What is the average percentage of advertising space in a magazine? and does it work?

total number of pages versus total number of advertising pages.... how much impact does advertising actually have for a start-up business? what are average costs? are contracts involved or is it just done on a publication to publication basis?

What is the average percentage of advertising space in a magazine? and does it work?
actually I read that is about 75% ads on a magazine, however for a business is good to have not all advertising, but clever and enough advertising that gets the attention of people. The costs I can't tell you for sure, but is usually really expensive, I guess in a magazine is done with a contract between major and magazine reps and small magazines or places is usually on publication by publication basis.
Reply:depends on what you are selling and how effectively you targeted your market. For instance, advertising lipstick in a magazine geared for 60 year old businessmen probably isn't going to yield much action for you, no matter how many times you advertise or how good your graphic layout is. Target your market. Call a lot of magazines you are interested in and ask for their media kits. Those will give you that magazines circulation and their demographics--who reads their magazine, how much disposable income they have, their education level. It's a sophisticated packet of information that helps you see if it is reflective of your target audience.
Reply:Totally dependent upon the magazine...some mags are almost nothing but ads, other are short on ads and long on articles. I suppose the average is about 50/50.


Cost of advertising in a mag is dependent upon circulation numbers, and at the descretion of the mag. The more popular the magazine, the higher the ad space. A single shot ad will cost considerably more that a contract for say, 3 issues, 6 issues, 12 issues, etc. As a rule, it takes at least 3 runnings of the ad in issues before anything starts to happen. .. if it is going to happen. Just because you put in an ad does not mean it will be effective. You must pay for placement (the right hand page, when the mag is open) is more readable, and therefore more expensive than the left hand page. Various placement cost varying amounts, with varying effectiveness. You need to get a firm grip on what you are doing before you spend this kind of money. Perhaps, investing in your interenet site would be a more productive means of getting the word out. Placement in search engines is everything...page one or die!