Stop, look and listen: 'Audio ads are the one to watch'

Marketers are missing a trick by not including audio in their campaigns, with growing evidence to suggest that not only does the channel drive a major impact in terms of attention, brand lift and key business KPIs, brands are increasingly able to track conversion and optimize campaigns “mid-flight”.

That is the crux of a new white paper released by WARC Advisory and multiplatform audio media and entertainment company Audacy. It reveals that there is a major audio investment gap; the average consumer listens to audio for 220 minutes a day but the medium only attracts 8.4% of advertiser spend.

“Breaking Down the Barriers Behind the Audio Investment Gap” follows a GWI study published last week which claimed that podcasts have emerged as the new go-to medium for brand discovery, especially among younger audiences, suggesting the spoken word has now overtaken TV and even social media platforms as the channel of choice.

The WARC Advisory and Audacy paper, meanwhile, spotlights the central role audio plays in the lives of many consumers. Driven by growth in streaming and podcasts, time spent with audio is growing significantly faster than media consumption overall.

Audiences aged 55 to 64 now spend 39% more time with audio than they did in 2020; for those aged 16 to 24 the daily consumption has risen by 21%.

Despite the misconception that audio does not deliver campaign KPIs and is highly fragmented, evidence shows the medium delivers attributes that brands need most.

In the US alone, audio’s total daily reach is 96%. Broadcast radio reaches 84% and 34% of consumers listen to at least one podcast a week. In fact, podcast ads register 10,630 attentive seconds per thousand impressions (APMs) compared to TV at 4,430 APMs and audio buys are now based on consumer interests, behaviours and contextually relevant moments.

Recent research by Radiocentre found that allocating budget to the channel enhances overall campaign performance by boosting organic search volumes, increasing paid search impressions with improved conversion and uplifting response to paid social ads. Nielsen states that audio consistently ranks as a top-tier medium for ROI.

Given its unique characteristics, audio is felt to be particularly difficult to integrate into the mix. This is exacerbated by a widespread belief that visual assets are essential to effective communication, but evidence shows that the channel is highly trusted.

Including radio in a campaign significantly increases brand trust according to System1 and Radiocentre in the UK; it enables brands to penetrate local communities and cultures – sports radio listeners are three times more likely to search for a sponsor’s brand and four times more likely to purchase its product or service than non-listeners; it is a media multiplier when working alongside other platforms; and creates new opportunities for integration – through display banners and videos and “podfluencers”.

Naturally, in an increasingly data-driven market, there are concerns about measuring audio’s effectiveness. However, audio measurement is evolving and effective tools now exist to track conversion, enabling brands to optimize creative half way through any campaign.

Using pixel-tracking, brands can also match audio ad exposure to online and in-store conversion. Additionally, brands are able to evaluate share of search, but care needs to be taken with attribution and marketing mix models (MMM); unless properly calibrated, they often fail to pick up audio’s full impact.

Audacy SVP of research and insights Ray Borelli said: “There are more options available to marketers in audio than ever before, and we see time and again the positive results that come when brands increase their audio spend. However, investment in audio is being constrained for some by a series of perceptual barriers. This paper aims to dispel those misperceptions and highlight the opportunities that are in front of marketers who embrace audio advertising.”