Tag Archives: Advertising Costs

Advertising in Newspapers. How much?

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With hundreds of newspapers in South Africa, advertising rates vary tremendously.

There are many variables – of which the size of the ad, the position of the ad, the numbers of colours in an ad, the day the ad is booked for, and the number of times the ad is booked for, are just some of them.

Then, full colour newspaper ads are more expensive than black and white newspaper ads. (Normally, a lot more expensive). And two colour newspaper advertisements cost less than full colour advertisements. Also, publishers of newspapers charge different rates depending on their number of readers and their circulation figures. So it’s no easy task answering the question “How much to advertise in newspapers?” (even though I get asked this A LOT).

To give you an idea of newspaper advertising costs:

A full page black and white advertisement in The Sunday Times will cost you R399 600 excluding VAT
A full page black and white advertisement in The Sowetan will cost you R69 264 excluding VAT
A full page black and white advertisement in The New Age will cost you R169 344 excluding VAT
A full page black and white advertisement in Ilanga will cost you R28 413.84 excluding VAT
A full page black and white advertisement in Isolezwe will cost you R37 223.55 excluding VAT
A full page black and white advertisement in The Sunday Sun will cost you R45 045 excluding VAT
A full page black and white advertisement in The Daily Sun will cost you R93 093 (Mon-Tues), R96 642 (Wed-Fri) excluding VAT
A full page black and white advertisement in The Business Day will cost you R108 000 excluding VAT
A full page black and white advertisement in The Times will cost you R 58 656 excluding VAT
A full page black and white advertisement in The Cape Argus will cost you R44 499 excluding VAT
A full page black and white advertisement in The Cape Times will cost you R70 983 excluding VAT
A full page black and white advertisement in The EP Herald will cost you R45 900 excluding VAT
A full page black and white advertisement in The Sunday Tribune will cost you R89 424 excluding VAT
A full page black and white advertisement in The Natal Mercury will cost you R57 056.40 excluding VAT
A full page black and white advertisement in The Daily News will cost you R67 008.60 excluding VAT
A full page black and white advertisement in The Natal Witness will cost you R25 488 (Mon-Tues),
R28 296 (Wed-Fri) excluding VAT
A full page black and white advertisement in Die Beeld will cost you R92 400 (Mon-Tues),
R96 250 (Wed-Fri) excluding VAT
A full page black and white advertisement in Die Burger will cost you R85 250 (Mon-Tues),
R89 100 (Wed-Fri) excluding VAT
A full page black and white advertisement in Die Volksblad will cost you R32 400 (Mon-Tues),
R38 880 (Wed-Fri) excluding VAT
A full page black and white advertisement in The Citizen will cost you R38 688 excluding VAT
A full page black and white advertisement in Rapport will cost you R230 0400 excluding VAT
A full page black and white advertisement in The Star will cost you R140 551.20 excluding VAT
A full page black and white advertisement in The Pretoria News will cost you R40 969.80 excluding VAT

Whereas

A half page black and white advertisement in The Sowetan will cost you R35 520 excluding VAT
A half page black and white advertisement in The New Age will cost you R84 672 excluding VAT
A half page black and white advertisement in Ilanga will cost you R14 571.20 excluding VAT
A half page black and white advertisement in Isolezwe will cost you R19 089 excluding VAT
A half page black and white advertisement in The Sunday Sun will cost you R23 100 excluding VAT
A half page black and white advertisement in The Daily Sun will cost you R47 740 (Mon-Tues), R49 560 excluding VAT
A half page black and white advertisement in The Business Day will cost you R54 000 excluding VAT
A half page black and white advertisement in The Times will cost you R30 080 excluding VAT
A half page black and white advertisement in The Cape Argus will cost you R22 820 excluding VAT
A half page black and white advertisement in The Cape Times will cost you R35 491.50 excluding VAT
A half page black and white advertisement in The EP Herald will cost you R22 950 excluding VAT
A half page black and white advertisement in The Sunday Tribune will cost you R44 712 excluding VAT
A half page black and white advertisement in The Natal Mercury will cost you R28 528.20 excluding VAT
A half page black and white advertisement in The Daily News will cost you R33 504.30 excluding VAT
A half page black and white advertisement in The Natal Witness will cost you R12 744 (Mon-Tues),
R14 148 (Wed-Fri) excluding VAT
A half page black and white advertisement in Die Beeld will cost you R45 360 (Mon-Tues),
R47 250 (Wed-Fri) excluding VAT
A half page black and white advertisement in Die Burger will cost you R41 850 (Mon-Tues),
R43 740 (Wed-Fri) excluding VAT
A half page black and white advertisement in Die Volksblad will cost you R16 200 (Mon-Tues),
R19 440 (Wed-Fri) excluding VAT
A half page black and white advertisement in The Citizen will cost you R19 840 excluding VAT
A half page black and white advertisement in Rapport will cost you R115 200 excluding VAT
A half page black and white advertisement in The Star will cost you R70 275.60 excluding VAT
A half page black and white advertisement in The Pretoria News will cost you R20 484.90 excluding VAT

Looking for the cost to place a quarter page newspaper ad? Work on approximately halving the cost of a half page ad. (Although it doesn’t always work like this). Want to place a third page ad? Or an island solus ad? Or a 20 x 4 column ad? Or a 30 x 6 column ad? Or a 39 x 7 column ad? Or a full colour ad? Or a two colour ad? Or a wrap-around? You’d need to get hold of an advertising rate card by contacting the newspaper in question. But, what if you’re not sure about which newspaper to advertise in? Ah, now there’s a thing. And the reason why you’d be better served by speaking with a media planner or media consultancy. (Or an ad agency if you have one).

