A Guide to Media Buying And Planning Rates in Perth

So the radio ads are made, the TV ad has been produced, you’ve got some striking billboards ready to go, but there’s one little problem - where to you put them all?

Welcome to the world of media buying and planning.

Media buying and media planning is one of the most necessary, but potentially confusing parts of advertising your business. There are so many different mediums, all of which have a their own set of platforms, with their own time slots. It’s overwhelming to say the least.

Media in Perth

The thing that makes Perth unique as a city in terms of media, is that it is often used as a test market for brands that are looking to launch things nationally. That’s because it is a small city that is cost effective for companies to run ads, compared with larger cities like Sydney or Melbourne. 

TVThe way TV media is sold to advertisers, is through the “TARP” system. TARP stands for ‘Target Audience Rating Point’ and is represented by a number between 0 and 100. The number refers to the percentage of a target market that views a given program.

Let’s say that your target market is men aged 18-25. Now take a show like ‘Game of Thrones’, which has a TARP of 25. This means that 25% of men aged 18-25 watch Game of Thrones.

Shows with higher TARPs charge higher prices for advertising space, and shows with lower TARPs charge lower prices.

PERTH PRICE RANGE: From $200 - $3000 per spot*

RADIO

Radio media is priced according to when the peak listening times are for users. This is often known as BMAD, which stands for “Breakfast, Morning, Afternoon, Drive”. These are the key times that ads play on the radio. Ads can also be played in a variety of different ways on the platform, including:

• Native advertising in news, traffic and weather reports (live read or recorded)
• Promotions
• Sponsorships (i.e. “this X was brought to you by…”)
• Ad breaks 

Radio ads can also be played on digital radio platforms such as Pandora and Spotify. This allows you to reach listeners on any device (mobile, desktop and in their cars) as well as measure impressions, plays and engagements with unprecedented accuracy.

PERTH PRICE RANGE: From $40 - $300 per spot*

OUTDOOR

Unlike radio and TV ads, outdoor ads rely on physical placement in order to be effective and are priced according the the amount of foot traffic that comes through the area. The different kinds of outdoor mediums include:

• Billboard including large format poster
• Transit advertising and wraps including taxis, buses, trains, trams, ferries, light rail, railway stations
• Adshels
• Street furniture including bus shelters, kiosks, telephone booths, street posters
• Mobile Billboards
• Airport Advertising including large format and carousel
• Shopping center
• Ambient advertising
• Point of Sale

In Perth, outdoor advertising is like any other city, in that the price will vary according to where the ad is placed. For example - a billboard in Yagan Square is going to cost more than an adshel near a small IGA in South Perth. 

PERTH PRICE RANGE: From $500 - $15000 per location*

ONLINE

Online advertising has exploded since 2010 and continues to grow with existing platforms explanding their services in addition to new platforms popping up all the time. While there are many platforms to talk about, we’re just going to focus on Facebook and display advertising. 

Facebook

There was once a time where you could post free ads on Facebook and they would do pretty well. To cut a long story short, those days are over, however Facebook Paid Advertising presents new opportunites and better ways to reach customers than the previously popular organic methods of advertising on the platform.

Facebook is undoubtedly the most sophisticated advertising medium of the modern world, and its media placement capabilities are unlike anything else you’ll encounter in other mediums. 

Facebook allows you to buy “media” in the form of space in users’ newsfeeds. This means that when they are scrolling through their newsfeed, they will see your ad slipped in amongst posts from your friends and family. 

Some ads look almost exactly like something your friends would post, however You can tell if it’s an ad because it will have “Sponsored” in the post somewhere. 

Facebook is really brilliant because of the level of specificity you are able to employ in order to reach your target audience. You can target people by their location (down to the kilometre), their interests, their age, gender and more. This is something that is only possible due to the very personal nature of Facebook, and cannot be replicated by other mediums as of yet. 

Facebook media is priced according to the level of competition for the same target audience desired by other ad sets. For example, new home builders have a lot of competition, so many companies are trying to run ads to the same group of people for the same kind of product. This means that the cost per impression or cost per click is going to be higher than for another product like specialist gardening supplies (which only target very niche markets with little competition). 

PERTH PRICE RANGE: From $500 - $5000+ per week*

Display Advertising

Display advertising, also known as “banner ads” uses ad placement on third-party websites to market your business.

Display advertising is priced according to the number of impressions you want it to make.

PERTH PRICE RANGE: From $300 - $5000+ per week*

How Should You Go About Buying Media?

If you haven’t noticed already, media buying (and planning) can be very complex. To really get the most out of your media, you need to contact a media buying agency or an advertising agency that does media buying, rather than trying to do it yourself or going directly to the station.

There are three reasons for this:

• Discounted Rates – Radio stations, TV stations and outdoor media (and basically any company that deals in selling media space) have special relationships with advertising and media buying and planning agencies. They have special discounted rates for media, which cannot be given to the public. This will almost always save you thousands in media costs. 
   
• Your Ad Will Get The Best Placement –An advertising or media buying agency has no affiliation with one medium over another. They don’t care if they use one radio station instead of another one, and it makes no difference if they use channel 7, 9 or 10. What doesmake a difference is the success of your ad. Agencies count on the success of your ad for their own success, so they have vested interest in ensuring that your ad helps you grow your business. This means that they are always going for the option that gives you’re the best chance at success.
   
• Experience – Any agency worth it’s salt has been buying and planning media for a long time, and they know what they’re doing. They understand the often complicated nature of the industry and how to navigate and negotiate the best deals for you. Buying media is an investment, so you want the best guidance possible to endsure that you get returns that are worth it. 

What To Avoid In Perth

The truth is that in Perth, there are some ‘less than ideal’ offers out there for media (to put it nicely). I have often seen deals that look like this:

Yikes.

Deals like this seem a little bit too good to be true…because they are. Media deals are sold in a very alluring way for dirt cheap, without telling you that it’s really not going to do anything for your business in the long run (or potentially even the short run).

While you receive “30 spots a week”, the reality is that they are often played at strange times (like 4am on a weekday), played on shows that have very few viewers, and reach people who most likely are not your target audience. 

This ends up being a massive waste of money that reall achieves nothing. My advice would be to just ignore offers that seem too good to be true. 

Good luck! 

*Disclaimer – all rates provided are a rough guide only.