What are The Various Factors to Help Decide The Right Newspapers?

Every time you decide on launching your advertisement campaign in a newspaper, it is highly essential that you pick the right newspaper to speak to the intended target audiences. The intended target audience is linked with certain factors and envisaging those factors helps you choose the right newspaper for your advertising campaign. The audience for any product, brand or service, as well as notifications is differentiated on the basis of their location, language, income level, profession, age group and the exact demographics of the preferred location.

Let’s find out how these factors influence the choice of the newspaper for an ad campaign.

Targeting Region

Reach is the prime factor that conditions the newspaper an advertiser decides to choose for every Newspaper ad campaign. It is essential to ensure whether you need to reach out to only the neighbourhood, a city, an entire district, a complete state or multiple states.

Based on this specification, an advertiser can pinpoint the newspaper that will serve the advertising objective. Such detailed bifurcation of the target region is essential since it also decides whether the circulation of the newspaper needs to be high or moderate or low. This in turn affects the advertising budget as well. Every newspaper has different city editions and there are some that reach out to districts as well.Advertisement on Telegu Newspaper

For Instance, Eenadu has specific district editions that cover the cities as well as the suburbs and villages that come under the districts of Nellore, Kurnool, West Godavari, Anantapur, Guntur, Hyderabad Urban, East Godavari etc. This newspaper is the Telugu language daily and is quite popular for being published district-wise.

Language and Income level

India has a population of 123.6 crores, of which 48.5% are females and 51.5% are males, alongside a literacy rate of 74.09% at present. About 18.6% people are comfortable with English, 41.3% people are fluent in Hindi and nearly 59% people speak languages other than Hindi, which even includes English.Advertising on Hindi Newspaper

Such detailed information is necessary for every advertiser, as this helps the advertiser to determine the language of the newspaper he must choose to publish the ads in. One thing is quite clear from these numbers, that the number of regional language newspaper readers, together, is higher than the number of Hindi or English newspaper readers. This provides a basic understanding of the trend that exists among newspaper readers.

Although the percentage may vary from state to state and region to region, it still must be comprehended that it isn’t necessary that a region’s readership is dependent on these figures.Malayalam Language Newspaper Ad

For example, in Kerala, about 96% of the population is fluent with Malayali and in spite of having the highest literacy rate in the country, around 93.91%, opting for Malayalam language newspapers is the best way to reach out to the consumers of Kerala.

Profession and Age Group

A newspaper is often selected based on the kind of readership it has. Whether it has more appeal among students or whether it is more popular among Businessmen, the type of audience is a deciding factor for any newspaper. There are certain newspapers, rather supplements which differ in popularity between genders.

For Instance, if the Economic Times is ideal for advertisements that target businessmen then the Times City Supplement such as Delhi Times or Mumbai Times is more popular among females. The Midday, a popular tabloid of Maharashtra is preferred by professionals due to the time frame it is published in, so accessing such professional audiences becomes viable with a newspaper like Midday.

Urban and Rural

For every advertiser, it is a necessity to ensure whether they intend to target a rural audience or an urban audience or both. This has a huge influence on the choice of a newspaper, simply because, the rural regions are more comfortable with regional language newspapers while the English dailies are preferred by the well-educated urban audiences. Even if an advertiser intends to cover both the urban and rural population of a specific region at the same time, then there are options to choose district editions which cover the villages, towns and cities alike of a district.

As per an illustration, Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad etc are considered to be City editions published by Times of India, while district editions of Eenadu comprise of Kadapa, Srikakulam, Warangal etc.

So keep these factors in mind while choosing the newspaper you intend to launch your ad campaign in.

Smart Way to Advertise in Newspapers

The thumb rule of every advertising campaign, irrespective of the medium you choose to advertise in, is that it needs planning, budgeting and creative application. The most basic part of an ad campaign is choosing the medium through which you need to advertise.

