The debate about prioritizing reach or frequency in radio advertising campaigns is ongoing. As radio salespeople, we are trained to sell light, medium, and heavy schedules. Name awareness maintenance, sales events, or new store location launches all require different levels of spot schedules to get the desired result. Start adding TV, billboards, and digital into the mix, and you start spending more money and must know when to focus on reach or frequency. So, is it going to be reach, frequency, or both?
Frequency Focus
1. Niches When your target market is smaller and specific, think of Men’s big and tall retailers; reaching a broader audience may not be profitable. For instance, if you’re marketing a big and tall men’s store, increasing the frequency of your ads gives you a chance to sell emotionally, logically, and for different occasions like suits, shorts, or team-branded shirts. Ads for XXXL shorts and shirts can fall flat on a broader market, making increased reach a waste of resources. Finding media to target men over 6’2” and size 40 waist is your challenge!
2. Buy NOW Market: If your target market is ready to make a purchase, such as selecting a restaurant for a special occasion, increasing the frequency of your ads can be effective. Multiple exposures to your message can motivate this person to visit the website and make a reservation immediately.
3. Lots of Competition: In a saturated market with many competitors, such as heating and cooling dealers, high-frequency campaigns can help your company stand out. Sometimes, being top-of-mind can win the business, whether you lead in the category or not. Private equity companies that own HVAC businesses can buy the market and drown their competitors in ads, especially with pay-per-click online ads, and drive sales when consumers are ready to make a decision.
When to prioritize Reach
1. What’s New When introducing new locations, products, or services, increasing reach is important. When McDonalds rolled out breakfast in the mid-1970s, they needed to familiarize as many people as possible with this new offering. By increasing reach in their advertising strategy, McDonalds could grow their client base with morning commuters and build awareness for egg McMuffins, hotcakes, and sausage.
2. Seasonal Promotions For established brands running seasonal promotions, reach becomes more important than frequency. Think Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte. Starbucks customers know that the start of Fall is when pumpkin spice lattes go on the menu in late August every year. With as many customers as Starbucks, they must let as many of them know about it as possible, and they come running.
3. Get a Lift If your goal is to increase awareness of your business and improve customers’ perceptions of you, focus on reach. Broadening your audience, such as adding music stations to your primarily spoken word-focused buy, helps increase overall brand recognition and can lead to more customer loyalty and engagement.
Ideal Reach and Frequency
When putting a campaign together, you may want to set weekly frequency goals like 2-3 exposures or more if you have a more short-term goal. This can help reduce consumer fatigue and promote a more long-term approach to advertising. On the radio, consider running drive times for work commuters and daytime video ads for those not working during the day or on weekends for recreational pursuits. Sell coffee in AM drive, dinner ideas during the day, and weekend vacations. Meet your customers where they are at that time and get the most bang for your reach and frequency buck.
Jeff Caves is a sales columnist for BSM working in radio and digital sales for Cumulus Media in Dallas, Texas and Boise, Idaho. He is credited with helping launch, build, and develop Sports Radio The Ticket in Boise, into the market’s top sports radio station. During his 26 year stay at KTIK, Caves hosted drive time, programmed the station, and excelled as a top seller. You can reach him by email at jeffcaves54@gmail.com or find him on LinkedIn.
