Who Responds to Print Ads?

Print readers should be quite the coveted group of consumers. They’re typically older, affluent, educated – and moreover – due to the nature of a media best enjoyed while relaxing – high intent respondents to print ads.

Consumers who respond to print ads have had time to study the product or service they’re calling about – print ads don’t blink or blip or popup across your screen while you’re scrolling or typing. Consumers who call print ads know who they’re calling and why; unlike mobile ads that receive a high percentage of accidental dials.

Print readers, from the calls that we see here at MediaBids, are on the phone with our clients for an average of over SIX MINUTES! That’s a very long phone call – certainly enough time for a business to obtain lead information and complete an order – and probably enough time to get a good part of a caller’s life story.

Other notable attributes of print respondents we’ve gleaned from our own data –

• Print callers call throughout the week, with peak times at 1 p.m. EST.
• Consumers in California drove the most phone calls for our clients.
• Thursday was the most popular day for people to make a phone call from print ads.

It’s not just us who think print readers are the bees knees.

According to a Pew Research study – Print Readers are news enthusiasts overall, often tuning into their local TV news as well – meaning they’re highly engaged in the world around them.

According to the NAA – Slightly more women than men read the newspaper in general, but it’s almost an even split.

In the magazine realm, numbers are even more impressive. Among a large number of interesting stats we’d encourage you to read the MPA FactBook, “Trusted recommenders across product categories are heavy print magazine readers.”

The bottom line is, consumers are still actively engaging with print media – be it newspapers or magazines, or both. By not including print in your marketing mix you’re excluding a very responsive group of potential customers – customers you may not be reaching online. With more performance-based print advertising options available than ever before, there’s never been a better time to try. – Jessica Greiner