There are two groups of advertising media..
Major media is composed of TV, Radio, large daily newspapers, and large, high traffic outdoor.
Everything else is made up of pretty much everything else:
Restaurant Menus
Park Benches
Gold course tee sponsorships
Weekly or monthly newspapers
Advertising specialties like pens
Movie Theatre advertising
And many, many more
Generally speaking, the cost per ad is a lot less for “Everything else” ads.
Generally speaking, your cost per listener/viewer/reader will be much lower with major media.
If you are in a position to do major advertising in your market, this is where you should focus all of your advertising dollars. If you have a few extra dollars you’d like to put into your advertising, just add them to your major media programs.
Let’s say you’re running 20 radio commercials per week, and you have $200 to add to your ad budget. For $200, you discover that you can run a half page ad in a small monthly publication given away free at the grocery store, or add two more radio commercials to your weekly schedule.
Remember, that every radio ad the thousands of radio users hear brings them one step closer to buying your product or service. The first radio ad you run has the least impact. The last radio ad you run has the most. The two radio ads you add will be the most valuable of all, far more valuable than a new ad in a sparsely read publication.
If you don’t have the ad budget to do major media properly, then, with trial and error, “Everything else” media can still be effective. If your entire ad budget is $200, you will be better off with an ad in a small publication versus only two radio commercials.
There is a sub-category of “everything else” advertising, which can be called “donation media.” This would be church bulletins or local school yearbooks. These might be worthwhile for local goodwill or as a way to donate to the institution. If you get a customer, it’s just a bonus.
