When a Nevada small business owner buys a 60-second commercial on a Las Vegas radio station, she is limited to about 160 words to persuade listeners to become customers.  To be successful, then, each word needs to be carefully selected to fulfill the desired marketing objective. 

A telephone number comprises seven words. Ten if the area code is included.  If the number is repeated three times during the commercial, then it will consume 21-30 words or up to 18% of the total.

So, should a local business owner sacrifice a significant portion of a radio commercial to insert a phone number? Except for certain circumstances, described below, the answer is no. 

Here are the facts.

Marketers call them Generation Z.  Las Vegas small business owners call them teenagers.  Whatever 12-17 years old are called, they live in homes cluttered with video games, smartphones, and tablets. They have easy access to Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram, and hundreds of other apps their parents have never heard of.

What may come as a surprise to many local business owners, despite an over-abundance of options, Las Vegas radio stations dominate teenagers' media consumption.

Last week, according to Nielsen, 147,100 teens tuned-in to Las Vegas radio. On average, each of these 12-17 year olds spent 90 minutes per day listening.

Las Vegas consumers will spend $39 billion on goods and services over the next year. To claim a significant portion of those expenditures, small business owners need to be at the top of customers' minds when it comes time to buy.

Since 1940, when KENO became the first radio station in Las Vegas, thousands of business owners knew, intuitively, that advertising on the medium was a potent way to be remembered when a purchase was imminent. 

Now there is proof that radio advertising creates the brand awareness necessary to drive sales.

There are many ways for local small business owners to advertise. Options include local newspapers, local magazines, local television, and online. But to achieve the “3-Rs” of advertising success each, Recall, and Return, no other medium delivers results as effectively and efficiently as advertising on Las Vegas radio.

"Radio, by far, is my biggest source of advertising," says Aaron Taylor, (aka The Real Estate Guy). "We have sold more homes and made more money since I started advertising on the radio than I have at any other time before then."

"After our first year on the radio," says Mr. Taylor, "we had gone from selling 50 homes a year to 300." By any measure, a home run."

Some of the bravest people in Las Vegas are small business owners.  These hearty entrepreneurs invest their passion, their hope, their time, and, of course, their money despite the odds.

According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), the good news is that 80% of small businesses make it through the first year. After that, though, only about half will make it to their fifth anniversary. Even fewer, 33% will keep their doors open for ten years.

CBInsights performed an analysis to determine the top ten reasons small business owners fail.  I have included the entire list. But, of particular importance, is reason #8, "poor marketing". This subject will be discussed in more detail because this is where advertising on Las Vegas radio stations can help business owners not to fail.

For most of my lifetime, television advertising was considered the "gold standard" of marketing. For a Las Vegas small business owner craving massive reach, TV used to be the medium of choice.

Over the past few years, however, advertising on Las Vegas radio has become the dominant medium for achieving reach as television audiences dramatically erode.

Take last week for example. Almost 1,502,898 adult consumers tuned-in to their favorite Las Vegas radio stations. This is significantly more than watched local TV, read a local newspaper, or logged-on to a streaming media site like Pandora and Spotify.

For the past 40 years, Las Vegas radio has reached more than 90% of all consumers. But, look what has happened to TV's audience.

Each year, Las Vegas consumers spend $6.9 billion in restaurants and drinking establishments.  Adam and Phyllis Barkin have earned a big slice of that retail pie when they took over Above The Crust Pizza in 2016.

"Six months after we took over the company, we began to invest in advertising on Las Vegas radio to drive business to our first store on West Ann Road," says Mr. Barkin, who is responsible for Above The Crust's marketing.

"I admit, I was skeptical that radio advertising would work for us. But after 30 days, three to five people were coming in every day and telling us they heard about Above The Crust on the radio," he adds. "They were even repeating our tag line, 'If it's good enough for THE family, it's good enough for YOUR family'. They all wanted to be part of the family."

Advertising on Las Vegas radio stations is processed by the brain five-times faster than visual advertising.  This is awesome news for local business owners who depend on radio to market their goods and services.

Las Vegas consumers will recognize the first few notes of Jingle Bells five times faster than they can identify a picture of Santa Claus.  That's because it takes the human brain 5/100th of a second to process sound.  On the other hand, it takes a full quarter of a second to process visual stimuli.

This difference in processing time may seem inconsequential. But, for Las Vegas small business owners who is fighting to inject their advertising messages into the mind of consumers, that .20-second gap can be the difference between success and failure.

You've done the research. You now know that by every measure, radio advertising is the most effective way for your Las Vegas small business to market its goods and services.

You have learned, for instance, 1,502,898 consumers regularly tune-in to their favorite Las Vegas radio stations.  That's more than 90% of all adults.

You've also learned that, on average, adults spend almost two hours per day listening to Las Vegas radio.

If you dug deep enough, then you know radio advertising delivers, on average, a $10 lift in sales for every $1 invested. This is a remarkable ROI for any Las Vegas small business owner.

What you may not have figured out, however, is what is the best time of day to advertise on Las Vegas radio?

Of all the advertising options available to Las Vegas small business owners, streaming audio services like Pandora and Spotify are the least effective.  Here's why.

According to Nielsen, after the content of a commercial is considered, the element of an advertising campaign that drives sales the most is reach. In other words, making sure the most people possible are exposed to the advertiser's message is crucial.

When it comes to achieving reach among consumers, Pandora and Spotify rank dead last.  Advertising on Las Vegas radio stations, actually, can reach 235% more consumers than these two streaming-audio platforms combined.

It may surprise many small business owners that Las Vegas radio stations have a larger reach than Pandora and Spotify even among millennials.  Clearly, it is a myth that younger consumers are ditching legacy media in favor of digital options.