Radio can be a great channel to market if you can choose the right station/time to reach your target audience. It reaches people who are listeners and perhaps not great readers of non-audio advertising. It can reach people when they are not distracted by other messages or thoughts. It also partly depends on your business and how your target makes decisions. When I was running a chain of lunchtime food outlets our sales would lift whenever we had a branding campaign on radio - it helped more people to choose our outlets when thinking about where to buy lunch. Radio is also quicker and easier than designing and developing visual advertising. Look for last minute bargains when the stations get desperate to sell unsold air times.

I've produced radio commercials for 30 years now and I agree with @Jeremy Duff that it is still effective. 

Here are some stats out of interest:

http://www.arbitron.com/study/spot_study.asp 

Here are some stats for Australia in particular:

• People are, on average, six times more likely to visit a brand's website if they hear a radio ad with a digital call to action, than those not exposed to the radio ad.
  
• Radio advertising has an immediate effect. Over three quarters (78%) of those who heard the ads took some form of digital activity within 24 hours.
• Commercial radio generates significantly more visits to a web page if a digital call to action is included in a commercial

Source: http://www.commercialradio.com.au/index.cfm?page_id=1484 

I find the biggest factor that ensures these results is the creative execution. It doesn't always cost more to be good! 

Hi Wendy

I found radio advertising very successful for my business.  Hope radio station in Sydney is a Christian radio station that reached many of my target market in The Hills district as they were in their cars on the way to work or doing the school run.

In fact out of all the advertising it has been the best.  I ran ads on the back of buses for 3 months and got not one sale from that effort.  Hope radio is a good introduction as they have very reasonable rates compared to your bigger stations.  The money I spent was recouped with the sales that were generated.

Think where your target market are/live and then decide which is their radio station?  My target market are men and their partners sitting in their cars on their way to their office jobs or dropping the munchkins off at school so I only wanted my ads on during the morning and late afternoon.  

Good luck!

I use radio advertising for my clients regularly. It is a great re-inforcement medium to use with print or online. Best if done in short bursts with a memorable call to action (eg 1800 xxx xxx). Easily measurable too by tracking the increase in hits to the client's website or logging the number of phone enquiries.

I have been asked to do a radio mini interview about my blog: Women Love Tech this afternoon in Sydney - it will be only for 10mn - I don't know yet the impact on the business - but it will be a good experience and may be a thoughtful way for radio advertising.... to be continued...

Hi Wendy,

Radio advertising is an age old form of marketing your product or service, but despite its age it can still be extremely effective, depending on your situation.

Radio advertising relies on the locale and demographic of where it is being broadcast, is the message you want to deliver going to be relevant to those who hear it? 

To answer this you must have a think about the other side, the person who will be sitting in their car going to work and hear your ad on the radio, how will you appeal to them? Is the demographic of the area elderly? wealthy? regional? teach savvy?

You need to ask yourself these questions and decide whether the investment of a radio advertisement is worth your time and money.

Of course there is always the option of spreading your ad across vast amounts of radio networks to reach maximum possible listeners, but at what cost?

Radio advertising can be a god send if used correctly, good luck!

What I am currently doing is podcast sponsoring. Podcasting is something relatively "old news" but its audience is growing dramatically  and the response I' ve had with PuggleFM has been nothing short of explosive. I am currently developing different podcast channels, with separate interests and topics (e.g. small business, education etc) to allow the audience to "choose their own talk back" as well as allow potential and existing sponsors to better pitch to their target market. The thing with podcasts is their life cycle is much better than that of traditional radio advertising, they can be shared easily via social media, they are convieniant for the audience to listen to, and they are easily embedded into websites, with the meta data easily tagged - which obviously helps SEO. Make sure you don't discount podcasting when looking to audio forms of advertising -  its a steadily growing market and the trends and forecasts aren't expecting this growth to ease up anytime soon :)

Yes, I agree with Charlotte. Podcast is rising in popularity and presents a fantastic option for advertising. Podcast listeners can be more “loyal” than radio audiences as podcast shows delve deep into a subject matter compared to radio shows, which can be more generic. More and more Australians are turning to podcasts during their commute and downtime.

There are always podcast advertising opportunities, make sure you pick the right podcast show that is a hit with your target audience. Another option is Spotify advertising, an alternative to radio advertising.