How Much Does Magazine Advertising Cost ?
Magazine advertising can be costly but very effective in attracting heavy sales traffic to your company and your brand,allowing your company to grow and expand. Without Growth your Company and Brand will not survive.
Magazine advertising has a wide range of pricing. Smaller regional and local magazines charge less than national magazines with millions of subscribers and may be a better bet for your small business, depending on your industry. Before deciding which magazine is best for you, review the subscriber base of the publication and who it's directed toward based on the demographics of the subscribers. Advertising in the online version of a hard copy magazine is based on different factors such as number of visitors.
Size
The size of the ad is one factor of cost. Larger ads cost more than smaller ads. The impact of a larger ad is greater than a smaller ad. For instance, 10 business card-size ads on one page of the magazine dilutes the impact of each individual ad. Ads are sold as fractions of a page. A full-page ad is exactly that. A quarter-page ad may be vertical or horizontal. The rate card production values will give you the size in inches as well as by fraction of a page. For example, at the time of publication, a national woman's lifestyle magazine charged nearly $250,000 for a full-page ad ,while other National Magazine charge up to $500,000 for a Cover and Spread Pages,then a niche gardening magazine only charged about $10,000.
Frequency
Magazines charge less per ad when you make a commitment to run the ad in more than one issue. A one-time ad may cost $2,000, while that same size ad run in six issues may cost only $1,500 per ad. Keep in mind that you would be contractually obligated to pay for all six issues, or a total of $9,000. As an example, at the time of publication, a one-time ad in the regional issue of another national magazine was $10,000 and only $6,700 for the same ad if run 12 times. Some magazines charge a set-up cost. If you change the ad, you may have to pay the set-up cost again. For example, at the time of publication a national magazine charged from $1,700 to $8,300 for changes, depending on the size of the ad.
Related Reading: Size & Segmentation of the Magazine-Publishing Market
Regional Rates
It is possible to run an ad in a regional edition of a national publication. The regional rates are less because fewer subscribers are exposed to the ad. However, if your business is regionally based, it doesn't make sense to pay for exposure to those outside your location. The cost is based on a flat rate for the region -- adjusted for size of the ad and color -- or on the number of subscribers in the region.
Color
Four-color ads cost more than two-color ads, which are more costly than black-and-white ads. Smaller ads may only be available in black and white.
Positioning
Inside the front cover, inside the back cover and the back cover are prime advertising spaces. A West Coast magazine at the time of publication charged $141,800 for the inside front cover, for example, while a full-page ad cost $118,400. Advertising toward the front of the magazine costs more than toward the back of the magazine, with the exception of the back cover. The magazine may demand that the ads towards the front are a minimum size, perhaps full or half-page only.
Negotiate
The magazine's rate card is similar to the posted rates in a hotel, called rack rate. Those rates are negotiable, however. Smaller magazines may be more willing to give a bigger discount than national magazines. For example, if you commit to a run of 1/3 page for six issues, the magazine may give you three more issues at no extra charge. Visit the magazine's website to find the rate card. Or put the name of the +magazine +rate +card in a search engine.
What It Is: Print ads that run in local or national magazines
Appropriate For: All businesses
Typical Cost: $500 to $20,000, depending on whether the publication is local or national, the size of your ad, whether you use color and if you've negotiated a multiple-ad rate. You can spend as much as $500,000 to buy the inside front cover of some national magazines!
How It Works: When it comes to magazine advertising, most people think of the large, glossy, national publications full of big brand advertisers. And it may seem like your own business doesn't belong alongside the "big guys," especially if you don't sell your product outside a one-hundred-mile radius--or even outside of your own state. But that's just not the case.
In fact, it's quite possible the next time you open one of those national magazines to see an ad for a business that's right in your own town that just has that one location. That's because, like a lot of other forms of advertising, many national magazines have local sections aimed at smaller businesses. Of course, these local sections are a bit larger than what you may be used to, covering such areas as the "Northeast" or the "Southwest" parts of the United States. So while you'll be reaching people way outside your neighborhood, you'll also attract local business (and may just wow the locals who see your ad on those pages).
Who should advertise in the local sections of the national magazines? Although it doesn't seem so at first blush, these ads are really good for small, "niche-y" stores that carry very specialized products, like hobby items. People will travel great distances to find a new supplier or expert or specialist for their hobby, and they'll spread the word of your existence to others with similar interests.
These ads are also wonderful if you have locations in more than one area of any state or in more than one state. You can probably cover most or even all of them with just one ad if they all fall into one of those wide geographical areas that are sold as "local." Check the first few pages of any magazine to find contact information for the advertising department, where you can ask for a media kit and get information on rates and deadlines. And be sure to ask for a map that shows you what each local territory includes.
Of course, advertising in magazines with national distribution is going to be expensive even if you're only advertising in the local sections, and it's not be the way to go for most small or midsized businesses. You don't really need to cast such a large net--what you really need is to choose publications that are closely associated with your target market.
One option is to go really local with free magazines that you'd find in grocery stores or pharmacies. The focus of these type of publications is on home sales, cars, boats and other topics--you've probably picked up one yourself.
Your business doesn't have to tie directly into the topics of any one of the magazines, as long as the readers of those magazines would also be interested in your product or service. Remember, it's the audience that counts, and you can find that audience in any number of places. The contact information for advertising in these publications will also be located within the first few pages.
One thing to be aware of is that these type of free publications are published on different schedules, sometimes just a few times a year. And like most magazines, your deadline will be way ahead of publication, so don't wait until the last minute to call to place an ad.
No matter which type of publication you're buying space in, be sure to ask the following questions before you purchase any ad space:
What's the magazine's circulation?
What are the demographics of the readers?
How often is the magazine published?
How is it distributed?
What are the special sections or themes planned for the year?
Also note that you have the opportunity with all magazines to save money on each ad by agreeing to run an ad in more than one issue. In fact, before you buy space in any magazine, it's a good idea to see which businesses that are targeting the same audience as you advertise in each magazine on a consistent basis. Remember, if the ads weren't working, they wouldn't be there issue after issue.
Most magazines also offer to place ads on their website, sometimes at a very reasonable rate--even for free--if you're advertising in their hard copy issues. If you can swing it and you're interested in selling worldwide or reaching a wider audience in your own hometown, this is a great idea. Be sure to put your web address, or URL, on every print ad, no matter where it runs, and put a link on your online ad that takes people directly to your own site.
No matter what magazine you choose to advertise in, your message will need to be strong and eye-catching. You only have a few seconds to grab the readers' attention and pull them in to read the rest of the ad. A bold graphic and an interesting headline will help you make a connection with readers right off the bat.
The graphic and the headline must come together to pinpoint a problem and offer a solution to the reader.