In this case, you must have already decided on Newspapers to be the preferred medium of advertisement and that’s why you have reached our second course on Newspaper advertising. Here we help you evaluate your budget, advertising requirements and the planning that goes behind an advertisement in a newspaper.Advertise on Newspaper

The adverts that we see in the newspapers require a lot of media planning, engagement of creative minds and of course ensuring that the right newspaper has been selected. The significance of choosing the appropriate newspaper lies in the fact that a newspaper determines the reach of your advertisement.

A hell lot of research is invested behind a single advertisement which includes conducting market research on the demographics of a potential target area, the newspaper that is most popular in that area, city, region, analysing the region to determine if it’s a rural or urban area etc.

Apart from researching about the target audience, it is also essential to find out about the different festive seasons, occasions that take place in the target region so that you can reach out to the audiences based on the advertising objective you intend to attain.

It is important to comprehend the requirements for an advertisement and the kind of budget that needs to be evaluated for it to be a successful advertisement. This is what this specific course intends to preach to the newbie newspaper advertise in order to enable them to execute their campaigns successfully and get maximum returns from it.

What are The most Popular Advertising Categories under Display?

There are two kinds of advertisers who indulge in display advertising in newspapers-

  • Those interested in creating Brand Awareness
  • Those interested in Sales Promotions on a large scale

Both these objectives are subject to the budget of the advertisers.Newspaper Display Ad

In case of Brand Awareness, the higher the budget, the bigger the ad and the better the responses from the target audience. Along with advantages in lieu of the ad size, there are also other benefits that a higher budget can provide like better creative for prominence, better visual effects to attract the audience and quality content to engage the readers. All such experiments and creativity can be explored only in case of display advertisements as there is both sufficient space and scope for them, making it ideal for brand awareness.

But there are certain display advertisements which are meant for sales promotions. These ads need not have a huge budget but they surely need to be attractive and highlight the events or offers. In this case, though there is no hindrance to creativity, but the ads are more factual and provide information about related events and offers.

Certain categories are more popular in the Display format rather than in the classified section. Let’s find out the most popular Display ad categories.

Property

Although personal property sellers or landlords opt for the classified ad format, most real estate companies handling housing complexes and residential buildings publish only display adverts. Model images, proper designs and relevant taglines are used in the advertisements which are either meant for selling off the apartments of the complex or for brand awareness. Builders often intend to fulfil both the objectives through a single advertisement which is why they end up choosing newspapers with the highest circulations or readership in the concerned locations.

EducationEducation Display Ad

A number of Universities, Colleges, Schools and even Professional Course Institutes, need to stay in the limelight to maintain their brand’s popularity and of course get as many admissions as possible. Although admission notices are limited to a certain time period, display Education advertisements continue to make their presence felt through the media. Most educational institutes opt for Display adverts as they often have no budget constraints and need to make people aware of their brand for future admissions and academic references.

Business

Businesses need to promote themselves and ensure maximum profits. The best way to ensure that is to enhance their visibility with high quality creative, attractive designs and captivating content. Most FMCG companies, Retailers like Jewellers, Clothing Chains, along with e-commerce companies, electronics, cosmetics, automobiles and even telecom companies prefer newspaper display adverts. This format of ads helps such organisations gather as many eyeballs as possible from existing as well as prospective consumers.

TravelTravel Display Ad

Travel ads are highly common and are an exclusive preference among display advertisements as many online as well as offline travel agents prefer to advertise through newspapers for announcing seasonal discounts on tourism or package deals or even holiday packages. Hotels, travel and tourism agents, resorts etc choose to advertise through display ads emphasising on sales promotions. It targets the audience who are on the lookout for travel agents or planning for trips but are not internet savvy or do not rely on online mediums.

Recruitment

Recruitment advertisements the most frequently published display ads in newspapers. Almost all MNCs, IT companies, popular Consultancies, BPOs, KPOs, banks and even finance companies prefer display recruitment ads in order to reach out to the potential applicants. The simple reason to pick display ads over classifieds for recruitment purposes is that it serves two purposes at one go-brand endorsing and candidate search. These recruitment ads are usually well crafted, attractive with the logo and name of the recruiting organisation along with job description, requirement and of course contact details.

