How Much Does It Cost to Advertise on TV? - Can My Small Business Afford to Run a TV Commercial?

Advertising your small business on TV sounds so far-fetched and soooo expensive, doesn't it? But we also know that television is one very powerful medium for getting your company noticed and increasing those all-important sales.

While poking around and researching how much it costs to advertise on TV, I came across an online company called SpotRunner.

What a very cool company this is!

Spot Runner is the world's first television advertising agency that's Internet-based and designed to be used by local businesses. Now local businesses can conveniently and cost-effectively harness the power of high-quality, targeted, television advertising to reach their customers and sell their products and services. With Spot Runner's revolutionary approach to commercial production, media planning and media buying services, local businesses now have access to a powerful marketing tool that was previously out of their reach.

Ok, this looks good... Let's check out SpotRunner!

After getting to SpotRunner, I decided to click around and see how this all works.

The first thing I did was click to the home page and then scroll down to the middle almost bottom of the homepage and click "Create a Schedule - See Channels and Pricing".

After clicking that, I saw that they were going to walk me through the TV commercial creation process. Ok, cool - let's do it!

However, I needed a test company that I am familiar with. My first thought is a local golf simulator bar here in the Atlanta area that is new... and I have fallen in love with. I know this sports bar, I know golf, and I know the target market, so I felt pretty secure in researching TV commercial rates and options for this test.

Here we go....

First thing SpotRunner will ask is for you to define your industry and the demographic of the audience you want to reach. For the purpose of this golf bar, I had two options: 1) I could go the sports bar route, or 2) I could go the golf route. Because of the heavy golf theme and the specialty this sports bar has of having these unique golf simulators, I opted to target the golfers in our area as opposed to only those that were looking for a sports bar.

I then narrowed down my industry to reflect what I was looking for, then defined the demographic which in the golf business is males, 25-64 years old. Now ladies, don't get upset - I am female and a golfer, but reality is, we are not the majority market... and this is a test, this is only a test.

After submitting my industry and target demographic for my TV commercial, I was then asked to either log in or sign up for a free account. I went ahead and created a free user account and was taken right back to my commercial creation process (no need to go to your email, confirm, and then somehow find your way back to what you were doing, thank goodness!)

Next step - Choose the locations (the areas) you want to reach with your television commercial. This part was very cool as it also gave you a map that dynamically changed as you chose and removed advertising areas. It also gives you rates for each market which was nice to have when picking and choosing.

I chose a 40 mile radius from the golf bar figuring that was a broad enough coverage, but not overly extensive for a first television commercial.

After figuring all that, click next. Don't worry, you can go back and edit if needed and play around with the whole process.

The next step of the TV commercial creation process involves setting your campaign name, its objective, the length of the campaign (including start/end date), and your budget. Yes, you can set your own budget for these TV commercials and you can regulate how often they are viewed.

You will then be able to see which TV stations your TV commercial will be seen on and at what times... and HOW OFTEN.

Q. How Much Does It Cost to Advertise on TV?

Ready for this???

A. Looks like for this test commercial, it will cost about $10 a commercial.

"Average cost per spot $10.49"

TEN DOLLARS PER TV COMMERCIAL!

AWESOME!

I got to that rate and I was blown away! $10 per TV commercial. Wowzers! That actually puts TV advertising back into realistic reach for many, many small business owners... this is fantastic!

But then I paused and realized, Uh, so who makes this TV commercial.

After clicking next on that screen, you find out.

SpotRunner has thousands of pre-made, industry-specific TV commercials for you to choose from. Each commercial is personalized and branded for your needs... logo, address, phone number, AND the voice saying your company name, etc.

There are some really good commercials to choose from, and if you don't find one that works for you, contact them and they will make sure you get a TV commercial that satisfies your marketing needs.

I'm telling you, SpotRunner is a very, very cool concept. Not only is TV advertising affordable, but the whole process of setting up your TV advertising campaign can be done at home on your computer in probably 30 minutes or less.

I can't wait to tell the owners of Bottom of the Cup and my friends at Atlanta gutter cleaning about this!