Television advertising

[KevinC]

I have the oppertunity to have a nice decent commercial made and run 30 sec. regional spots(ie. chicago, New Jersey)for around $14 / spot. The demographic is what I'm looking for but I'm not sure if it would convert well? Does anybody have any experience with this type of offline advertising and had any good or bad experiences?

[Visit Thailand]

I have advertised on TV but it was not for a website so the results were harder to judge. 14$ (US$?) seems very very cheap though. Does that include the creation of the commercial as well? What time slot does the ad run in?

For that price I would jump at it if the numbers are right.

[mack]

Fot 14$ I dont see why you need to ask. All advertising is good advertising, but $14 are you sure that is the right price.

Tv advertising always seams to have the highest price, and also minimum spend. When i was doing a project for college part of it was gathering information on different forma of advertising and to run a UK ad it was looking at the thick end of 10k.

[KevinC]

ya that is the price, give or take a few bucks depending on when and where its aired. I think there is a large minumum spend but may be worth it if I can get lots of exposure.

[mack]

I think the issue is it will do wonders for your brand awareness. ROI may be slightly lower than online advetising, it just depends on your goals from your campaigne.

[KevinC]

well I have good domain that is easily remembered so branding could help a lot for my site. It would be extremly hard to accuratly track sales from the ad unless I set up a subdomain like tv.domain.com or something like that. I actually won't setup this kind of system. The spot can be aired on network TV like the discovery channel, family channel and these types of channels. I am still looking into it at this point though

[Crazy_Fool]

no experience of proper advertising, but a client did a lot of promotion through press releases resulting eventually in interviews on BBC news - although the news item was only aired a few times, he received a vast amount of additional traffic and sales. the news item later led to him being featured in a tv documentary, which again led to vast amounts of traffic and sales.

although getting on tv works, i don't know if proper tv advertising will work - that's normally the time when everyone goes to put the kettle on ....

i say at that price, give it a go then come back and let us know what happens. and if it works, i'd appreciate some more info about the tv advertising contracts etc as i have a couple of clients that would definitely pay that kind of money for advertising on tv in the US.

[Travoli]

I heard a rumor that some stations are running backfill ads on a cost per lead basis. They run your commercial with a special 1-800 number, and they get paid per call / completed call.

They run the commercials when they have unsold inventory, which usually ends up being late at night. But, since you only pay for what you get, it works nicely.

[Mardi_Gras]

I heard a rumor that some stations are running backfill ads on a cost per lead basis

That's not a rumor - those are called "PI" spots, or Per Inquiry. They are not new, but there are lots of availabilities for them these days.

As for $14 spots, keep in mind that advertising is priced (roughly) according to the number of people watching. At $14 per spot, you won't be reaching many eyeballs. An overnight spot on a broadcast station in New Orleans goes for $25 to $50, and our rates are a fraction of what you would expect to pay in the Northeast. This sounds like cable inventory - and not on Fox News.

You need more specifics - where are these spots being run, when are they being run, and who will be watching. Don't get misled by the price per spot - focus on what you are getting for the money.