Automotive Media Buy Key to a Successful Campaign
For a car dealer, there is a science to an automotive media buy. Should you use radio, TV, Internet, direct mail, newspaper or something else – and in what combinations? How much should I spend to have an effective automotive advertising campaign? For what length of time should my advertising campaign run?
These are not easy decisions, which is precisely why hiring an advertising agency is often the wisest – and most cost-effective – decision a car dealer can make. The best agencies employ the most skilled media buyers, who operate using the industry terms “reach” and “frequency.”
Reach’s Benefit in the Automotive Media Buy
The definition of reach is fairly straightforward: It measures how many people are exposed to your message over a given period of time. Thus, the more people who see your dealership’s message, the higher the reach percentage. So, the higher the reach percentage, the more people see your ads.
Frequency’s Benefit in the Automotive Media Buy
Frequency measures how often people are exposed to your message over a period of time. In other words, some people may hear your message a time or two, while others could be exposed to it numerous times. This is important because the higher the frequency, the more top-of-mind your ad becomes with your audience. To ensure the effectiveness of an ad campaign, we operate under the premise that the frequency should be at least six.
What are GRPs in an Automotive Media Buy?
Reach is expressed by a whole number, while frequency is a number written out to one decimal point. When you multiply the reach by the frequency, you get the number of Gross Rating Points, or GRPs. This is the total of all rating points during an ad campaign, and one rating point makes up 1% of the potential audience.
Measuring the Automotive Advertising Audience
Each media outlet has its own way to measure their audience’s size and traits. Broadcast TV and cable use Nielsen, while radio utilizes Arbitron (now also known as Nielsen Audio). Broadcast TV and cable are measured by program, while radio is measured by day part.
What Makes a Great Automotive Media Buy
As you can see, it makes sense to employ an agency armed with knowledge about your dealership, your market and your competition. They must also be able to provide pertinent reports that explain everything discussed above in detail. They should be proactive rather than reactive; they should be responsive; and they should be able to assist you in all phases of your automotive media buy.
A media buyer with these tools and abilities at his/her disposal will save you time and money, which also saves you from additional stress. How? They’ll know what you should be paying for your ads. They’ll know what your competition is paying. They essentially take the rate card many dealers use as their benchmark – and throw it in the trash, because they know they can do better. They help you decide what media to use, and in what quantities. There’s no doubt that a talented, relentless media buyer is worth his/her weight in gold.
If you’re still not convinced you need an agency helping you with your automotive media buy, fill out the form on this page for a free advertising review. JKR will thoroughly review your current ad campaigns and give you our expert advice – completely free of charge.