Billboard Advertising in San Antonio

Check your assumptions

Newspaper and magazine advertising can be very important tools in the local advertiser’s arsenal. I would like to stress the importance, however, in keeping in mind the motivation your prospects had to go search for your newspaper ad or magazine ad in the first place.

It would be folly to assume that your customer called you up because they happen to come across your auto ad in the midst of the other 100 auto ads in the paper. The customer found your print ad because they were:

1. In the market for your product
2. Looking for your ad

Newspaper trends

Newspaper flourished for decades in the face of radio, television, and the internet. However, advances in web syndication and news aggregation online are placing serious pressures on the current model of newspaper distribution and ad placement.

Newspapers determine which ads are placed in their papers based on zoning tables at the paper headquarters. This allows newspaper publishers to alter content based on the area of the city it will be distributed. Ads are able to be tailored in this manner also.

How newspaper advertising rates are set

Newspaper advertising rates are set based on circulation numbers. A circulation is the number of copies distributed on a certain day or during the course of a week. It is important for you to realize that circulation is not the same as copies sold, because some distribution can occur at no cost to the consumer. For this reason, readership is often higher than circulation numbers.

Market penetration is the metric used to measure the circulation of a newspaper . This is the ratio of households that receive a copy of the paper vs. households in the market area. In 1920, newspaper readership was 130% (meaning more than one paper was in a household), by 2000, this number fell below 50%

Who reads the newspaper:

If you are looking to target the younger, educated crowd, newspaper is not the best venue for your company.   Younger consumers are less willing to spend time reading the newspaper. Quickly look at the two charts below:

Weekday newspaper readership by age

Sunday newspaper readership by age

Advantages of newspaper advertising

• Newspaper is still an easy way to achieve a broad reach, but if your business’ customers are in the immediate geographic area, this might not be the best option at your disposal.

• For this reason, newspaper allows you to target certain regions of your city and take advantage of special advertising sections.

• If you have a showroom for your products, newspaper can be a good way to extend your showroom and put your items on display. This is especially useful for local furniture retailers, automotive showrooms, realtors, grocers, and drugstores
• Similar to the yellow pages, being next to your competitors provides you exposure to your marketable prospects

Disadvantages of Newspaper Advertising

• Touched upon earlier, market penetration continues to decrease, with many newspapers achieving less than 50% penetration
• Consider how many of your prospects are newspaper readers vs newspaper browsers
• The number of younger readers is declining, and spending less time reading the paper
• Despite zone targeting, zoned editions often are too large to match your desired target
• Depending on your market, some newspapers are 60-70% advertising.  Often it is prohibitively expensive to attempt to break through the clutter in the newspaper

Outdoor advertising and billboards can remedy these shortcomings

• Due to the short shelf life of newspapers, outdoor advertising can extend the life of a campaign because outdoor has an extended advertising duration.
• Billboards or non traditional advertising allow you to break through the clutter and give your business an opportunity to stand out.
• By shifting your ad budget to outdoor, you can increase the reach of your ad campaign, while lowering the cost per thousand impressions.