How to read an advertising rate card before you pay

The rate card says a hoarding costs a figure per month, and the seller says it is a good site. Before you pay, ask three things. What will you actually hand over? What exactly will you get for it? And what can the seller's audience figure tell you? A rate card is a list of what the seller would like to charge, written to be read quickly. The lines that are missing matter more than the figure at the bottom.

What do you actually pay?

Start by building the all-in total yourself. The rupee figures below are illustrative, to show the method, and are not anyone's rates.

The headline was two thirds of the real figure, and nothing on the card was false. Ask for the final amount in writing, with every line that will be added. If a discount is offered, ask against which price it is calculated and whether it disappears when you shorten the period.

Which exact thing am I buying?

Name the site, not the area. "Bypass road, one hoarding" is not a site. Ask for the direction it faces, the side of the road, the height, the date it goes up, the date it comes down and what happens if your flex arrives late. If the card gives a slot on a screen, a page in a newspaper or a time band on radio, ask the same: which exact one, and on which dates.

Ask also what proof of display you will receive and when. Photographs on the first day and the last, taken with the date visible, are a fair minimum for a fixed site. For broadcast slots, ask for the play log.

What can an audience figure tell you?

Very little about your results. An impressions figure says a message could have been seen. A footfall figure says people passed a point. Neither says anyone noticed, remembered or called.

That does not make the numbers useless. They help you compare two sites of the same type, such as two hoardings on the same road, when both were counted the same way. They fail across media: a bus panel count and a cinema slide count are made of different things.

Ask three questions about any such figure. Where was it counted? In which hours and over what period? By whom, and did anyone outside the seller check? If no one can answer, treat the number as decoration, and decide on position, price and proof.

For example: a mattress showroom in Thrissur

This is an invented case. A showroom owner is shown a card for a large hoarding on the bypass, with a big daily passing-traffic figure. The owner asks the all-in questions and finds printing and mounting are extra, as above. Then the owner asks which direction it faces. It faces vehicles leaving the town towards the highway, while the buyers live in the town and drive in from the other side.

The mistake would have been to book on the headline figure. The repair is simple and costs a drive. The owner visits at six in the evening and sees which way the traffic moves, then asks for the site facing the town side. The seller agrees, but asks a higher monthly rate for the better side. The all-in amount goes in writing, and a new phone number is printed only on that flex. After two months the calls to that number show what the site did: say, for illustration, eleven calls, three visits and one mattress sold, against ₹45,500 spent. That is a poor return on one site, and the owner now knows it, which the seller's footfall figure would never have said.

What to compare when the media differ

You cannot lay a bus panel beside a radio spot by cost per thousand. Compare instead what each lets you record: calls to a dedicated number, a code quoted at the counter, a question asked of every new customer. Run each for a short, fixed trial and judge it on enquiries you can trace.

The question of how much to spend comes before the card. Our posts on how much to spend on advertising and how to choose a media mix cover it, and call tracking for advertising shows how to count what comes back.

What goes in writing before you pay

Send a short message the seller must answer, and keep the reply. It should cover:

• the exact site and dates;
• the all-in cost, with taxes and named charges;
• who supplies the creative, and the last date for it;
• the proof of display;
• what you receive if it does not run, runs late or comes down early;
• whether the price depends on a minimum period.

When the card does not deserve this much work

For one small item, once, ask the all-in price, the dates and the proof, and stop. Be wary when a discount is "valid today". A rate that is real can usually survive a night, so take the night and ask for the same rate in writing. If the seller will not put the details in a message, that is your answer.

Mark the gaps on the last card you were sent

Take the card in your inbox and write beside each line the answer it does not give. Send those questions back before you send money. The pricing page says how our own work is quoted, for comparison. If you want us to read a card with you, media planning and buying is the service for it, and you can tell us what you need.