What's the ROI on your voice-overs?

When you hire a talent for a voice-over, let's say for a national radio commercial, have you ever measured the return on investment that you received from the radio commercial campaign?

Usually, the ROI you receive at the end of a good radio campaign will far outweigh the cost of the voice-over, and it should. If all of the right ingredients are there, including the perfect voice for the job, you should exceed your campaign goals with flying colors.

Taking this into account, the financial compensation that a voice talent receives from you is usually a one-time deal otherwise known as a 'buyout'. Essentially, you only pay the voice talent for their work once, but you continue to make money from their voice every time that it is heard on the airwaves.

Amazing, isn't it?

This brings me to ask the following question:

Do you budget for your voice-overs with your ROI in mind?

Many people estimate what they think they will make from a campaign but don't take into account one of the main reasons why they are making a profit every time the advertisement is played.

Here's an interesting idea:

Why not budget for the cost of a voice-over factoring in your expected return on investment, thus raising the budget for hiring a voice-over talent?

The results may yield:

Working with your first choice talent
A better voice-over
An even higher return on your investment

A common misconception is that the shorter the voice-over, the less it should cost.

If this is your current impression, you may need to revisit past voice-over campaigns and take an objective look at how they turned out.

Some areas to examine closely are:

If you settled for the lowest bidder and paid the price, resulting in a poor voice-over performance
If people noticed and responded positively to your campaigns
The overall ROI from respective campaigns
If you were prompted to hire the same voice talent because of those results

In the end, it's how the voice-over is used that should determine the price that is paid.

Remember, the voice talents voice continues to generate revenue for you after the recordings have been delivered.

In this way, you can come to think of them as a member of your team and sales force, working for you to promote your business or organization via broadcast channels or through other mediums and by other means.

How's the ROI on your voice-overs?