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Back to Basics: What’s the Effectiveness and Efficiency of Your Schedule?

May 12, 2022

What does Reach and Frequency really mean to the advertiser? And what’s the difference between Gross Rating Points (GRPs) and Gross Impressions (GIs)? What are the most important estimates to show on my schedule?

If you are like most sellers, you create a quick schedule in Tapscan or other software and then print it out with the default estimates. You may want to consider selecting specific estimates depending on whether you are pitching a local direct client vs. an ad agency.

The best way to discuss scheduling terms is to use a specific schedule. Let’s say we are running a 4-week schedule of 30 spots weekly on KAAA-FM during Monday-Friday 6a-7p. Here are the results of the schedule:

“This 4-week campaign will reach 270,900 different people (Net Reach) an average of 2.7 times (Frequency) for an investment of $18,000.” This demonstrates how effective your station is in delivering the consumer.

Let’s start with the basic terms. These are great to use with local direct accounts.

  • Net Reach: The number of different people exposed to an ad campaign. This is a strength of Radio – a mass appeal medium. How many people does the advertiser want to reach? What is the goal of their advertising?
  • Frequency: The average number of times someone will hear an ad. The higher the frequency, the greater chance that someone will hear the ad, and that they are hearing it more often. Most people will need to hear an ad 3+ times before they will act on the message.
  • Tip: If you run your schedules in Tapscan, select to print the Cost Per Person sentence. It’s a great way to show your cost efficiency to a local direct account. For this example: The cost of reaching each target person an average of 2.7 times is 6.6 cents. (That’s about 2 cents every time someone hears the ad.)

The next level of estimates includes Gross Impressions (GIs) and Cost Per Thousand (CPM). These estimates can be used with local direct or agency accounts.

  • “During our 4-week campaign, your ad will be heard 732,000 times with a cost of $24.59 for every 1,000 impressions.”
  • Gross Impressions: The total number of times the ad will be heard during the campaign. Keep in mind, this is not different people…there is some duplication. This will be one of the biggest numbers you can show an advertiser.
  • Cost Per Thousand: The cost of delivering 1,000 impressions. So why is it CPM instead of CPT? M is the Roman numeral for 1,000.

The most advanced scheduling terms are Gross Ratings Points (GRPs) and Cost Per Point (CPP). These estimates are generally used with agency accounts.

  • “This 4-week campaign will deliver a total of 24 points (% of the population) with a cost of $750 to reach 1% of the population.”
  • Gross Rating Points: The total number of points divided by the % of population that is delivered by the campaign.
  • Cost Per Point: The cost of delivering 1% of the population. This shows the cost efficiency of your station.

Schedules are a great way to show an advertiser how your stations can effectively and efficiently reach their target consumer. Be sure to select the right estimates for your advertiser or agency. Feel a little stuck? Just give us a call. And be sure to check in for our next Back to Basics blog for some tips on scheduling concepts.

For more info, reach out to us here.

-Karen Morriss, Director of Client Services

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