatest potential for your business (think of the days of the week or the seasons).
Commit to a multiple-week schedule. Most cost-efficient packages are sold on a multiple week basis and, if you want the best results, the number of times you show up in front of potential buyers has a profound impact.
Negotiate a media mix. Consider the television station's website and other channels to see if there are any other potential promotional opportunities.
How do you choose which station to work with?Find out who will work hard for you during your entire campaign. Work with those who understand your needs and your overall business and will work hard to maintain the best schedule for you with minimal preemptions. Develop a relationship with the best performing TV stations in your market and invest in them.
Find out how the station does research. Researching viewer demographics and habits as it relates to individual programs and times of the day is essential in order to create effective advertising campaigns. Every station can brag about their ratings but ask them to go deeper to ensure you are positioned properly at the right time, in the right position on air and online.
What is a Rating? A rating is the percentage of households tuned to a particular program from the total available TV households in a designated area.
What is a Share? A share is the percentage of TV households with sets turned on that are watching your program. In the case of program "A" you divide 1,600 into 500 and get 31 as the audience share for program "A". The share for program "B" would be 18.75 or 19.
What is Reach, Frequency and Gross Rating Points? Media planners often define the communication goals of a media plan using the three interrelated concepts of reach, gross rating points, and frequency. Media planners use reach to set their objective for the total number of people exposed to the media plan.
- Reach is a percentage of the target audience that will be reached during a campaign. For example, if you target women who are 18-25 years old, and that demographic contains roughly 100 thousand members, then a reach of 50 means that 50% or 50 thousand women will be exposed to the media plan.
- Gross Rating Points are a shorthand measure of the total amount of exposure you can buy from TV stations. If a commercial is run only once during a program, the reach would be equal to the rating of the program. If the advertiser's media plan called for running the ad twice during the program, the GRP would be 2 X the rating of the program.
- Frequency connects the concept of reach with that of GRP. Frequency is the ratio of GRP over reach. Frequency is a measure of repetition. The formula of calculating frequency is: Frequency = Gross rating points / Reach. A frequency of 1.5 would mean that, on average, audience members of a program had one-and-a-half opportunities to watch the ad.
Typically, television stations will accept spot lengths of 10, 15, 30, and 60 seconds with prices increasing as you increase the length of your spot.
Media planners often think in terms of gross rating points because ad prices often scale with this measure. As a rule of thumb, it costs about twice as much to obtain a GRP of 20 as it does to obtain a GRP of 10. A media plan that calls for a GRP of 20 doesn't necessarily mean that the advertiser must buy 2 spots on a program with a reach of 10. The advertiser could also buy 5 spots on a show that has a rating of 4 (5*4 = 20) or buy a larger number of spots (say 20 spots) that have a rating of 1.
How to Buy TV Advertising
Choose your target audience. Who is your core customer? Try to advertise during the programming that attracts your target audience. Think about their demographics and psychographics.
- A number of demographics including gender, age, education, household income, marital status, employment status, type of residence, and number of children in the household can be considered.
- Psychographics is a generic term for consumers' personality traits (serious, funny, conservative), beliefs and attitudes about social issues (opinions about abortion, environment, globalization), personal interests (music, sports, movie going), and shopping orientations (recreational shoppers, price-sensitive shoppers, convenience shoppers).
Combine reach and frequency. Media planners want the highest reach possible because that means more people will be exposed to the campaign, which should lead to more brand awareness, customer loyalty, sales, and so on. Media planners also seek high frequency if they feel that consumers will only take action after multiple exposures to the campaign.
Timing and seasonality. Identify any days or seasons that have the greatest potential for your business (think of the days of the week or the seasons).
Commit to a multiple-week schedule. Most cost-efficient packages are sold on a multiple week basis and, if you want the best results, the number of times you show up in front of potential buyers has a profound impact.
Negotiate a media mix. Consider the television station's website and other channels to see if there are any other potential promotional opportunities.
How do you choose which station to work with?Find out who will work hard for you during your entire campaign. Work with those who understand your needs and your overall business and will work hard to maintain the best schedule for you with minimal preemptions. Develop a relationship with the best performing TV stations in your market and invest in them.
Find out how the station does research. Researching viewer demographics and habits as it relates to individual programs and times of the day is essential in order to create effective advertising campaigns. Every station can brag about their ratings but ask them to go deeper to ensure you are positioned properly at the right time, in the right position on air and online.