Radio Ads vs. Internet Ads: Time with Ray Charles

As a small business owner, you work hard to attract new customers to your business. You've probably thought about advertising on the radio before, or even run a few test commercials. You're not getting the results you want, and you think that radio might be the perfect way to reach more people.

Of course, you've also heard great stories about online advertising options. You may have heard that Internet marketing is less expensive than radio advertising. Or you may have heard about the multiple options available for those who market online.

Let's discuss the benefits of radio ads, followed by some of the online advertising options available to you.

How radio ads grow your business

If you listen to the radio, you're going to hear commercials. These commercials are your chance to get your business in front of consumers, explaining who you are and why they should care in the span of just a few seconds.

The biggest issue that small businesses have to tackle with radio advertising is its cost. The cost of radio advertising may range from a few hundred Cedis per week in a small city to thousands in a larger one. Small businesses struggling to make profit might find it difficult to invest a few thousand Cedis in a couple on-air commercials.

Surprisingly, radio advertising has proven to be very profitable in some markets and for certain companies. Of course, whether or not radio advertising is successful depends entirely on whether or not your ads are heard. Some markets are made up of people who do not own cars or regularly listen to radio, so their exposure to radio is limited.

This is my verdict on radio ads: if your ads are heard, they can help you grow your business. But radio can still certainly be expensive, require resources that you may not have, and may not even help your cause if you are located in a city where exposure to radio is low.

Internet advertising

One of the most prevalent forms of online advertising is pay-per-click. PPC ads are small ads for websites that appear along with "organic" search results on Google, Bing, or Yahoo!.

The way PPC ads work is very simple: you choose a keyword to target, create a short ad that focuses on it, and decide what you will bid to appear along with the search results for that keyword. You only pay for your ad when someone clicks on it — unlike radio, you don't pay per impression.

The biggest advantage of PPC over radio is that you only pay for actions. With radio advertising, you pay the same rate no matter how many people are actively listening to your advert. But with PPC, your account is only charged if someone clicks on your advert and goes to your website.

Of course, PPC advertising is a completely different medium than radio, and it's done online. Your website is involved, and your website is what will "sell" potential customers on your business — not your ad or commercial.

In my country Ghana, radio advertisement is still in a comfortable lead compared to internet advertising.