If we choose, we can purchase virtually everything now without interacting with a human. Whether that’s groceries purchased online or in the store, food from restaurants, ink for our printers and most kinds of advertising except for radio. Radio is one of the last things you can’t purchase without interacting with a person. Which certainly has its benefits. It allows us to develop relationships, steer them into ad campaigns and schedules that are more likely to be effective, both of which lead to longer term sales and less churn. However, it isn’t for everyone. Some people, especially those under forty which many ad buyers are, prefer to at least have the option to buy everything online. But, attempts to set something like that up in radio thus far have been half measures that may cut down on the number of calls or meetings a little but don’t eliminate them entirely. What we need is something that looks more like the experience people have when purchasing ads on social media. Here are some thoughts on how we could do that.

Set up a basic package that includes a robust enough amount of radio spots to make an impact and pair that with digital impressions spread across all of the station’s assets. The number of impressions could be determined by looking at the total running average of impressions generated and dividing that by the number of basic package campaigns available. Then pricing all of that at a competitive CPM. Plus, instead of complicating the process by creating multiple different packages at different price points, everyone could work off the basic package and have the option to add on additional radio spots or additional digital impressions. Then a sales rep could follow up via email to see if they’re interested in talking about additional add-ons like endorsements, on-site remotes, etc. 

One of the challenges in making selling radio the same as selling digital is the creative. Often when people are buying digital ads they already have the creative or they’re just boosting content they’ve already produced. To have ads to run across all of our assets, on-air, mobile, website, podcasts, video, we need an audio ad, a video ad and banner ads (Often in multiple sizes). So, we’re always going to need a little more lead time than some other forms of media, but we can shorten that lead time by incorporating AI tools and by having the same aspect ratios (sizes) across our platforms.

One of the main things I hear from people outside our industry about radio is how hard it is to buy radio. Some of them have filled out forms or made calls to numbers listed on advertise with us pages and never heard back. Others have set aside a budget and are ready to buy but got annoyed by the amount of meetings required to make a purchase. While I do believe firmly in the value and importance of a discovery meeting to assess a client’s needs so we can suggest the best custom advertising solution to meet their needs. We have to be willing to shorten that multi-meeting process as much as possible without losing that. But, we also have to acknowledge that there is a growing percentage of ad buyers that would prefer the self-serve option without any calls or in-person meetings. Until radio can provide that option those dollars are going to continue going somewhere else.

What do you think? Comment below or email me at Andy@RadioStationConsultant.com.

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