There are over 10,000 commercial radio stations in the USA. Radio direct response advertising is on the rise. Think hands free cell phone use! Many stations do not sell out and accept per call or per sale advertising to fill out their inventory. Smart direct marketers are using radio to expand their offers, test their offers, and as a standalone medium. Radio works best for lead generation or a risk free offer. One of our clients uses radio as their primary media, and has sold over 2,000,000 units of one of their popular products. Callers respond to a risk free offer and reach live agents who close the deal and upsell into continuity or a larger unit package
Payout: This is the dollar amount that the marketer pays when a call is placed and lasts for say 30 seconds. Marketers often prefer a “per sale” deal, but media outlets always prefer a “cost per call” deal since they are running the ads and generating a response. Think about it for a moment. You have a dietary supplement in skin care or men’s health. The radio station may have several offers in those categories. Which offer will generate the most revenue for the station and be the easiest sell to the station? Cost per call, of course! A smart direct response media buyer can help crunch the numbers to determine the marketer’s revenue per call. Remember, you are competing with other Per Inquiry (PI) offers, and the stations will jump on offers that give them the best revenue for their unsold inventory. Savvy direct response marketers determine a payout that is competitive in their category and costs less than the cost per call or order of their cash radio buys.
Telemarketing: Per inquiry radio advertising drives calls, and the call center or IVR must have the software and systems to track and source calls to each media outlet. Some Per Inquiry agencies may direct their own toll free numbers to point at a call center for better, more integrated tracking. If your tracking or call center is questionable, forget about per inquiry. Again, a good media buyer or per inquiry radio direct response agency will help with the setup to track the telemarketing.
Per Inquiry direct response radio advertising offers a low cost and scalable marketing strategy. Unlike TV, there is less cost in duplicating and customizing the direct response commercials for proper tracking. Check back here soon to learn more about TV Per Inquiry campaigns.