By briefing one of them, and by giving them your advertising budget, your target market and your marketing objective(s), they’d be able to recommend the newspapers you should be considering. Not only that, they could give you advertising rates, negotiate these rates (if possible) and make advertising bookings on your behalf.

And maybe – just maybe – you could get all this done for FREE. (Although there would likely be terms and conditions attached). That said, this would be a far better route than approaching newspapers directly. (Unless you have plenty of time on your hands).

Newspaper media planning and media scheduling is a science and best left to the professionals. If you don’t know of a good media planner, I could give you a name or two.

At the end of the day, a good media planner, media placement agency or advertising agency could help you take the guesswork out of newspaper advertising – by replacing subjectivity with objectivity and thumbsucking with data.

Advertising Costs And Budgets

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I don’t know what it is, but as a Johannesburg advertising agency, it seems that every second enquiry  I  receive these days is from companies with advertising budgets exceeding no more than R40 000 or   R50 000 per month. Maybe this is due to my positioning of this country’s smallest ad agency where  I’m perceived to focus on smallish marketing budgets: I don’t actually – a number of my clients have much larger marketing budgets to work with.

Whilst a marketing budget of R40 000 or R50 000 per month is not to be sneezed at, it certainly makes us advertising-types don our thinking caps as these are fairly restrictive marketing budgets given the cost of advertising in South Africa these days.

Typically, the questions I’m asked are: Will an advertising budget of R40 000 per month allow me to advertise on TV? (The answer is no – not effectively). Will an advertising budget of R40 000 per month allow me to advertise nationally? (The answer is no). Will an advertising budget of R40 000 per month be sufficient to advertise on radio? (The answer is, maybe, possibly). And will an advertising budget of R40 000 per month allow me to advertise on billboards around Johannesburg? (The answer is, not in a way that would make sense).

Today, advertising budgets are unquestionably under strain. Gone are the days when as an ad agency, you had the latitude to be experimental. Now, the marketing budget needs to perform the best it can within the parameters set. And this puts enormous pressure on advertising and communications agencies as well as marketers of brands.

We now need to critically analyse all media types and negotiate harder with media owners. We now need to be more imaginative – and think out-the-box where we can. But clients need to be realistic too.

If the SABC charges R140 000 excluding VAT for one thirty second flighting of a TV commercial on a program like Generations, then a R40 000 monthly advertising budget is simply not going to allow for advertising on Generations – as much as the client’s daughter might think it the best program ever and insist that her dad has his ad aired during it.

Advertising is costly and being so, advertising agencies have a responsibility to advise their clients correctly. Personally, I hate to see clients wasting money. Just yesterday, I met with a prospective new client who wanted to “test the waters” by running a small ad-once-off – in a newspaper or magazine. I’ve talked them out of it because I honestly do not think it’s the right thing to do.

My advice to clients is: either commit yourself to marketing over the medium or long-term, and invest the necessary funds required, or don’t advertise. “Testing the waters” by placing a small ad here or there in the hope that it will get the phone to ring will in all likelihood not work.

And to clients who cannot afford to spend more than R40 000 or R50 000 per month on advertising, I say: First, invest in a decent website and get it professionally optimised by search engines. The emphasis being on “professionally” because search engine optimisation is an art in itself and should be given to someone who specialises in the field, not to someone who “thinks” he can do SEO. Once the website is built correctly (I recommend WordPress) populated with the right content, and the right amount of content, and made live, a Goggle Adwords campaign should be set up – and managed on a monthly basis. The next step is to blog – and blog regularly.

Of course, social media is also important. But it’s of little use just setting up Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn profiles. You need to assign someone to manage them and get them to work for you. There are some very good people out there who would be happy to take on this role.

Then there’s YouTube: get a professional to shoot a video and upload it for you.

Once your website is live and optimised for search engines, your Google Adwords campaigns are being managed, your social media strategy is in place, you’re blogging frequently and you can be found on Youtube, give thought as to what to do with your remaining marketing budget. Depending on the nature of the business, the nature of the product, and who it is aimed at, as a client you may want to look at advertising on street pole posters or on radio or on cinema. You may want to advertise strategically in trade publications or advertise by way of advertorials. A decent advertising agency should advise you in this regard.

But on a limited budget, your priority must be to have a good and professional online presence.
This is the most cost-effective way to advertise and your website has to work for you and deliver results.