To Audit or not to Audit?

Magazines – What is a title worth if you can’t absolutely confirm its circulation? Trade Press and more and more often consumer press are choosing not to carry true audited circulations. The reason for this is very simple, they have a circulation much lower than they quote and / or their distribution methods are unsatisfactory! Magazines that do not have the official audits by recognised auditing bodies;

ABC (Audited bureau of circulation) for Paid for titles
VFD (Verified Free Distribution) for Free titles

… Simply can not be costed the same as a properly audited magazine. Agencies and some clients will simply not choose to advertise within them, however do they have a value?

If you do have to purchase space within a market sector that has no or very few audited titles there is a few safe guards that can help you to make your choice. Firstly make sure that you see copies of the magazines, check for quality not only of the paper stock (free titles will always be a lighter stock than paid for), but for editorial and advertiser quality. If the editorial looks like it is simply a collection of press releases and some badly put together ad’s, discard it immediately. If on the other hand, there’s some recognisable competitors and quality, relevant stories then it may be worth a test. Calculate the cost per thousand (negotiated not rate card!) of the largest similar audited title reduce this CPT by 50% and offer a minimum of a page with a strong trackable direct response mechanism – if you believe that you could get a good gauge of response from a single ad then go ahead but I would always recommend a run of three to truly check the responsiveness of any title.

If the circulation is not ABC’d or VFD’d and instead has a PS (Publishers Statement) or IA (Independent Audit) I would say BS (;-) if the cost of the advertisement was not in line with this dubious lack of information.

Do you think that non-audited media is to risky to give advertising budget too?

Media buying agency https://www.improvemarketing.co.uk/media-buying