In order for your company's products and services to be best placed when advertising on a radio station, there are certain things you need to look out for. Spending the advertising budget wisely is a hot topic for managers attending management courses. Radio advertising is still an effective way of promoting, however being aware of how to interpret the numbers when examining a radio station's media data is a must. High values for the following categories: previous day's audience, regular listeners and station's rating are found on successful stations. This article gives you the opportunity to learn skills which will help you to look out for in these survey results, what analyses you should ask for and what can be read between the lines.

Radio stations that want to sell advertising time usually publish their media data. The results of listener surveys by study groups for media analysis are generally accepted European standard. These set out, among other things, three important figures relating to data about the station's audience. Category A is known as the total audience, and relates to those who listened to the station in the last 2 weeks. Category B is the number of people who tuned in to the previous day's broadcasting and Category C data refers to the number of regular listeners, that is those who tuned in on at least four out of seven days of the week. Category D is a measure of popularity.

A high value for category A is no indication of a station's success. Occasional listeners who are hopping between stations are more often than not concealed in this figure as well as former regular listeners who are tuning in to their erstwhile favourite station for a change.

In fact, successful stations boast high figures for the number of listeners for the previous day, for regular listeners and for the most popular station.

If earlier studies have been done, ask for the comparative data: constant values for category A and decreasing figures for category B, category C and category D (popularity rating) are characteristics of a station in decline. Since the media data is already a few weeks old, this trend could have intensified.

Compare the stations in your region and do not be content if you find equal scores for Category B. When the duration of listening is a factor ask for the net hourly rating,. The more popular the station, the longer it remains switched on (resulting in a high net hourly coverage). As a rule, this value also decides the price per second. Request charts which show each separate hour of broadcasting, including the average coverage, over the course of the day. It important to analyse the data as taught in good management courses.

Give yourself an idea of the relative success of each station at different times of the day by putting your company in a position to choose between several equally competitive stations,. For each hour add together the stations' coverage and work out the percentage share for each station.

Depending on the type of listener you are after determines the optimum placement of your advertising. Ask for analyses of this kind to be broken down by age group, educational level and sex. A certain presenter's programme may well succeed in reaching two thirds of all women listening to the radio, but it may be broadcast at a time of day when three-quarters of all listeners are men. In spite of this presenter's success this programme is losing out on coverage. However, if your advertising is aimed primarily at women, this programme may - at relatively favourable prices per second - be just the place where you should advertise.

It is important to ask for analyses that cover the activities of the entire broadcasting day, including the listener's activity at the time - if possible accurate to within 15 minutes. In this way you can achieve an optimum placement for your advertising. There are various sales, marketing and management courses which can also help you to develop a good understanding of effective marketing.