Whats an OK price to pay for a magazine ad?

Work back to how many sales you need to break even
on the front end.

Then is the conversion rate needed to achieve it realistic?

The economics can be put in your favor by adding an upsell on the first sale and also capturing their email to send out more offers at higher price points.

Best,
Ewen

I know that already. I'm just trying to figure out whether the price-points are OK or not.
Like how much 1,000 views in a magazine is worth compared to a click from Google Adwords.

How do I capture peoples email addresses from a magazine ad?

First you will likely not pay rate card.

And in the long run rather the ad is a good, bad, or a fair price doesn't matter. What matters is ROI.

I'd rather over pay for an ad that over delivers.

People tend to avoid niche magazines because their rates are higher on a per reader basis. Yet for many products you will get conversions there that more than make up for it. Would you pay 3 or 4 times the rate if you knew you would get 10 times the conversions?

So the thinking should be more along the lines of what do my ideal customers read and then working to get the best price for an ad there.

There are books about how to get the best rates on print ads and even section in some books about it. Example: The 4 Hour Work Week touches on it for a few pages. Read up on some of these and try it out.

Obviously you have some reason for that question yet to me, that's not the question I'd be asking because I don't see the point to it. And that's because print is a different medium and you have to deal with it on its own terms, basically evaluating if running the ad's worth it or not.

So to the question, "what's a good CPM price to pay for a magazine ad?" the answer is "as low as you can negotiate it." IF you have an ad which you know pulls, the concern is all about ROI. It doesn't matter the cost of the ad if the economics work well, and all you can do about the cost of the ad is either negotiate a lower price, pay their regular price or not run the ad at all.

What Ewen advised is about helping to maximize that return, but you didn't seem clear on how to use your ad to capture emails? I would argue the money's going to be made on the back end so getting emails would be something worthwhile to figure out.

Thanks for the advice guys.

Aaron and misterne: I know it's all about ROI. What I'm trying to figure out is whether I will have a shot of reaching my necessary ROI with those kinds of rates, or if it would be impossible. I have no idea what kind of conversion rates to expect from a magazine. I mean, if a website charged $200 CPM for a banner ad, that would have no chance in hell of making a profit, almost regardless of what you're selling.

Claude: My ad fits very well with the audience and there are other direct response ads in the magazines, some of which have run many times over.

I called and negotiated the price down 30% on both magazines. I will test them out and see what happens.

And I'm saying it's not about conversion, it's all about ROI. You could convert one sale and if the economics are good,make a small fortune. Or convert 5% and lose money.

And you know what? Sometimes the ad will pull. Other runs, it won't. What happens if the first time out, there's no sales? You'll quit. And you'll have wasted your money.

Looking to see if others are repeating their ads again can be misleading. They may have purchased several runs up front in negotiating a price. Seeing their ad again doesn't mean they're making money with it.

Also they may be losing money but have cash to burn through until it hits for them. That may not be your business model.

First of all, you shouldn't be going for a full page ad on an untested ad.

Dominate a page with a three quarter size ad or a contrasty ad that stands out from everything else on that page.

But maybe you want to start with the mail order section in the back with a small display ad.

On top of whatever you do, don't expect the ad to sell the item. That's expecting it to do too much heavy lifting. Use the ad to generate leads. Or sell a small "tripwire." THEN you market more inexpensively, continuously, to those leads.

Thanks for your suggestions man, I really appreciate your input.

The ad is already proven online though. I am having a 600% ROI with Google Adwords even though I pay at least $1 per click.

I have a pretty strong backend for this as well with 4 products + 1 continuity program.

You may want to try and get a remnant, there are last second cancellations all the time in the publishing industry. Lower cost, less risk. But all other points made earlier are important! Be sure to have a unique tracking phone number, URL and email address to track the ROI.

One advantage of a magazine ad is it can hang around for years. Those of you who visit a doctor/dentist office can attest to this. That means you could get responses months later, so don't judge the results too quickly.

As a first time customer, I'd tell both of them that I'm really worried about not making my investment back & then offer them 35% of what their asking, and MAYBE go up to 50%

Also make sure that they'll lock in that rate for you if you end up liking the results.

Quickly here... First, do not buy magazine ads in a freebie magazine unless you know the precise target market for the distribution and even then you need to be cautious/suspicious... contact advertisers that have been advertising for several back issues and ask how well their ad pulls - IF they're still in business when you call. So magazine 1 is probably out of the question. Magazine 2 could work but don't do it unless you can commit to at least three months - preferably five or six. You can negotiate a better price or at a minimum ask for a 15% cut for your own advertising agency fee.

Direct mail is possibly a good option since you already have a winning advertisement but again don't go for a list comprised of free offers. I'm not sure what country you are in or marketing in but here in the USA I would look at renting a mail list from a company such as macromark.com (no affiliation) and choose a "buyers list" most closely related to what your offer is, These are people who have already proven to buy items or information similar to what you're offering and that can be golden with the right offer.

Thanks everyone for your inputs (Claude, Ewen, Misterme etc)!

AZMD: I would love to rent a list and do direct mail but unfortunately there are no list brokers in my country.

I negotiated 30% off on both magazines. I will try them out.