May 28, 2015 | Direct Response Advertising, Direct Response TV
If you want to know the total households by national cable network, here is run down of some of the top performers.
Number of Million Homes by Network:
FXX – 74 Million
ESPN2- 97 Million
NFL Network – 73 Million
Lifetime Movie Network – 82 Million
Investigation Discovery – 87 Million
History Channel – 96 million
Esquire – 70 Million
Tru TV – 92 Million
Comedy Central – 93 Million
Fox News – 97 Million
H2 – 71 Million
OWN – 83 Million
UP – 70 Million
ABC Family – 95.7 Million
CNN – 97 Million
HLN – 97 Million
BET – 88 Million
TLC – 95 Million
USA Network – 98 Million
If you need cost-effective rates to test any of these networks, please contact us. We are here to help. Call 940-323-1101 ext. 1 or buddy@dxmediadirect.com.
May 22, 2015 | Advertising How-To, Direct Response Advertising
There can be many reasons why advertising campaigns tank, but usually it boils down to three reasons:
- Your creative is bad. Have you ever seen a TV ad and asked yourself “What was that about?” Or heard a radio spot that just made you change the station? Sure you have. Bad advertising is all around us. Bad creative makes us change the channel where good creative engages the audience and causes them to do something.
- You paid too much. Many times the people paying for advertising don’t understand all the ways a media outlet can confuse, overcharge or package worthless ads into the mix to make you feel like you are getting a deal when really you just bought junk. Have a professional media buyer on your side. It’s like having a good doctor. They can heal a lot quickly by seeing where your campaign is sick.
- You chose the wrong advertising medium. It’s amazing to me how many times clients have asked me to purchase advertising for them on programs, shows, stations or sites that they like. They paid for this and by gosh they want to see it–never considering where their target customers are consuming their favorite programming. Look at your media mix. Make sure your target customer are there before you invest.
May 22, 2015 | Advertising Rates
We get asked all the time to quote rates for television advertising. It’s a challenge because advertising rates are effected by so many variables. Do you want local or national ads? What time of day do you want to be on? What type of programming do you want your spots featured on? And what time of year do you want to advertise?
Television advertising is a commodity. Supply and demand drive rates week to week. But since you asked, let me give you some ranges.
Local cable spots can run anywhere from $2.00 per ad to $250 a spot.
National cable can run anywhere from $250 a spot to $100,000 a spot.
Network television advertising tends to be the most expensive, ranging from $15,000 a spot to $300,000 a spot.
Of course you have the Super Bowl, which goes for $5 million per :30 second spot.
But before you think you can’t afford it, contact a Direct Response advertising agency. They have ways to save you 90% or more on traditional rates. That’s what we do for our clients. They are pleasantly surprised how inexpensive Television Advertising can be.
May 22, 2015 | Advertising How-To, Direct Response Advertising
Wondering: “How do I improve my advertising?” After 25 years of managing Direct Response advertising campaigns, here are some secret steps to helping you become profitable fast.
Step One: Before you spend a penny, know when you make a dollar.
The heart of direct response is knowing how many responses you need for your investment so the campaign delivers your profit instead of costing you your future retirement. Here are the metrics you need to know:
- How many responses, calls or unique visitors does it take for me to generate a purchase? That is your conversion rate or ratio. If it takes 10 calls for you to generate 1 purchase or sale, then your conversion ratio is 10%.
- Next, how much can I afford to invest to generate these responses? Let’s say your product or service costs the customer $500, and your profit on that sale is $250. If you convert at 10% then your target cost per lead can be no greater than $25 just to break even on your media, or deliver what is called a 1 to 1. Spend a dollar, make a dollar. So any media that delivers a cost per call or response under $25 is a winner.
Step Two: Match your media to your sales system.
Analyze your internal sales system. Do you generate most of your sales from your website? Do you have in-house sales people or a call center answering the phones? When do your best salespeople work? That will guide you to your media mix as to how much Television, Radio, Mobile or Internet you need to be doing.
Step Three: Make sure your creative is really a well-crafted Direct Response piece of advertising.
Direct Response advertising is a totally different animal than branded advertising. There are tried and tested formulas you need to adhere to. Hire a professional Direct Response agency. They will make sure you have the best creative and alert you to any copy that may hurt your response rates.
May 22, 2015 | Direct Response Radio
There are three key benefits to Direct Response Radio over traditional branding advertising.
1.) You know within the first 48 hours if your advertising is performing. With traditional branding advertising, your reps will tell you that it takes 13 weeks or more to see if it’s going to deliver. That’s one way they get to keep more of your budget longer. With Direct Response Radio you know within the first 24 to 48 hours if it’s driving enough calls, website visits or even foot traffic to be worth renewing the next week.
2.) It’s much cheaper to test creative than Direct Response Television advertising. To have a Direct Response Radio ad produced costs anywhere from nothing to $100. It’s very inexpensive to test out different spots to see which copy performs best. TV spots can cost from $3,000 to $150,000 per spot to produce. That’s an expensive venture to find out you have a dud.
3.) You get the benefit of branding on top of immediate sales. A well-executed Direct Response Radio campaign is going to drive calls, leads, sales and brand awareness. So you are really not losing one to gain the other. Get a professional Direct Response agency to help develop and execute your campaign. You will make money, save time and look great doing it.
