Google Radio - The Best Deal in Radio for Nationwide or Local Placement

Interactive Limited is one of the few agencies in the country with experience working with Google Radio. We have worked directly with Google’s staff on targeted campaigns for our clients.

Google Radio will not let you target a particular station, but it does give you the ability to geo-target specific markets and formats within those markets. The Google Radio network has a very good reach with over 1600 stations nationwide in every type of format. The station list also includes many large clear channel stations.

Google claims that the space that is sold through their auction process is not “remnant inventory.” On their AdWords blog they state: “Google Audio Ads are not from remnant inventory. Remnant inventory refers to unbooked advertising time that is sold by radio stations at the last minute to ensure all ad spots are filled. Google Audio Ads offer premium inventory throughout the entire week, including prime day-parts such as morning and afternoon drive time.” In our experience, the competitive bidding on premium ads is very low. So it’s hard to believe that stations in major metro markets are reserving space for Google’s auction-based ads during premium drive times.

Placing radio with Google Audio is most effective with second-tier markets. We find that we can get good air-time slots at a very low price in markets like Charlotte, North Carolina, or Madison, Wisconsin.

It is very important when using Google Audio to track conversion rates with Google Analytics. The best way to do this is by using a custom URL that is easy to remember. It’s also essential that you track your phone response with a unique vanity number.

The best use of this Google Radio (or Google Audio) is to target a demographic that may not be Web-surfing all day. This could be military personnel, construction workers, janitors, gas station attendants, etc. While everyone piles in the same keywords on AdWords, you may be able to reach a demographic that suits your product or service, but has limited access to the Internet. You can target a sports format, urban music radio, or gospel music stations. This can offer you the opportunity to reach a new, rich vein of potential customers without dealing with a hundred stations and all the billing, scheduling, and monitoring hassles.

Interactive Limited will work with Google’s staff to give you a market research report that will give you specific recommendations about which formats to target. We will also help you write your script for maximum effectiveness and will help you hire your production company (all ads are 30 seconds in length max). The production rates for creating ads are as low as 100 dollars per spot. We will then set up your Google analytics for your custom URL. We will also help you obtain a good vanity number. We will then set up your campaign with your desired budget and target your ads.

After a week of running the ads, we will review your results and make any changes that may be necessary. Google Radio spots are very inexpensive. In many second-tier markets like Greenville, NC, prime drive time can be purchased for 2 dollars per thousand impressions. In top-tier markets like Atlanta or New York, you can pay up to 20 dollars per 1000 impressions, but this is still a very good price if you are targeting your ads properly. If you have a product or service that can be described in a 30-second radio spot, then give us a call. We will be happy to set up your campaign and run it for you with all the analytics for a 15% agency-fee rate.