How to read an advertising quote: audience, daypart, length and frequency

Sep 14

7 min read

How to read an advertising quote: audience, daypart, length and frequency

An advertising quote for radio, local TV, cinema or digital out-of-home is not read from the bottom line. It is read from the four variables that produce it: the audience reached, the daypart, the length of the message and the number of airings.

This guide explains how the price of a media slot is built, what to ask a sales house before signing, and why Alchemyx works the other way round: from budget, area and objective to a finished package.

IN SHORT

If you have two minutes and not the whole article.

Price follows audience: for the same medium, a slot costs in proportion to the people it reaches, not to the prestige of the name.
Daypart, length and volume: the same spot changes price with the hour, the seconds and how many airings are bought together.
Below a minimum frequency the money does not work: on radio, fewer than 6 airings a day per station do not build recall.
Start from the budget, not the rate card: on Alchemyx the platform builds the package, books the space and buys it.

The four variables behind the price of a media slot

Anyone receiving a first quote from a radio station, a local TV channel, a cinema circuit or a digital screen operator tends to look at the last line only. It is understandable, and it is the surest way to compare different things as if they were the same.

Every offline advertising slot is priced on four variables. They are the same across media, even when they go by different names.

Audience. The number of people the medium actually reaches: average listeners in a daypart for radio, viewers for local TV, admissions for a cinema, passers-by in front of a screen for DOOH. It is the variable that weighs most: within the same region, the price of one airing can vary by an order of magnitude from one station to another, because it follows the audience and not the name.
Daypart. Morning drive time is worth more than late night on radio, prime time is worth more than afternoon on TV, the Saturday evening screening is worth more than a Tuesday matinee at the cinema. A quote that does not state the dayparts is selling an average, not a position.
Length. On radio and TV the spot is bought by the second, and the price rises with length but not in proportion. It is the first thing to check: two quotes with the same total can contain spots of different length, and therefore different messages.
Volume and period. The number of airings bought together changes the unit price, and so does the time of year: the weeks before major holidays, the summer months in tourist areas or any period of high advertising demand cost more, because the space is finite.

A readable quote shows these four variables separately. If it shows only one, or folds them into the total, ask for the breakdown before going further.

Why the cheapest quote is often the most expensive one

Offline media work through repetition. The same person has to meet the message several times, within a short window, for the message to leave a trace. A single airing produces no effect, so its price is a number with no practical meaning.

On radio the threshold is well known to practitioners: fewer than 6 airings a day per station do not build recall. A quote with 3 airings a day across four stations looks cheaper than one with 6 airings across two, but the first campaign stays below threshold everywhere and the second one works. The first quote costs less and returns nothing: it is the more expensive of the two.

The same logic applies elsewhere. At the cinema, a week of programming covers every screening of the film and frequency comes from there; on DOOH screens what matters is how many times an hour the visual enters the loop and for how many weeks; on local TV it is the airings in the same daypart across the week. A note for international readers: these mechanics are the same in most European markets, and the examples in this article come from Italy, where Alchemyx operates.

What to ask a sales house before you sign

A serious sales house answers these questions without difficulty, because they are the questions every planner asks. They are there to make quotes comparable, not to challenge them.

How many airings a day, and in which dayparts. Ask for the schedule with times, not for the word rotation. A generic rotation can concentrate airings where the audience is lowest.
What the declared audience is, and where it comes from. Official industry audience data is one thing, an internal estimate by the station is another. Both can be legitimate, but they are read differently.
How long the spot is, and which formats are required. Seconds, file format, delivery deadlines for the materials, and who handles production if the message does not exist yet.
What the total includes. Production, any rights, placement within the daypart, replacement of the material during the campaign. Every excluded item is a cost that shows up later.
Whether the total is per station or per network. Some offers bundle several media into a single figure. Ask how many airings go to each one, because the risk is falling below the frequency threshold on all of them.

With these answers in hand, two quotes become comparable. Without them, you are comparing two totals that describe two different campaigns.

Why Alchemyx works the other way round: from budget to package

The classic method starts from the rate card and reaches the total by adding up slots. Alchemyx starts from the opposite end: the overall budget, the area where the campaign has to work and the objective to reach. From these three inputs the platform builds the plan.

The minimum campaign budget is EUR 2,000 excluding VAT, with the 13.98% commission already included in that amount: nothing is added afterwards. The allocation across channels is managed and balanced automatically by the algorithm to maximise the result, and every plan always includes an offline component. The client does not pick the media: they receive a package that is already weighted, with the stations, the dayparts, the airings and the result estimates per channel.

The difference from a planning tool is that the plan does not remain a proposal: the platform books the space with the media and buys it directly, online and offline. The inventory covers local FM radio, local TV, connected TV, cinema, DOOH, social, Google Display and Google Search, with 154 sales mandates across all 20 Italian regions. To see how the budget needed changes with the size of the territory, read what an advertising campaign actually costs a small business.

Rate cards stay confidential, and the reason is in the sales mandate

A fair question is why Alchemyx does not show the price of a single airing. The first answer is the one above: the price of an isolated airing says nothing about the result, and leading a small business to reason on that number means leading it astray.

The second answer is contractual. The rate cards do not belong to Alchemyx. They belong to the stations, circuits and operators that have entrusted the platform with a sales mandate on their space, and that require them to remain confidential. Protecting them is part of the mandate. It is the same reason a sales house does not publish the net prices it applies to individual clients: it is not reticence, it is how a market with finite inventory normally works.

What the client sees instead of the rate card is more useful: the complete package, with the media in the plan, how many airings go to each one and in which dayparts, and a total that matches the declared budget. All four variables from this article are there, already read and already weighted.

In closing

An advertising quote is read from audience, daypart, length and frequency, not from the total. Below a minimum frequency the cheapest quote is the one that returns least, and the right questions to a sales house make comparable what otherwise is not.

Alchemyx is built for Italian small and medium businesses, and its Early Access programme is Italy only, for now: other markets open after the commercial launch. If you want to know more about how the platform works, read Alchemyx for SMEs or request more information: we answer from our Milan office.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a radio spot cost?

It depends on the station's audience, the daypart, the length of the spot and the number of airings bought. The price of a single airing says nothing about the result: below 6 airings a day per station the money does not build recall. That is why you reason per campaign, with an overall budget, and not per spot.

What does audience mean in an advertising quote?

It is the number of people the medium actually reaches: average listeners in a daypart for radio, viewers for local TV, admissions for a cinema, passers-by in front of a screen for DOOH. It is the variable that weighs most on the price of a slot.

Why do two stations in the same region have such different prices?

Because price follows audience, not the name. Within the same region the price of one airing can vary by an order of magnitude from one station to another. To compare them you need the declared audience, the source of the data and the number of airings per daypart.

Can I see the rate cards of individual media on Alchemyx?

No. Rate cards belong to the stations, circuits and operators that have entrusted Alchemyx with a sales mandate, and protecting their confidentiality is part of the mandate. The client sees the complete package: the media in the plan, the airings for each one, the dayparts and a total that matches the declared budget.

What is the minimum budget for a campaign on Alchemyx?

EUR 2,000 excluding VAT, with the 13.98% commission already included in the amount. It is the minimum for the whole campaign, not for a single channel: the platform distributes that amount across the media best suited to the objective, the area and the figure.

Is Alchemyx available outside Italy?

Not yet. The platform and its Early Access programme are reserved for Italian small and medium businesses for now; other markets open after the commercial launch. International readers can request more information by email.