The single most often asked question we get is “how much should we sell website ads for”. The answer is always the same – “It depends. Every market is different.” There are many factors to consider when putting a price on website advertising. The biggest factor is content. Without great content, your visitors will be dismal and the website will be much harder to sell. Today, we’ll get insight from someone who’s been selling ads on their small-market radio station website for decades.
Melissa Boswell Townsend is General Manager and co-owner of Boswell Media in Kosciusko, Mississippi, and a third-generation broadcaster in the same location. We had her father, Johnny Boswell, on the podcast a few times. They have a station there in Kosciusko and two in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Their websites are https://www.breezynews.com and https://www.kicks96news.com.
Want to Start Selling Your Website?
The first step to selling and generating revenue with your station website is to prioritize your website. We tell stations to look at your station website as another radio station that simulcasts what your radio station is doing. And each one of these must consistently promote the other to increase the overall audience.
Create great content that keeps your visitors coming back every day. Every market is different. This could be local news, events, obituaries, sports news, etc. Use analytics to see what content works best, and continually try to do more of that. This is what we call (to use a radio term) “programming” the website.
Have a digital inventory list in place, so your entire team knows what sellable opportunities exist on your station website and other online platforms. This includes regular run-of-site ad positions as well as sponsorship opportunities.
Ensure your team knows the website goals and the stats behind staying on point. Page views and unique visitors should always be increasing, so put a plan in place so sellers have the most current numbers to show potential advertisers and content creators know what content works best.
