For both local businesses and national or worldwide businesses, local radio advertising can help the company hit a target market at a fairly low advertising cost. The specific benefits of local radio advertising can vary somewhat depending on the type of company doing the advertising, but since the production costs of radio ads and the fees for running those ads are fairly low, the company will be able to reach many listeners without spending a significant amount. A company is furthermore likely to reach a larger audience since a person does not have to be in a specific location to hear the ad.
A television ad, by contrast, requires a person to be in front of a television to see the ad. Local radio advertising can reach customers who are out shopping, at the office, in the car, or even at the gym. A person can do other things while listening to the radio, so the chances of a person listening to the radio alone are higher; a person listening alone is less likely to be participating in conversation or other tasks that require strict attention, so that person can think about the ad and retain the information. Since the ads are less expensive to produce and run, a company may choose to play the ads on more than one radio station, and more frequently, further increasing the amount of people who hear the ad at any given time.
A company can also invest in local radio advertising to take part in targeted marketing. A radio station is likely to know the demographics of its audience, so if a company is trying to reach a certain demographic, that company may invest in local radio advertising with one station over another because that station fills the needs of the target demographic. This means the company is spending money on marketing that is likely to hit the key audience rather than creating an ad campaign that may or may not hit the target.
A nationwide or worldwide corporation can begin to develop a local reputation through local radio advertising. Many people have allegiances to certain stations, and they identify that station with their region in many cases. Advertising locally allows a global or national corporation to identify with people on the local level, enhancing the likelihood that those people will then identify that global corporation as something more local than it actually is.