Is it true that radio advertising is expensive? How much are the real costs of advertising with radio stations? And most important of all, which radio stations to advertise on? What price range should you be paying for an ad on the radio and how many times should you air your ad?

There are two essential issues to keep in mind when advertising on the radio; one is the content of the promotional message you want to convey and two, the station to choose as well as the hours you decide to air the commercial on.

Promotional messages are extremely important and must be prepared to have the maximum impact and attract the right kind of public. Creating a radio ad that will drive traffic to your business is extremely important to the advertising process. Although you may be tempted by offers radio personalities and DJs may propose, these are not likely to be any help to you. These personalities are not experts in marketing products or services and lack the experience you need for an effective promotional message.

Creating an animated radio commercial is easy for a DJ, but he or she cannot offer you an ad that drives traffic to your business. Effective radio advertising has to be created with specific strategies in mind in order to get the maximum response from the public.

Well, now for the costs. Averagely a radio commercial will cost you around 500 to 1000, depending on the time it is on air and the length of the advertisement. Cost will also depend on who is speaking out the ad and the quality of the production services.

Next, you will have to choose the right radio station for your kind of ad. This will depend which stations your potential clients are likely to be listening to. When searching for a radio station you will need to consider your potential clients interests, hobbies, beliefs, age and income level. Once you have found a possible radio station your next step will be to decide on the time of day your radio advertisement should go on air. Then you can start asking about prices, using tools to see who reaches the target audience best, such as cost per point, cost per thousand etc.

If the prices are not competitive then ask for a better proposal. Remember to ask about added value, because although it can be time consuming to ask all the radios what price they offer it is worthwhile for the end result is a good price for an effective radio ad. The costs for advertising can be as low as 4 per 60 spots and as high as 850 per 60 spots depending on what city you are advertising in. The only strategy you can adopt if you live in a big city where radio advertising cost more is to try competition leverage between the radios you are interested. If you do your research work thoroughly, then you can get some good prices for radio advertising.