What Type Of Radio Commercial Would Work Best?

In radio advertising, there are different types of commercials that you as an advertiser might employ, similar to how other businesses might pursue different print advertising options (newspaper vs. magazine, for example) or electronic advertising options (email vs. social media). You have to decide which of these radio commercial types will work best for your business.  Once you’ve made that decision you can move forward with you radio advertising campaign and really ramp up the amount of business you are doing.

Let’s take a look what types of radio ads would work best for your business. Let’s explore all your options. Think about how you have or how you would like to position your company with your advertising.

Live Read

Its when your commercial is voiced live on- air by a radio personality. It is once again based upon a carefully prepared script but instead of being pre-recorded its read “live” by the announcer.

Live reads are typically more expensive than a recorded ad because the announcer is offering a personal endorsement. This adds substantial credibility to your product or service because the audience is hearing from a “friend” or a trusted influencer. On the down side, if the announcer doesn’t do a good job with your commercial, you just have to live with it since it’s live and there are no do overs.  While most announcers are professionals, everyone has a bad day every now and then.

The Sponsorship Spot

If you prefer a more subtle approach to radio ads, sponsorship is the way to go. You can sponsor news, weather reports, traffic updates, or other types of regular programming. This often guarantees your spots air first in the commercial breaks, so you’ll reach more listeners before they have a chance to switch stations or tune out during long breaks. This type of advertising is usually used for branding purposes and can help increase name recognition of a business.

Traditionally Produced Spots

Lastly, there are the produced spots, which are the full-blown radio advertisements that use a dialogue, voice actors, a story, and/or a jingle. These informative advertisements would encourage the listeners to buy the products and services from a certain business.

These are the most common type of radio ads – a professional voice over of a script, though sometimes done by the business owner themselves, especially if they have a high profile. The script is written by a copywriter and is the most important element for this type of campaign – it identifies the problem, provides a solution and finishes with a well-crafted call to action.

About Jingles

The connection between memory and music is strong. One way to make your commercial really stand out is to create a memorable jingle to go along with it. A well-produced jingle or music bed adds professionalism to your brand and is a sure-fire way to gain recognition.

Jingles are typically more expensive to produce than a voice-over and on-going royalty fees may be payable, but a catchy jingle can often keep the product or service being offered in the heads of the listening audience for days, weeks or even years! This type of commercial is the quickest to get on air – most voice-overs can be done within a week, so it’s great for a campaign that needs to be started quickly.

You have to decide which of these radio commercial types will work best for your business.  Once you’ve made that decision you can move forward with you radio advertising campaign and really ramp up the amount of business you are doing.

Note: A radio station has an ad time inventory of about 18 minutes per hour, which it sells in increments of 15 seconds, 30 seconds, and 60 seconds.