How to build a radio advertising ninety day plan

What to take away

A radio advertising ninety day plan is a quarter-long schedule that splits strategy, buying, live flight and review into dated stages rather than one off decisions. It works best when the objective, budget and measurement rules are fixed before any airtime is booked.

Days 1 to 30 set the objective, audience and budget, using RAJAR audience data to inform station and daypart choices.
Days 31 to 60 get current rates from a station or sales house, then finalise the schedule, creative, clearance and insertion order.
Days 61 to 90 run the flight, watch response weekly and close with a written review.
For commercial radio, check the BCAP Code and Radiocentre Clearance requirements; the Ofcom Broadcasting Code applies to broadcasters.
Agree measurement before the first spot airs, not after.
One owner should hold the plan; shared ownership is the most common cause of drift.

Why a ninety day horizon fits radio buying

Ninety days is long enough to build reach across several weeks and short enough to correct course without wasting a full year of budget. Commercial radio airtime is usually sold in weekly or monthly blocks, so a quarter gives you three or four buying points rather than one.

The horizon also matches how most finance teams report. If your business reviews spend quarterly, the plan and the report land in the same cycle. That makes it easier to justify the next quarter.

For longer-term context, read our radio advertising strategy and planning guide so the ninety day plan inherits a longer term objective rather than inventing one.

Days 1 to 30: objective, audience and budget

Start with one commercial objective that a spot can influence: a set number of website visits, calls or voucher redemptions. Awareness alone is hard to judge inside a quarter, so pair it with a response measure.

Monthly Budget Split Example

£400Production per month
£2,000Airtime per month

Set the audience next. Decide whether you are buying broad reach across a station's full audience or a tighter daypart. Use RAJAR, the UK's radio audience measurement currency, to assess station reach and audience; ask the sales house for relevant station and daypart data. Breakfast and drive time cost more per thousand listeners, so a small budget stretches further outside peak.

Fix the budget line before you ask for rates. Separate production, airtime and any measurement cost, because lumping them together hides what airtime actually buys. For example, a team paying £400 a month for production and £2,000 a month for airtime should track those as two figures, not one; these are example budget lines, not market-rate benchmarks.

If you have run radio before and it underperformed, check the radio advertising strategy mistakes in England before repeating the same buying pattern.

Days 31 to 60: schedule, creative and paperwork

Build the media schedule around your response window. If your call centre is quiet on Mondays, weight spots later in the week. If you run a retail promotion, front load the first fortnight and taper.

Insertion Order Must Haves

Dates
Dayparts
Spot length
Rate
Cancellation terms

Brief the creative to one message and one call to action. A thirty second script that tries to sell three things usually sells none. Record two versions and let the station rotate them so you can see which performs.

For commercial radio, check the applicable rules before the campaign goes live. The Ofcom Broadcasting Code governs broadcasters; radio adverts must comply with the BCAP Code (the UK Code of Broadcast Advertising), which the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) administers. Submit finished scripts to Radiocentre Clearance for pre-transmission clearance, confirm any station-specific requirements with the sales house, and clear both versions before they air.

Contact the chosen station or sales house—for example, Global, Bauer Media Audio UK or Wireless—to request a current rate card, available inventory and booking terms. Confirm the radio group's booking route; J-ET is used for UK TV advertising trading, so do not assume it books radio. Agree the dates, dayparts, spot length and written rate before signing. Insertion orders should state dates, dayparts, spot length, rate and cancellation terms. Where a campaign runs across several stations, keep one master schedule so nobody double books a week.

Agency planners can cross check their approach against the IPA knowledge centre guidance on media planning practice, which is written for agency teams handling multi channel buys.

Days 61 to 90: flight, monitoring and review

Once live, check response weekly rather than daily. Daily numbers are noisy on small budgets and lead to premature changes. Weekly figures show a trend you can act on.

Keep a simple log: spots aired, spend to date, responses, cost per response. If cost per response rises two weeks running, change the daypart or the script, not both at once.

At day 90, use a one page review template with fields for the objective and target, what was spent, spots aired, responses, cost per response and what changes next quarter. That document is the starting point for the next plan.

Checklist before you start

One named owner for the plan.
One commercial objective with a number attached.
Audience and dayparts chosen, with peak versus off peak priced using current sales-house rates.
Airtime, production and measurement split into separate budget lines.
Two creative versions approved and cleared through the applicable radio clearance process.
Insertion order signed with dates, rates and cancellation terms.
RAJAR audience data reviewed and response tracking in place before the first spot airs.
Weekly review slot booked in the calendar.
Day 90 review template saved and ready.

Common questions

How much should a ninety day radio plan cost?

There is no standard figure. One planning example is £400 a month for production and £2,000 a month for airtime; these are example budget lines, not a market rate. Ask the chosen station or sales house for a current quote specific to its station, daypart and spot length, and keep any measurement cost separate.

Can a ninety day plan run on a small budget?

Yes, but buy fewer dayparts and accept lower reach. A tight schedule across one station usually beats a thin spread across five.

When should measurement be agreed?

Before the first spot airs. Agreeing it afterwards means you cannot prove what the campaign did, and the review becomes opinion rather than evidence.

What happens at day 90?

You close the loop with a written review, then roll the findings into the next quarter rather than starting from scratch.