Selecting your Audience
From our long experience, here are some general guidelines in helping you select Advertising for different audience/customer targets. Always ask us too if you need help.
085 7100458 any time, day or night!
Check for today’s direct, wholesale rates
Budgeting
Start by setting a general budget allocated against key times for your product or brand sales opportunities.
The budget can of course, be in stages across the year, so you might want to start a campaign small and measure the response. Your budget will in some ways, limit your media choices. By spending your full budget too, you’ll get better media value in extra airtime/bonus Ads, rather than just seeking a discount from it.
In other words, Media Owners prefer to give more space as bonuses and to not reduce the total spend. Always, always, go early for better availability and for better discounts (golden rule but IF you can).
For TV you need to book before their Advance Booking (AB) deadlines which are normally 8 weeks before broadcast, to maximise your savings. But it’s not essential.
Outdoor (OOH) is so busy it requires early attention and availability is fixed, so booking early is Key. Press, Radio, Digital are currently fine to book short term.
Getting Results. The reason for Advertising is sales
The first job of advertising is to inform your target customer about your product in the hope they see it, like it and buy it.
That may be by creating more brand awareness (long term) with the objective of longer term selling. However, the primary reason for Advertising is to inform customers about your product…..the measure of Advertising, is to sell more.
Advertising is an art, not a science. It may be measured simply – did sales increase during the Advertising Campaign or allowing for time lags, just after it?
It may be measured by internet traffic to your Website too, which is a simple monitoring of your Google Analytics (free). If so, by how much? Enough to be worthwhile?
It may be measured by Admatic (which we provide for free) by our Media data (who saw your Ad and how often – called Reach and Frequency – by way of a Post Campaign Analysis). That helps, but only in tweaking later Advertising planning.
It can be measured by attitudinal research (pre and post campaign testing) which we can organise. This helps you to understand how customer perceptions of your brand were changed (or not) by your Advertising Campaign. You’ll see increases and decreases by customer groups contrasting the results before the campaign and then, afterwards. Ask us.
Return on Investment (ROI)
From a sales perspective, if the Advertising Campaign cost X and your Sales increased by Y, the measurement is straightforward – did the profit margin on your Sales increase (Y) exceed the cost of your Advertising (X)? If it did, your Advertising is generating a good ROI.
If it didn’t, you have to ask why. It may not be the Media Advertising – it may be for example that you created a demand that you couldn’t fulfil (stock levels, lack of distribution) or it may be, that your product pricing is off, or it may be that your Creative is not working. Lots of reasons. Consider why and how you can learn from that, improving as you go on.
If it’s awareness you were looking to increase, set KPI’s (targets) before a campaign (for example, you may want an awareness increase of X) and then measure the effectiveness. You measure awareness anecdotally (feedback) and by Research.
You can run a research panel online of target customers and get regular feedback on your Advertising too, both in terms of Media (did they see it) and in terms of Creativity (did they like it).
Some budget guidelines in general are:
10k Budget
Will exclude TV, and probably National Radio and Press. A 10k budget is likely to be focused on Digital (Social and news sites) and local Radio. Possibly consider some smaller Press Advertising.
20k Budget
Possibly will include National Radio, Social, Digital News. Perhaps some AdSmart or SkySmart options you’ll see in our ‘Buy Media’ TV section.
50k Budget
Brings TV into the frame with 15/30 second commercials, also using YouTube through connected TV and perhaps with National Press/Radio advertising. Some Outdoor upweights in local areas too and Digital. A 50k budget will create a good general national campaign.
100k Budget
All media comes into play and just more of it. This is a full blown national campaign over bursts probably of 3 x 4 weeks. You’ll find that certain media choices work better for you, so by using ‘bursts’ gives you the opportunity to measure response and to tweak it.
When Targeting 18-24’s – Social Media, YouTube, Youth Radio, TV Shows and Outdoor
These are generally light users of Media, so a ‘hard to reach’ audience.
If these are your target customers, reach them considering Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, What’s App and Tik Tok if younger) and YouTube. They will listen to Radio, but music driven stations and consider Spin, FM104 and 98FM.
On TV (but they’ll be big YouTubers) they’ll watch programmes not Stations. Consider shows that reflect their lifestyle (Love Island! etc) which they will seek out and of course, family viewing (because they’ll have no choice as the TV is just on!).
The Skysmart and Adsmart TV options could be useful too and should be considered.
This audience will be ‘out and about’ a lot, so Outdoor should be considered especially in Dublin on public transport (Dublin Bus, LUAS and Dart advertising). Generally this market are not Press Readers.
