Bidding on Radio? Everything’s Negotiable.

It wasn’t that long ago that small and even medium-sized businesses hated advertising on the radio. Fundamentally, that hatred grew out of soaring prices and being bumped by the station’s larger clients. What chance does Sally’s Grand Open Ad have against Ford Motors’ new car ad?

Luckily, everything’s negotiable. There are a few services out there that have actually automated the media buy negotiating process. Let’s focus on two of them.

Google Audio Ads

The mighty Google has thrown their hat (and their reputation) into the ring. Google Audio ads focus on a Pay-Per-Click approach to media buys. Advertisers login to a dashboard just as they do their Google Adwords account. They are then presented with the opportunity to bid on remnant media buys with participating terrestrial stations through Google’s interface. With no minimum bids, advertisers can get an absolute a steal.

As Google Audio ads are still very beta, there exists a narrow opportunity to bid against no one. However, that opportunity window will quickly narrow as the bid prices approach an instantaneous market value and then we’re back to square one.

Learn more about Google Audio ads on their website at: http://www.Google.com/AudioAds

Bid4Spots.com

Remember Lending Tree, “When banks compete, you win.”? They based their lending business model on a ‘reverse auction.’ Rather than a single seller setting a minimum bid and many buyers vying for a purchase, Bid4Spots allows the media buyers (that’s us) to set a maximum bid and allow stations to bid ever-lower media prices. After all, the stations are selling next week’s leftover airtime.
The real power of Bid4Spots is the steadily lessening of price rather than the gradual increase. In a Bear economy, when most businesses are cutting their media spend, there exists a real opportunity for small and medium-sized businesses to get a lot of airtime for their money.

More information and a video demo are available on Bid4Spots’ website at: http://www.bid4spots.com/AD_Pros_main.aspx

What’s great about both these solutions is their simplicity. You don’t have to be a Media Buyer or have a station manager owe you money to negotiate and buy offline media like a pro.

Just remember, when everyone’s complaining about the economy, it’s those who stand up and speak when everyone else is hiding in their storm shelters that get heard.

Learn more about radio marketing on JDM’s new website and about investing in marketing in a down economy on our post: “Under Dog Marketing in a Down Economy”.