Burkhard Works: Planning for Profitable Radio Advertising?

Planning for Profitable Radio Advertising


y now you've listened to a few spots on The Radio Show and have learned how to write a solid Communications Strategy. You may have scanned the Basics of Direct Response Radio page and even explored a few Advanced Concepts of Radio. Enough theory, eh? "What's Radio going to cost me?" you ask. "Time is money, and I haven't got all day! Say I test radio. What will happen?" Find out for yourself. Set your own Target Year I incremental revenues and an acceptable Media Cost per Sale. You know your Target Audience, how Your Thing works better than your competition. How soon do you want to get started? Without a Budget & a Deadline There is No Reality. Only Wishful Thinking. To help you get to the edge of Square One I put together a Free Excel Workbook. I'll send you a copy as soon as I get your email.

On each page you'll answer some questions or plug some numbers into YELLOW BOXES. Communications Strategy. Target Audience Demos. Sales & Profit Goals. Test Budget & Timeline. You'll create your own Year I Plan: Target inquiries, conversion and sales. Affordable Media Cost per Sale. A 12-month Cash Flow projection. Even a 10-Day Test predictor. The screenshots to the right compress a first-time radio advertiser's Year I Target Audience Demos, Phone & Web Sales, and GM/C targets into expected results from a 10-Day Test. The advertiser intends to attract $1.0MM in Year I Radio-driven revenues at a $100 downstream value per customer and a 44% MCPS. He plans to grow sales 8% month over month. There are 6 other competitors on the air so we set Initial Resistance at 90%. Year I Target G is 2.636. 10-Day G is 5.009. The test budget will buy 2,600 P25+ gallons of radio at a remnant $3.50 CPM, so we hope for 519 inquiries. The combined phone & web conversion rate is 21% so we hope for 109 sales or about $11K in booked revenue. The initial MCPS will be high (83.5%) but should decrease steadily as the advertiser builds awareness and overcomes resistance. We expect to hit Year I GM/C targets by Month 3. Your numbers will be different, of course. But by the end of the exercise you'll know exactly what the preceding paragraph actually means!		GM/C=X
The entire exercise will take you 20 minutes to two hours. You only have to do it once. It gives me the information I need to get you on the air ASAP. But even if you never spend a nickel in radio, the workbook will be an invaluable resource in the future. Other than the contents of this site, it's the best Free Advice I can give you. " Please Send me your Free Strategy & Planning for ROI.xls."