The word advertising still means television to a lot of people.
One of them tells you exactly who came. The other tells you how many might have.
Why the comparison is still live
Plenty of Italian small businesses still think of advertising as a slot on a screen or a page, because for 30 years that is what it was, and the people selling those slots are still ringing.
They are not obviously wrong. A local slot reaches people who are not looking for you, which is the one thing search cannot do.
What each one actually buys
A broadcast slot buys exposure to a large group defined mostly by when they were watching. A social campaign buys exposure to a smaller group defined by where they live, how old they are and what they have shown interest in.
Neither is better in the abstract. They are different shapes of the same purchase.
The difference that matters is what comes back
After a broadcast slot you know what it cost and roughly how many people could have seen it. After a social campaign you know how many clicked, what they did next, and what each enquiry cost you.
That is not a claim that one sells more. It is a claim that only one of them can be checked, and an unmeasurable spend is one you renew on a feeling.
When the old channel still wins
A shop opening. A trade where the buyer is 70 and the radio is on all day. Anything where being known locally matters more than being found by somebody specific.
Sponsoring the local team is advertising too, and in a small town it sometimes beats everything on this page.
How to run the comparison honestly
Ask every customer who walks in where they heard of you, for one month, and write it down. It is a tedious month and it settles arguments no dashboard can.
Then put the next budget where the answers were, rather than where the last invoice was.
Questions worth asking
Is Instagram cheaper than local television?
Per person reached, usually. Per customer who actually arrives, it depends entirely on the trade, and anybody who answers that question without asking what you sell is selling you their own service.
Should I do both?
If the budget genuinely covers both, yes, and measure the one that can be measured so you can see what the other has to beat. If it covers one, start with the one that reports back.
Does anybody under 40 watch local channels?
Some do, and that is the wrong question. The right one is whether your buyers do, which you find out by asking them rather than by asking us.
What about the free local paper?
Same arithmetic as broadcast, usually cheaper, and often better targeted than either because it lands in a defined set of letterboxes. Worth pricing before you dismiss it.
Tell us what you have been spending and where, and we will tell you which part of it can be measured at all. Get a free audit.
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