Audio4cast

Direct response advertising will be popular in 2009 as advertisers focus on results and more inventory is available. According to AdAge, these are good days for direct response marketers, who are seeing better deals for inventory than they have in the past.

Most interactive ad dollars are performance driven, often with payouts that are based on a cost per click or cost per acquisition basis. With proper audio messaging and banners or codes, Internet radio can compete for these dollars effectively. This recent chart of cost per click data on various advertiser industry segments shows that some industry payouts – insurance in particular – can be fairly high. CPC’s are calculated based on closing ratios and average sales. Higher closing ratios and average sales net higher payouts.

Source: Clickz

More good facts – Nielson recently reported which sites do best in converting their site traffic to purchases. Proflowers, an online retailer who has used Internet radio consistently for years, converts close to one out of every three visitors to purchases. A list of the other successful online marketers is here.

Digital media can be purchased on a CPM basis and then analyzed on a cost per click or cost per aquisition basis as well. A savvy buyer can purchase digital media using a cost per thousand, and then analyze results using return based metrics. A savvy seller should ask and understand what the buyer’s expectations are upfront for the campaign and monitor results. Digital media buyers expect to be asked for this information and provide it weekly and sometimes more often. They also expect to be able to cancel campaigns that are not delivering for them — another reason to stay in touch with the results.

Performance driven campaigns are an opportunity for Internet radio. Sellers who get to know the turf can reap the rewards.