One thing is for sure that for a display newspaper advertisement, you need to have an exclusive budget, proper media planning and creative resources available at hand. The biggest benefit of newspaper display adverts is that they are much cheaper than TV commercials and many other mediums of advertising but serves the objective just right.

What are The Most Popular Advertising Categories for Classifieds?

As mentioned in lesson 3 of this module, budget and objective are the deciding factors for the type of advertisement an advertiser intends to publish. Based on these factors, there are certain ad categories which are particularly popular under the classified section rather than in the display ad format.

The reason behind the popularity of these classified categories is the objective which they intend to meet. Some of them are individual ads for personal references or meeting official requirements of individuals, while some of them are conditioned by the budget of the advertiser.

The list of popular Classified Ads is provided as follows.

Matrimonial

All matrimonial match seekers who advertise in newspaperMatrimonial Classifieds only prefer the classified ad format and it is the most frequent classified ad category under which ads are booked. It can be a text ad or a classified display consisting of an image of the prospective bride or groom. The reason matrimonial advertisers choose the classified ad format is that these ads are published predominantly by parents and other family individuals and can be referred to as personal individual advertisements.

RecruitmentRecruitment Classifieds

Many of you may wonder that recruitment advertisements are more popular in the display format, but it is also quite popular category under classifieds. Most small and medium businesses fulfil their recruitment requirements with classified ‘Situation Vacant’ advertisements. Even individuals seeking jobs often advertise in the recruitment section under the sub-category of ‘Situation Wanted’, wherein, job seekers mention their qualifications and skills requesting a profile matching them.

ObituaryObituary Classified

Obituary advertisements are generally released in the Classified Display format which enables advertisers to include images of the deceased and messages of their choice at a much lesser price than display ads. Remembrances, funeral invitations and even condolence messages are conveyed through classified text or classified display advertisement as per the budget of the advertiser.

Property

By property ads here, we do not mean real estate projects but advertisements for sale, purchase and rent out individual homes, flats or apartments. Brokers, landlords and Individual property owners constitute 100% of the classified property advertisers across all Indian newspapers.

BusinessBusiness Ads on Newspaper

Every business house has certain budget constraints, based on which they pick their mode of advertising. Since 8 times out of 10, newspaper advertising is the first choice of all business promotional campaigns, many small and medium sized businesses choose to advertise under the classified format. Sales promotions, Business Proposals/offers or even seeking Business partners are done through classified advertisements.

Announcements

Classified Announcement Advertisements are the most common category of classified ads following matrimonial ads. Most announcements are made by individuals, which include personal declarations such as Name Change, Address Change, Lost & Found, legal notifications, marriage notices etc. All these announcements are specifically published in the classified text format as they are mainly meant for personal or government references as a testimony to change in certain personal details of a resident of the country. These are crucial announcements and need to be based which can’t be done away with, therefore to save money, people pick the text format for such ads.

Public Notice and Tenders

Public notices and Tender ads are also a type of public announcement, wherein the public is notified about changes brought about by rules, regulations, contract requirements, laws or anything associated with the government. This ad category is generally published in the Classified Display format, as most newspapers do not facilitate publishing public notices or tender ads in the text format. Also, since such ads have a lot of information to fit into a simple run-on line ad, it is more reasonable to publish them under the display classified format.

EducationEducation Advertisement

Contrary to popular belief, education ads are not limited to admission notices which are more often seen in the display format. There are numerous education adverts that are published in the classified ad format. These classifieds include adverts for introducing or promoting Coaching Classes & Private Tutors. Coaching centres generally have the limited budget since they have a very limited number of students while private tutors are predominantly individuals, which is why they opt for the classified format.

Personal

Last but not the least, almost all personal messages are conveyed through classified newspaper advertisements. Be it birthday greetings, season’s greetings, anniversaries, personal achievements, announcements about pets and animals or simple letters to friends and folks, all are conveyed via classified ads. The only reason behind this is that these are individual ads and individuals cannot afford display ad charges.

