For all its advantages, advertising your business on TV does have some disadvantages. Barring late night spots on your local cable television network, no other advertising medium is as likely to eat up your budget as quickly as TV will. Producing the ad, which can include hiring script writers, actors, film editors, or an advertising agency, is only the first step. You must also pay for air time, and because studies have shown that TV ads are most effective with repetition, you’ll almost certainly want to run your piece a number of times. Because of this, most television stations structure their pricing to make it more attractive for you to purchase advertising in chunks.
Another disadvantage is how difficult it can be to make changes. Whereas with newspaper advertising, updating sale pricing or a special offer is often as simple as swapping out a coupon, with television advertising it means updating your script and reshooting the entire ad, which costs additional money.
It can also be difficult to effectively target your core audience with television advertising, although there are a few best practices that can help. For starters, consider who your audience is before structuring your ad and purchasing airtime. Is a large portion of your clientele Spanish speaking? If so, you’d do well to purchase airtime on a Spanish-language station such as Telemundo. And if you’re in the baby stroller business, you’re probably better off purchasing time slots during the day when stay-at-home moms are most likely to see your ad.