Nearly three out of every ten radio advertisements use toll-free numbers, with two-thirds of those using the “800” prefix and 72% using vanity numbers, which translate into words, according to a new study. The study also found that ads not making use of vanity numbers either used more time during the ad to stress the number.
Another 24% of radio advertisements give an Internet URL, and 44% of all radio ads feature either a toll-free number or an Internet address. In total, 57% of all ads featured some sort of direct response vehicle.
Based on the wording of the ads surveyed, marketers may have concerns that telephone numbers with the 888 or 877 prefixes are not automatically associated with being toll-free. Advertisers using numbers with these prefixes specified them as “toll-free” more often than those with the 800 prefix.
According to the study, toll-free numbers were used most frequently by the telecommunication, Internet service provider, beauty, banking/credit, insurance and travel industries. Ads with toll-free numbers were most frequently used on news/talk and sports-oriented programming.
The study, Direct Response in Radio Advertising, was conducted by Response Marketing Group, a Burlington, VT-based service company. Earlier studies from Response Marketing Group found that 58% of magazine ads used toll-free telephone numbers, with the same percentage using Internet addresses, and 24% of television commercials used toll-free numbers, and 19% of television ads using Internet addresses.
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