It is quite evident that most advertisers who pick classified advertisements are either individuals or have budget constraints. It is for this purpose that the format of display classifieds was introduced as something that has the features of a display ad with certain limitations pertaining to cost and fits in the budget of most newspaper advertisers.

What are the different display ad sizes?

Which newspaper ad size fits your pocket?

Among the two types of newspaper advertisements, display ad sizes are the ones that matter the most to advertisers, since classified display ads have a few limitations in terms of ad sizes. Therefore advertisers in general focus more on the display ad sizes, while classified adverts are known more by the number of words and lines used in them.Display Ad Fromat

So let’s comprehend the different ad sizes in which display adverts are published. Although there can be numerous ad sizes, but we intend to focus on the ones that are popular.

Quarter Page

The name quarter page refers to the 1/4th of a newspaper page which has about 7-8 columns of standard size, which is around 3-4 cm each and has a length of about 50-52 cm. A quarter of these dimensions brings the ad to a size of about 15-16 cm in width and 25-26 cm in length.Quarter Page Ad in Hindu Newspaper

A quarter page ad occupies a complete corner of a newspaper page and is also referred to as a postcard size advertisement. This is the most common form of display advertisement, as it is not only an economical option but if placed strategically, as mentioned about corners in the previous lesson, they can prove to be quite effective. The standard size followed by quarter page advertisements by publications is 16 cm X 25 cm for convenience in designing and printing the ad.

Half Page

By the same logic, a half page ad is known so as it occupies half of a newspaper page. But there are two types of half page adverts which have separate dimensions as well.

Vertical Half Page- If a half page ad is vertically printed then the dimensions of such an ad would be around 16 cm wide and 52 cm long covering the full vertical length and the half width of the page.

Horizontal Half Page- As for a horizontal half page advertisement, the ad would be 33 cm wide and 25 cm long, covering the complete width and half length of the page in question.  

Half-page advertisements are mostly common among Business, Retail and FMCG categories. Some of these ads are also flip ads, which means that only half of the newspaper page is printed on which the ad is placed while the rest has no content or any page at all. This happens mainly in case of the front page vertically half ads which appear like a half jacket of the main newspaper.

Full Page

Full page ads, as the name suggests covers the entire page of the newspaper and has no other content apart from the ad print. All full page advertisements are 33 cm wide covering about 8 columns and 52 cm long. These dimensions are based on the size of a broadsheet excluding a margin of at least 1-2 cm on the edges.

Full Page Ad in Delhi Times Newspaper

**(An image of a full page advertisement mentioning the dimensions of arrows and a gap of 1-2 cm on all the sides, displayed with arrows again)

Minimum Ad size

You must be wondering what else separates a display ad from a classified display ad which can also be wide as 6 cm and have any length.

Well, the minimum size of a display advertisement is around 4 cm in width and 4 cm in length while that of a classified display ad is 3 cm (width) by 5 cm (length). And, of course, that display ads can be printed on any page of a newspaper or its supplement.

In the case of certain specific newspapers, this minimum ad size criteria may be different. An example of this is the Times of India, wherein the minimum display ad size is 8 cm by 6 cm in case of all editions, except Delhi, for which the size limit is 8 cm by 4 cm.

Custom Ad Sizes

Apart from these popular ad sizes, there are certain ad sizes which cannot have a specific name since they are basically custom ad sizes. The dimensions for such adverts depend on the advertiser’s choice or the size of their personally designed ad.

Some of the most frequently preferred sizes are:

  • 4 cm (width) by 5 cm (length)
  • 8 cm (width) by 4 cm (length)
  • 8 cm (width) by 5 cm (length)
  • 8 cm (width) by 6 cm (length)
  • 8 cm (width) by 12 cm (length)
  • 12 cm (width) by 20 cm (length)
  • 16 cm (width) by 20 cm (length)

Advertisers can pick any of the above-mentioned sizes for their display ad or go with their own preferred ad size as per the design of their ad layout. But while publishing a display ad, one thing should be always be kept in mind that, except for the full page advertisement, the width all display ads sizes are even numbers, as in multiples of the numerical 2.