When Targeting 25-34’s – Digital News, Older Radio, TV Shows/Players
As people get a little older, their media consumption changes.
They will become more news ‘interested’ so consider premium digital (independent.ie, irish times.com, rte.ie) and they’ll listen to different radio stations (consider 2FM, Nova, Local Radio). TV viewing changes too, especially if they’re starting families, so more broader shows could be targeted (Drama, Sky Movies, RTE movies) and as the ‘Netflix generation’ this audience show high usage of the TV Players.
Good usage on Social Media in this demographic, but they’re daily activity reduces and you should consider Twitter X.
Press on Sundays has a limited role and so too, Outdoor OOH.
When Targeting 35’s to 54’s – Digital News, Press, National Radio, Broad TV
A more stable media consumption audience, especially as their careers and family lives develop.
Depending on their careers (Businesspeople notably) they will be news led – independent.ie, rte.ie, irishtimes.com and all print titles should be considered. Depending too on their social strata, consider Press Advertising (The Mail on Sunday, Irish Times, Sunday Times etc) and advertising in the free weekend lifestyle magazines which they’ll read.
Their radio listenership changes too and this is where RTE Radio One (noting ‘Morning Ireland’) comes into its own. Consider Today FM, Newstalk too.
Their Social Media activity reduces too, but they’ll still use Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, although less so (to stay in touch rather than to be proactive). Their TV viewing broadens, too so consider spots in News, Family Shows, The Late Late, Home Design programmes. Shows that reflect their more family lifestyles.
When Targeting 55+ Sunday Press, National Radio, Digital News, General TV
This audience has higher discretionary incomes with established families, and these are big TV viewers – so consider all general TV.
Radio listenership is now more national to consider so RTE Radio One, Today FM, Newstalk, Lyric FM, 4FM, but always some Local Radio too.
Sunday Press has a big role (Sunday Times, Mail on Sunday, Sunday World, Sunday Independent) and to a point, daily newspapers, including provincial press in geographic areas that matter to your product.
Outdoor Advertising too, for brand building but not a key choice – ideally an outdoor campaign is a ‘catch all’ so this group will be included by default. Digital news sites (rte.ie, irish times.com, breaking news.ie, independent.ie) work, but Social Media, less so.
When Targeting Dublin
The extensive use of Public Transport to target not just users, but motorists and passers-by, is unique to Dublin so should be considered (Dublin Bus, DART, Luas).
Outdoor Posters on main city streets (Digi panels, Digi poles, 48 Sheets and 6 Sheet Posters) work well as the footfall is high. Radio is strong in Dublin and so too, TV Viewing (and remember the Adsmart/Skysmart options).
Press is national but The Irish Times, Mirror, Sun, Herald, Business Post, have a strong Dublin bias.
When Targeting Nationally
Consider more broad media choices (TV, National Radio, National Press) and then upweight in areas that might be important for you (Cork, Galway, SouthEast, Louth, etc) using local Radio.
Outdoor nationally is expensive, because of the quantity of posters required but new digital OOH formats are worth considering. Upweight too, for particular customer groups you want to reach, using Social but a National campaign should encompass most media working in tandem.
TV nearly always, is the lead medium, but it’s budget dependent. It builds brands.
Does Advertising Work?
Always, every time.
But sometimes more effectively and sometimes less, so the question is the degree it’s working at. The key issues in advertising effectiveness are;
Experience – We know what’s likely to work best.
Creative – Does your Advertising communicate what you’re trying to say, clearly?
Media – Was your Advertising shown to the right people at the right time? That’s us!
Competitors – Was competitor advertising at the same time, overshadowing yours and doing it better? Called ‘Category share’ or ‘Share of voice’.
The Market – Was the market ‘holding up’ in terms of spending, activity or did any outside unforeseen issues affect demand (Covid restrictions or Legislation or Bad PR for example)?
The Product – Is the product offering potent, with a clear Brand proposition value to those you’re hoping will buy?
Other Factors – these may include other issues such as stock levels, dealer participation/enthusiasm, deliveries, packaging, pricing/offers.
Is Research helpful?
It is, in determining a true, ‘independent’ picture of who is watching or reading or listening to what media. We have it all at our Admatic fingertips, so just ask us on any detail. We also have access to Ad Spends research across categories so you can how much a competitor is spending and where within a 10% or 20% accuracy.
Radio Audiences
The JNLR (Radio Research)UM JNLR detailed Q1 2023 vs Q1 2024
Press Audiences
The JNRS (Press Readership survey) Newsbrands formerly The NNI is based on TGI 2020 data. Press owners have opted out of measurement research so it’s unreliable.