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PLANNING & BUYING TOOLS

Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen Television Ratings are the single most important measure of advertising rates, schedules, and program content. When people mention “ratings” they are usually referring to Nielsen’s Ratings. Nielsen’s ratings calculation, or Cume Rating, is given in a percentage calculated by dividing the number of unique viewers or households by the total number of estimated available households/viewers/listeners possible.

Nielsen has also partnered with other marketing research companies to provide marketing analysis across many other markets including magazines, newspapers, radio and the Internet. This data allows us to make advertising decisions that are essential to an effective campaign.

SRDS
SRDS is the largest database in the world of media properties. Using the SRDS database we can quickly find up-to-date media information and kits, including detailed ad rates, dates and contact data, so that we can quickly plan out your advertising solutions and find the best venues to insure a maximum increase in your businesses reach for your buck.

SQAD
SQAD uses data from “actual buys” to forecast pricing of advertising on national TV, spot TV, Hispanic spot TV, spot radio and the Internet. Their data is filtered through SQARE which filters out special programming rates, such as the super bowl, to provide the most accurate current advertising rates possible. This ensures that you pay only the current standard rate for your spot and not more.

Comscore
Comscore is an Internet market research company which collects Internet usage data by monitoring all Internet data on a large number of surveyed computers (estimated two million+). This data is then corrected for error to insure very accurate statistics. We can use this data to ensure that your advertising spot will reach your target with maximum efficiency.

Scarborough
Scarborough research analyzes the behaviors of American consumers in a multitude of local and national markets. This research allows us to market your advertising campaign directly to your target so that none of your budget is wasted on misdirected spots. This data also allows us to determine which consumers are profitable and to retain them as well as buy and sell media, develop business plans, increase market penetration, roll-out new products, distinguish brands, better understand the marketplace and monitor competitors.

MRI
MRI (Market Research Insight) is a marketing research firm. Initially providing market research for political campaigns, they have now spread into business. Using telephone surveying and polling they are able to provide strategies for winning marketing campaigns.

Polk Cross Sell
Polk Cross Sell provides reports for current trends in car sales. These reports are essential for maintaining a competitive edge in the auto industry. Using these reports we can determine which makes and models should be advertised, how your sales compare to competitors, gauge the size of the market, calculate your market share and so on.

Arbitron
In the back of every Radio Market Report you’ll find a list of “Selected Arbitron Terms”. Look below to view those terms and others, along with some easy-to-use formulas.

  • Average Quarter – Hour Persons (AQH Persons) – The average number of persons listening to a particular station for at least five minutes during a 15-minute period.
  • Average Quarter – Hour Rating (AQH Rating) – The AQH Persons estimate expressed as a percentage of the population being measured. This estimate is printed for the MSA and DMA. It can also be computed for the TSA. [AQH Persons / Population] x 100 = AQH Rating (%)
  • Cume Persons – The total number of different persons who tune to a radio station during the course of a daypart for at least five minutes.
  • Cume Rating – The Cume Persons audience expressed as a percentage of all persons estimated to be in the specified demographic group. [Cume Persons / Population] x 100 = Cume Rating (%)
  • Rating (AQH or Cume) – The audience expressed as a percentage of the total population. [Listeners / Population] x 100 = Rating (%)
  • Share – The percentage of those listening to radio in the Metro who are listening to a particular radio station.[AQH Persons to a Station / AQH Persons to All Stations] x 100 = Share (%).
  • Gross Impressions (GIs) – The sum of the Average Quarter-Hour Persons audience for all spots in a given schedule. [AQH Persons] x [the number of spots in an advertising schedule] = GIs.
  • Gross Rating Points (GRPs) – The sum of all rating points achieved for a particular spot schedule. [AQH Rating] x [the number of spots in an advertising schedule] = GRPs.
  • Cost Per Rating Point – The cost of reaching an Average Quarter-Hour Persons audience that’s equivalent to one percent of the population in a given demographic group. [Cost of Schedule] / [GRP] = Cost Per Rating Point…or… [Spot Cost] / [AQH Rating] = Cost Per Rating Point.
  • Cost Per Thousand (CPM) – The cost of delivering 1,000 gross impressions. [Cost of Schedule] / [GI] x 1,000 = CPM…or… [Spot Cost] / [AQH Persons] x 1,000 = CPM.
  • Exclusive Cume – The number of different persons who listen to only one station during the daypart reported.
  • Net Reach – The number of different persons reached in a given schedule. Real net reach is available through Maximi$er®, for single-station and multiple-station schedules.
  • Frequency – The average number of times a person is exposed to a radio spot schedule. [GI] / Net Reach = Frequency.
  • Time Spent Listening (TSL) – An estimate of the number of quarter-hours the average person spends listening during a specified time period. [(Quarter-Hours in a time period) x (AQH Persons)] / Cume Audience = TSL.
  • Metro – Includes a city (or cities) whose population is specified as that of the central city together with the county (or counties) in which it is located. The Metro also includes contiguous or additional counties when the economic and social relationships between the central and additional counties meet specific criteria. Arbitron Metros generally correspond to the Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) defined by the U.S. Government’s Office of Management and Budget. They are subject to exceptions dictated by historical industry usage and other marketing considerations.
  • Total Survey Area (TSA)  – A geographic area that encompasses the Metro Survey Area and may include additional counties located outside the Metro which meet certain listening criteria to Metro-licensed stations.
  • Designated Market Area (DMA®) – The DMA is composed of sampling units (counties or geographically split counties) and is defined and updated annually by Nielsen Media Research, Inc., based on historical television viewing patterns. A county or split county is assigned exclusively to one DMA.

Glossary of Terms

  • Anchor Text: “Linked Text” Anchor text is the text that you click on to activate and follow a hyperlink to another web page or another website.
  • Alt Tag : Alt tag refers to the text that is associated with an image. This originated from when web browsers were not universally available as “Graphical Browsers”, so the “Alt text” was a description used to describe the image. Now days it is also used in the “mouseover” text pop-up that appears when you move your mouse over a graphical image.
  • Cloaking: Method by which specific content is served up to the search engine spider that is different then what the normal surfer sees.
  • CPC: Cost per click. This is a frequent term used in PPC terminology. It refers to the cost associated with each click.
  • CPA: Cost per Acquisition or also known as Cost Per Sale. This is typically an average dollar amount to the total cost in clicks it takes to convert to a sale.
  • Conversion Ratio: The conversion ratio is the average number of visitors who visit the site who make a purchase or perform some sort of action (register as a customer, etc). Conversion ratios vary by the type of traffic you are getting. More “Targeted” traffic typically means higher conversion rates.
  • Doorway pages: Pages setup specifically for search engines. Once the visitor reaches the page, they are then redirected to another website.
  • Hits: This generally means ALL requests from a webserver including requests by a web browser for html pages, jpeg’s, gif’s and other images. Hits is a phrase often used but is generally not very meaningful in quantifying search engine traffic.
  • PPC: Pay Per Click.
  • PageRank: Formula developed by Google to determine web pages “inbound link ranking”. Often referred to as “PR” value.
  • PageViews: Number of times your webpage was viewed. Includes duplicate views by the same visitor.
  • ROI: Return on Investment. A quantitative analysis of investment in advertising and marketing budgets and the resulting return on the investment.
  • SEO: Search Engine Optimization.
  • SEM: Search Engine Marketing.
  • SERPS: Search Engine Result Pages.
  • SPAM: Unscrupulous or unethical means of inflating results. Usually deteriorates the quality of listings and often results in penalties or being banned from a search engine.
  • Unique Visitors: Total number of unique visitors to your website or web page.