Monday, February 22, 2016

Internet Radio for Media Buyers and Advertisers




In this economy you are being asked to do more with less, so don’t let your clients miss out on one of the fastest growing markets in the media industry – Independent Internet radio. Here are a few reasons why Internet Radio is a great choice:


Missed Market of Engaged Listeners
According to the U.S. Census Bureau and Small Business Administration there are 21 million plus non-employer based businesses in the U.S. of which 52% are home based businesses. In comparison there are only 5milllion plus employer based U.S. businesses. More people are working on computers at home and will listen to internet radio in the background rather than be distracted watching TV or a video. Working alone, the innate need for social contact is met with an internet radio talk show. Listeners tend to feel they are not alone and have a chance to interact via telephone, text, email or social networks during live programs.

Higher Ad Receptivity
Studies have shown that people are hit with 3,000 -5,000 ads per day. This is usually too many for people to process so they tune most of them out – either physically, like a DVR, or mentally. However radio spot ads are less obtrusive because 1) they are expected. The host actually announces they are going to commercial break; 2) radio spots are sound bites, not visuals, which are less distracting; 3) radio is an emotional buy. It leaves the ‘pictures’ up to the mind of the listener who actually matches their ‘pictures’ directly to their needs. This does have more impact - think of the effect of the murder scene in ‘Psycho’ as compared to ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ where people get numb to the violence. 4) radio ads also have a better ‘top of mind’ recall experience; and 5) studies have shown that people will spend more time listening to radio ads, so they are more likely to remember and respond to them.

A Viable Growing Market 
Internet Radio continues to expand in growth unlike terrestrial radio which entered the internet market too late. Internet radio stations and networks can be, and many are, syndicated and simulcast on many distribution channels, creating a wider network appeal that reaches the listener wherever they are and whatever device they are using to listen. HealthyLife.net is available on internet, in-cars, smartphones, smartTVs, smartwatches, tablets, WiFi, private radio networks and more. Plus there may be  added ad shelf life, like HealthyLife.net has with on-demand archives, podcast downloads, and RSS feeds. In addition - Internet Radio’s Drive Time is longer from 8am – 5pm. What is really great is that usually all this ‘reach’ is included free with your initial buy, making your ROI more economically effective. 
 
A Full Digital Presence
Internet Radio can provide more than just radio spots for your clients. Banners, coupons, email blasts, social media mentions are just some of the added possibilities that come included with Internet Talk Radio ad campaigns giving your client a maximum digital presence exposure. 

A Niche Market Demographic
Internet radio listeners do tend to have higher, more disposable income levels. Dependent upon the Internet Talk Station’s niche market, demographic information like age groups, gender, marital status and other data will vary but can give you a more specific choice for your client’s product or service – which leads to a better ROI. For example where most traditional radio gets a young or male oriented demographic, HealthyLife.net reaches the higher purchasing power demographic of 80% women and the growing popular only natural health market.

Targeted Ad Placement
Imagine reaching local, national or global listeners all in one place. Internet Talk Radio allows media buyers to do this. Plus Internet Talk Radio Stations can target specific local, national and global audiences. Terrestrial radio has a small footprint with almost no local programming. 

Better ‘Straight From the Source’ Tracking
Internet Radio has more real stats available to them than terrestrial radio which use 3rd party extrapolated guesstimated numbers. Remember services like Google Analytics track website hits only but listener statistics can only come from the station's audio/video streaming server. The streaming server is independent of a website server and does NOT use website statistics.

There are no studies comparing terrestrial digital radio and independent internet radio. However to give you an example, when HealthyLife.Net Radio compared ‘apples to apples’ from the latest Triton Digital Media Study, HealthyLife.Net had 1700% more live session listeners than the top terrestrial digital radio stations using the exact same criteria. So don’t discount Independent Internet Radio stations – they are viable players in the media marketplace. 

With Independent Internet Radio there is also a way to justify actual real numbers and ROI with minimal effort on your part.  Your clients can actually set up a specific telephone number for ordering and for a banner link, set up a web landing page, with an unpublished link which can be placed on the radio site so clients can track their own statistics – which takes you out of the numbers game all together! 

Independent Internet Talk Radio is not a replacement to traditional media but IS a viable addition. It’s a new marketplace that can produce for you now and is destined to only increase in the years to come.

HealthyLife.Net Radio Network is a 14-year young Internet Radio Network reaching over 1 million monthly listeners in 130 countries through its 62+ syndicated/simulcast distribution channels and, in case you haven't guessed, we do provide economical full digital presence ad campaigns for media buyers.

More on Capturing Great Advertising for Your Clients?
Call HealthyLife.net Radio: 800-555-5453

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Google Analytics DOES NOT Track Radio Listeners



Google Analytics does a great job at analyzing data for website stats. However Google Analytics tracks only their own Google search engine results which does not include Bing, Yahoo, Alexa or other search engine data statistics. They also do not, and most times, cannot track a streaming media listening audience.

Here's why...Listener numbers come from an audio streaming server. This audio server is not a webpage on a website but actually a separate data stream, usually housed on a separate server from the radio stations website server.  It is linked ON a website page but as in the case of HealthyLife.net Radio the radio button link is on almost every page of our 60+ page website and not on just on one Landing page.

Google Analytics CAN track how many people come to a website page that contains a link to the audio stream but unfortunately that is not always the actual listener data. Actual listener data can only come from the audio server stream data.  

HealthyLife.net also has 62+ syndicators/simulcast distribution channels that pick up our LIVE audio stream and rebroadcast it out to their many listeners - but to our audio search engine each one looks like just one listener. In reality these 62 distribution channels could be accessing 100s, 1,000s or 1,000,000 more listeners a day per channel.  Think the numbers are high? Here's an example - Microsoft's Radio Tuner, which HealthyLife.net is 1 of 68 talk radio stations is available to 1 billion worldwide internet devices a day. 1% of listenership would provide HealthyLife.net with 1 million more listeners a day but again to our streaming server they look like only 1 listener.

Podcast and on-demand listening all have different criteria that is tracked differently in an audio streaming server.  Again website hit analysis is not the same  as tracking websites so unfortunately using Google Analytics to rate Listener Audience size is not a valid measurement.