Guide · · 7 min read
How much does radio advertising cost? What sets the price
How much does radio advertising cost? There is no single price list, because every station sells its own airtime and the price of a campaign is built from a handful of choices: which station, which parts of the day, how long the advert is, how many times it plays and for how many weeks. This guide explains each one, with the planning norms the UK radio industry publishes, so you can read a quote and know what you are paying for.
We run a radio station and sell airtime on it, so we will not pretend to be neutral. We also will not quote prices here: ours depend on the campaign, and we have not found a trustworthy published source for anyone else’s.
The short answer
- The price of a campaign comes from five choices: the station, the times of day, the length of the advert, the plays per week and the number of weeks.
- Radiocentre, the industry body for commercial radio, says the most common spot lengths are 30 and 40 seconds. [1]
- It calls four weeks the standard length for most campaigns and recommends “a minimum of four or five weeks to ensure cut-through”. [1]
- Making the advert is a separate cost from the airtime, unless you bring a finished one.
What you are actually buying
A radio campaign is two purchases that are easy to blur together: the airtime, which is the right to have your advert played at agreed times, and the advert itself, which has to be written, voiced and produced. Some stations bundle the two, some quote them separately, and some will play an advert you already have. Ask which you are being quoted for.
Radiocentre describes spot advertising as “the most commonly used form of paid-for-advertising on Commercial Radio”, and says airtime “can be bought across different day parts and days of the week depending on the objectives of your campaign”. [1] Sponsorship of a show or feature is a different product, priced around the show rather than per play.
The five things that set the price
Every radio quote you receive is some combination of these. Change one and the price moves.
1. The station and its audience
A station with a bigger audience, or an audience that matches your customers more closely, can charge more for each play. Radiocentre suggests judging a station not only by how many people it reaches but by what share of its listening comes from your target audience, a measure it calls a cost-efficiency factor. [1]
Ask every station where its audience figure comes from. The industry survey is RAJAR, and Radiocentre’s guidance is built on RAJAR data. [1] Not every station is in RAJAR. LDC’s own figure on our advertising page is a model built from measured, station-stated and estimated numbers, and we say so beside it.
2. The time of day
Stations usually charge more for their busiest parts of the day, often breakfast and the drive home, and less for evenings, overnight and weekends. Which hours are busiest depends on the station: a dance music station’s listeners do not keep the same hours as a talk station’s. The cheaper slot is sometimes the better buy, too: a club night is better promoted on a Friday afternoon than on a Monday morning.
3. The length of the advert
Radiocentre says “the most common spot lengths are 30 and 40 seconds”, but that spots “can in effect be any time length of 10 second increments up to 60 seconds or even longer”. [1] It adds that research suggests longer adverts are better remembered but, “because longer commercials cost more”, they are less efficient than shorter ones. [1]
4. How often it plays
Radio planners talk about OTH, or opportunities to hear: roughly, how many times the average listener could hear your advert in a week. Radiocentre says common agency practice for an average-weight campaign is “4 OTH a week over a period of 4-5 weeks”, with lighter campaigns at 2 to 3 and heavy launch campaigns at 6 or more. [1] More plays means a higher price.
5. How many weeks it runs
Radiocentre calls four weeks “the standard campaign length for most individual campaigns”, and says “it takes time for a new campaign to become established so we would recommend a minimum of four or five weeks to ensure cut-through”. [1] A short heavy burst suits a launch or a dated event; a longer, lighter run suits a business that wants to stay known.
Reach or frequency: where to spend first
If your budget is tight, the industry’s own research points to reach first: getting your advert in front of as many of the right people as possible each week, rather than playing it over and over to the same few. Radiocentre says its ROI Multiplier study found that maximising weekly reach “is the best way to optimise radio ROI”, and it recommends prioritising weekly reach over frequency “unless there are very specific tactical reasons to do otherwise”. [1]
For a local business on a local station, that usually means spreading plays across the day and across the week rather than stacking them into one hour.
Making the advert
A good radio advert says one thing, says who you are, and tells the listener what to do next. The script is where most of the effect comes from, and it is worth paying for if you have never written one.
- Bring your own: if you already have an advert, ask the station to check it suits their sound and their rules.
- Station-produced: many stations write and voice adverts for their advertisers. Ask whether that is included or priced separately.
- The rules: radio adverts on Ofcom-licensed stations must follow the UK Code of Broadcast Advertising, the BCAP Code, which the Advertising Standards Authority enforces. [2] Some products, such as medicines and alcohol, have extra rules, and a station may ask to see evidence for claims in your script.
- Versions: two or three versions of the same advert keep a longer campaign from wearing thin.
How to read a radio quote
When a quote arrives, check that it answers each of these. If it does not, ask.
- Which station or stations, and on which platforms: FM, DAB, online stream, app.
- How many plays, in which parts of the day, on which days, for how many weeks.
- The advert length the price is based on.
- Whether production is included, and how many versions.
- Where the audience figure comes from, and what it measures.
- What happens if a play is missed.
- How you will know it worked: a web page, an offer code or a phone number listeners can use.
Make sure you can tell if it worked
Radio is heard, not clicked, so measurement has to be planned before the first play. The simplest way is a short web address or offer that is only mentioned on air, so anyone who uses it came from the radio. Watch your website’s visits and searches for your business name during the campaign as well, compared with the weeks before.
If the advert sends people to your website, that page has to load quickly on a phone and make the next step obvious. A campaign that does its job on air and then loses people on a slow page is money spent twice. Our page on how radio advertising works in Leeds covers how we set up the web side.
Advertising on LDC Radio
LDC Radio broadcasts on 97.8 FM in Leeds, on DAB in Leeds and Bradford, online and on our app. We build campaigns around what you are promoting and when. We help write the script and produce the advert; if you already have one, we check it works for the station. Rates are on request. Our advertising page has our audience and what advertisers have said about us, or call 07540725926 to talk it through.
Questions
Radio advertising costs questions
Is radio advertising expensive for a small business?
It depends on the station and the campaign rather than on radio itself. A local station with a focused audience can be a modest spend, and you choose the times, plays and weeks. Ask for a quote that lists each of those, and compare it with what the same money buys in search or social adverts.
How long should a radio advert be?
Thirty or forty seconds is the most common length, according to Radiocentre, and spots can run in ten-second steps up to a minute or more. [1] Longer adverts tend to be better remembered but cost more, so most local advertisers start with thirty seconds and one clear message.
How many times does a radio advert need to play?
Radiocentre says common agency practice for an average campaign is four opportunities to hear a week over four to five weeks, with lighter campaigns at two or three. [1] The right number for you depends on what you are promoting and how quickly you need people to act.
Do I need to pay for the advert to be made?
Only if you need one. If you already have a finished advert, the station should check it and play it. If not, writing, voicing and producing it is usually quoted separately from the airtime, and having two or three versions helps on a longer run.
Sources
Every figure and quotation in this guide comes from these pages. We read each one on the date shown.
- Using spot advertising · Radiocentre. Read 1 October 2026.
- Broadcast Code (the BCAP Code) · Advertising Standards Authority / CAP. Read 1 October 2026.
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