How Much Does a Public Service Announcement Cost?

You probably already know that a national public service announcement campaign can generate huge awareness by tapping into donated advertising time on television and radio stations. However, free ad time doesn’t mean that there are no costs associated with creating a broadcast PSA campaign. So now you’re wondering, how much does a public service announcement cost?

 

The short answer is, it depends. It depends on how much you want to spend to produce the message and who you partner with to distribute, promote, track, and value the campaign. All told, most nonprofits will spend between $46,000 and $66,000 on a PSA campaign. Some add-ons, like Spanish language or digital distribution can nudge these numbers upward. Let’s take a closer look at the factors that contribute to public service announcement cost.

 

Public Service Announcement Costs

TV and radio broadcast ad time for PSAs is indeed free, thanks to the donation of unsold advertising time stations provide to demonstrate they are socially responsible organizations that care about the communities they serve. The costs associated with creating and distributing a broadcast PSA include:

 

  • Production
  • Distributing and promoting the PSA to stations
  • Tracking and measuring results
  • Valuing in-kind donations received from stations

 

Although some companies charge for these services separately, the truth is, you can’t run a PSA campaign without all four of these elements. We’ll explain each one in detail below.

 

How Much Does It Cost to Produce a PSA?

Production costs include everything from coming up with the creative concept, to writing the script, hiring talent, and managing post-production. A typical 60-second commercial you see on television today can cost more than $100,000 to produce. A Super Bowl type commercial can cost more than $500,000. But don’t panic, in PSAs the numbers are much lower.

 

A well-crafted live-action TV commercial can be produced for about $40,000. Opt for animation and you could spend even less, around $20,000. Radio, is often even more affordable, at less than $10,000 per produced minute.

 

You should plan to create a 60-second, 30-second and 15-second version of your message to fit all the empty ad slots stations can make available. Most production companies will charge for the 60-second version, then work with you to make “cut downs” or shorter versions of your video to fit different formats.

 

Video and audio production can be managed by your advertising agency or a third-party production company. If you don’t have an ad agency and are overwhelmed by the number of production companies out there, we’re happy to recommend companies that have extensive experience creating PSAs.

 

What Does Distribution Cost for PSA Campaigns?

Once you’ve produced your PSA, you need to prepare it so its usage can be tracked and measured. Then you need to convince stations to air it. This is where an experienced distribution company comes in.

 

Getting your PSA into the hands of the people who determine which ads are used is no simple feet. There are more than 1900 TV stations and about 9,100 radio stations in the U.S. alone. That’s a lot of people to contact.

 

A PSA distributor like Connect360 can get your PSA into the right hands, in the right way, and with the right promotional materials to get your message selected. We digitally deliver PSAs using Extreme Reach and its custom portal designed to catch the attention of key decision makers at stations and provide them with the information they need. Over the years, stations have come to know and trust us, so we can help campaigns succeed.

 

The cost to distribute, market, and report on a typical campaign runs about $26,000 for a TV campaign and $19,000 for a radio campaign. This includes 12 months of promotion and tracking of all airings, calculation of impressions, and full media valuation information on the dollar amount of donated media received from stations. Valuations are important for your CFO and CPA because they are required to include all in-kind donations received from the stations that aired the PSA in their year-end audited financial statements.

 

In addition to broadcast PSAs, Connect360 distributes and tracks print and out-of-home PSAs. Connect360 also provides a host of digital tactics including getting PSAs aired on streaming television.

Why Pay for Results Tracking and Reporting?

Tracking and reporting is so essential to PSA campaign management, that the cost is included in our distribution charges. It’s not an add-on service, it’s a core part of any campaign.

 

Tracking your public service announcement campaign allows your marketing department to know how your PSA campaign performed. It is so important that many nonprofits make it a part of their annual report to donors.

 

Valuing the amount of donated in-kind media you receive from broadcast stations is a necessary step that takes specialized resources. It is a complex process because a typical PSA can receive thousands or even tens of thousands of airings from hundreds of different stations across the country, each of which must be separately measured and valued.

 

To make things even more complicated, TV and radio stations do not notify nonprofits when their ad runs. The only way to know how many times your ad runs is to use the proprietary services of Nielsen combined with other media research companies. Getting access to this data is costly and the data itself is confusing if you are not already an expert. That’s where Connect360 really shines.

 

Every day, Nielsen sends in airing information on when all PSAs aired. Connect360 inputs this information into its media measurement and valuation system. There it is married up with a proprietary database of Nielsen impression data and valuation data based on what advertisers paid to air spots similar to yours at the same time of day in the same market as your PSA. This allows Connect360 to value every PSA spot and provide you with analytical reports on your campaign.

 

Public Service Announcement Cost and Return on Investment

So what have we learned about public service announcement costs? Your total investment will vary depending on how you produce your PSA and the media you select, but in general, you can expect to pay around $46,000 to $66,000 for a national broadcast campaign.

 

That might sound like a lot, but the return on investment is well worth it for many nonprofits. The average PSA campaign can expect to earn $5 million of donated ad time. That works out to $75 for every $1 spent on production, distribution, promotion, reporting, and valuation of your campaign.

 

Not only does this investment help you to access free broadcast time to build awareness for your message, but it also helps make your organization score better on the benchmarks the key nonprofit rating organizations use to evaluate a nonprofit’s operations. Typically, these organizations like to see a nonprofit spend more than 70% of its revenue on program expenses rather than fundraising and overhead. As a 100% program related expense, PSAs, which are usually considered a program expense, raise the total percentage of nonprofits – often significantly – making your organization look even better to donors and potential donors. That is why so many smart not-for-profit organizations take advantage of this unique opportunity each year.

 

Now that we’ve answered the question how much does a public service announcement cost, you probably want to know more about how to start planning for a public service announcement campaign. That answer is a lot more straightforward. Just contact the experts at Connect360. We are the leading company helping nonprofits build national awareness for their PSA campaigns.

 

 

 

 

© 2024 Connect360 Multimedia

 

 

About The Author

Ivette Achong

Ivette Achong leads Connect360’s public service division and is the company’s multicultural specialist. In these roles, Ivette provides clients with the strategic counsel and services that effectively connect them to their target audiences while generating maximum return on investment.

About Connect 360

Connect360 is a leading media placement agency driving measurable results for some of Charity Navigator’s highest-ranked nonprofits, well-known associations, government agencies and public relations/marketing firms.

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