The Average Cost of a 30 Second Spot on National Tv? $104,051 ……and a Domain?

When you question the prices paid for some domains then take a look at these numbers.  These are the average costs of advertising as of June 8th 2010

30 Second National Television Spot on Fox………….$200,008

and on ABC and CBS $94,000

and the “cheapest” NBC was a mere $76,211

How about Cable

ESPN  30 second spot  $19,301

USA and TNT at $15,000

the average of all cable stations $9,968

And that doesn’t even include production costs

So let’s put this all in perspective.  It costs $200,000 to air ONE commercial on Fox.  Do you really think that a national company can’t afford to shell out real money for a domain?  It always amazes me when I hear these advertising rates but my business is so small in comparison to these companies that I have trouble digesting the numbers.  I spend $500 on a local commercial that airs to a much smaller audience.  It gets me that I just spent the weeks salary of an employee in 30 seconds.  But you can’t think like this on either side.  Advertising is a key component of a business and a domain is MUCH more than advertising.  Therefore the price should be even higher.

If I were to sell the domain  SuperBigBigChicken.com for $100,000 to a chicken restaurant it would be news all over the Internet.  Yet not a word would be said about the 4 commercials that were being used to promote that cost $800,000.   For that kind of money you can get one of the best domains available on the net.  In order to get the most out of your domains you have to understand the scale.  Just because you don’t have this type of money you have to remember that large companies do.   Negotiate with the zeros at the end that they are used to dealing with.  Don’t take them off just because you have never seen a check with that many.  Rick Schwartz gets this.  Love him or hate him, he knows value and what a company can get for that same amount of money.  You have to convince the buyers that the investment in a solid domain will have better results than if put into an ad.

Am I dreaming of selling a domain for big bucks?  Sure.  Will I?  Yes, because I know the value of marketing.  I can and will sell this value to anyone trying to buy my domains.  Not all my domains have value to large corporations, I realize this.  I am not pushing a domain like awesomecars4you.com to Chevy but if I had a domain like revolution.com I might push it to go with their “An American Revolution” campaign.  They are going to spend $20 million on a campaign.  $250K for the name is not outrageous.

I am relatively new to this domain game but in order to succeed in any business you need to know your product.  Its worth, use, and value to the consumer.  I am getting better and learning this with domains.  I had my first $10,000 sale this past week and it’s no coincidence that I entered the sale with confidence. I knew the value of the domain to the company and it’s relation to other domains.  Now I just need to keep adding the zeros.

UPDATE:  Fall 2012 Advertising Cost for a 30 Second Commercial for EVERY tv show

Advertising data courtesy of MediaWeek