Radio advertising · Marketing
Buy the time band people listen in, not the spots the station has left over.
A radio buy is sold as a package: so many spots a day, for so many days, in a band the station names. The package does not say that the bands are worth very different money. Morning and evening drive time is when the car radio is on. The rest of the day is where a station quietly places the spots it threw in free.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
Radio advertising buys spots of ten, twenty or thirty seconds on a city station, sold as a number of spots a day across a named time band. GullySales plans which station, language and band your buyer is actually listening in. The booking goes through the station or its agency, and the spot carries a traceable route so it can be judged.
So the question before booking is how many of your spots sit inside the band you are paying for, and the answer belongs in writing. Ask for fixed placement inside a named programme if the slot matters. Run of station means the station decides, and it decides in its own favour.
Radio sends people to search. Someone hears the name at a traffic signal, forgets it by evening, then types it into Google two days later. If nobody is bidding on your own brand name that week, a competitor collects the enquiry your spot created.
Who it is for
This is written for you if these sound familiar.
- Hospitals and clinics announcing a new branch, a camp or a specialist joining
- Retailers running a dated promotion or a clearance with a firm end date
- Restaurant and showroom launches that need a city to know within a fortnight
- Property projects and admission seasons, where the decision follows weeks after the spot
- Businesses already buying search, who want the branded searches a spot creates to land somewhere
Not for
It is not the right fit if.
- A business selling to one trade in one industrial estate, where calling forty companies does more
- Budgets that cover a handful of spots, because a week of thin frequency is money gone
- Anyone who needs to know which listener enquired, because radio cannot tell you that
- Political and election campaigns, whoever they are for
The problem
Does this sound like your business?
What owners tell us on the first call, in their words.
“The station threw in extra spots and they all ran at midnight”
Bonus spots go where the station has unsold time, which is the band nobody is listening in. The count on the invoice looks generous and the campaign is thinner than it reads.
“The spot was produced by the station and sounds like every other spot”
Bundled production comes with the station's voice artist, its music bed and its template, so your ad sits in a break beside three ads built the same way.
“The phone number went past too fast to write down”
A number read once at speed, to someone driving, is a number nobody dials. It gets said twice and slowly, or it does not go in at all.
“Three stations were booked and nobody heard it twice”
Splitting a small budget across every station in the city buys one sighting each. Depth on the one station your buyer listens to beats presence on all of them.
What we do
Everything that is included.
Each deliverable, and what it gets you. Nothing here is an extra.
Station and band selection
Which station, which language and which time band your buyer is listening in, decided before any package is quoted.
Spot plan in writing
The day by day schedule of when each spot runs, checked against the band you are paying for and held to once the campaign starts.
Script and production brief
A script written for someone driving, with the name early and the number said twice at the end.
Booking coordination
The buy placed with the station or its appointed agency, with the schedule, the flight dates and the audio deadline confirmed before payment.
A traceable route
A number used on air and nowhere else, or a spoken code, so an enquiry can be put down to radio rather than guessed at.
Brand search cover
Search ads on your own name through the flight weeks, so the listener who searches two days later finds you first.
Transmission check
The station's broadcast log, listing the date, time and duration of every spot, read against the plan. Any shortfall is raised while the campaign is still on air.
Paid spots separated from bonus spots
Bonus spots are the time the station could not sell, which is the middle of the afternoon, so they are counted apart from the paid schedule. We ask for the rate per ten-second unit and the loading on a twenty or a thirty. The placement basis goes in writing too, run of station or fixed inside a named show, because that decides whether your morning spots stay in the morning.
How the result is measured
- Calls to the on-air number
- Spots delivered inside the booked band
- Branded searches during the flight weeks
- Enquiries traced to radio in the report
- Cost per enquiry from the flight
Recorded as a baseline before work starts, so every later report has an honest comparison.
How it works
How the radio advertising work runs
The work itself, in order. How an engagement starts, from your brief to a written scope, is set out on our method page.
- 1
Fix the window
We agree what has to happen in these weeks, an admission deadline, a launch or a sale, because radio works in short flights.
- 2
Choose the station and the language
We match station, language and band to who you sell to, and cut the stations that only add a stray sighting.
- 3
Write and produce the spot
The script is written here and produced to the station's delivery format before the deadline, rather than on the station's template.
- 4
Book and hold the schedule
We coordinate the booking with the station or its agency and treat the written spot plan as the thing being bought.
- 5
Track and reconcile
Calls to the on-air number and brand search volume are watched through the flight, and the transmission proof is checked against the booking.
Where this fits
Three pieces of sales work, in this order.
This work sits inside sales process design, at stage 1, prospecting and lead generation. The audit comes before it, and sales management keeps it running.
Step 1
Sales audit
Find where deals are being lost and what to fix first.
Start here if you cannot say where orders are lost.
Step 2 · you are here
Sales process design
One written way to sell, from first enquiry to repeat order.
Start here if every salesperson sells differently.
Step 3
Sales management
A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.
Start here if the team has targets and no routine.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
How many spots do we need for it to work?
Can you tell me how many people heard the ad?
Should we advertise in Kannada or English in Bengaluru?
Is a jingle worth making?
What does a radio campaign cost?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
What if we are not happy with the work?
By industry
Radio advertising, written for your industry.
Related services
Often bought with this, or instead of it.
Read before you buy
- How to track radio advertisingRadio response arrives as branded search, direct traffic and a call an hour later, because the listener is driving. Read the broadcast log against the clock.
- Preparing for harvest money that arrives in a few weeksHow a Malwa showroom fixes its offer, its stock and an on-road price card before the soybean or wheat is sold, because a farm family decides within weeks of the mandi payment.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.