Click here to view a 19-minute video of the key findings.

Click here to download a PDF of the slides.

It’s a classic case of advertiser perception versus marketplace reality. Marketers perceive audio ROI measurement difficulties. Meanwhile, measurement firms churn out study after study documenting audio sales effect.

Audio has entered a golden age of measurement with a wide array of firms now quantifying audio sales effect, brand lift, search and site attribution, and creative effectiveness.

Key findings:

• Audio has entered a “golden age” of measurement while marketers still perceive it’s difficult to quantify audio ROI
• Advertisers indicate their primary audio strategy is focused on awareness, consideration, and brand favorability, which is measured by a bevy of brand lift measurement firms
• Marketers mistakenly believe their audio brand campaigns should be evaluated with lower funnel measurement, akin to testing a Spanish class with a calculus exam
• Major ABCS Insights study commissioned by iHeart reveals digital audio and AM/FM radio drive significant sales effect
• Affinity Solutions: A digital audio campaign across a wide array of publishers generates strong lift in shoppers, average shopper spend, and total sales for a major retailer
• AM/FM radio Media Mix Modeling breakthrough: As-run actual GRP deliveries deemed superior data inputs versus prior submissions of planned media weight, according to John Fix ex-P&G analytics chief
• Podscribe Podcast Performance Benchmark Report: A huge treasure trove of podcast sales conversion norms and ROIs by industry and podcast genre quantify measurable impact
• CMO survey reveals audio is dead last in perceived effectiveness while WPP Media and Circana Media Mix Modeling global studies reveal AM/FM radio and podcasts lead most media for return on advertising spend

55% of brands and agencies say “difficulty measuring ROI” prevents increased audio spending

A new eMarketer Report, in partnership with Amazon Ads, reveals the number one barrier to increased audio spending is “difficulty measuring ROI.” The new report, A Sound Move: Marketers Say Digital Audio is Ready for Bigger Investment, surveyed 100 marketers on their audio strategies.

Agencies and marketers were asked to indicate “What challenges prevent greater investment in digital audio at your organization?” A whopping 55% indicate “difficulty measuring ROI.” 36% admit they perceive digital audio as less effective than other channels.

Marketers say they use audio to build top/mid-funnel brand equity, including awareness, consideration, and brand favorability

The eMarketer study found brand strategies for audio are far more prevalent than lower funnel tactics like site traffic, sales, and conversions.

Marketers mistakenly believe their audio brand campaigns should be evaluated with lower funnel measurement, akin to testing a Spanish class with a calculus exam

The eMarketer study reports, “Advertisers are looking for the assurance that they can prove their case and measure lower-funnel KPIs.” Brand building campaigns have completely different media and creative strategies than lower funnel performance campaigns.

James Hurman, a global marketing effectiveness expert, along with WARC, the organization that devotes itself to quantifying the impact of marketing produced a major study, Rethinking Brand with The Rise of Digital Commerce. The report concludes brand building strategies and performance (lower funnel) tactics require very different media and creative approaches.

Les Binet and Peter Field, the godfathers of marketing effectiveness, detail the key differences between brand building strategies and lower funnel performance tactics

System1: Creative strategies for brand building and performance marketing are very different

System1, the global leader in creative effectiveness measurement, details the key differences between brand building creative that uses right brand brain elements to create future demand versus performance tactics that uses left brand elements to convert existing demand.

TikTok and Tracksuit: A strong brand makes your performance marketing work harder

While the media and creative strategies of performance marketing and brand building are completely different, brand building does enhance the lower funnel impact of performance marketing. A recent study from TikTok and brand tracking firm Tracksuit reveals the stronger the brand awareness, the greater the purchase conversion.

Simply put, be known before you’re needed. The number one driver of brand preference is being “easy to mind and easy to find.”

In the best-selling marketing strategy book How Not to Plan: 66 Ways to Screw It Up, Les Binet and Sarah Carter explain, “The single most important factor driving brand preference is ‘mental availability’: how well known a brand is, and how easily it comes to mind.”

The “ROI” measurement of audio top/mid-funnel strategies is widely available via brand lift studies

If audio’s primary media strategy objectives are awareness, consideration, and brand favorability, the simple “ROI measurement” solution is to conduct brand lift studies with a firm like Upwave. It’s puzzling why marketers consider its “difficult to measure” the top/midde funnel ROI of their audio investments with so many ways to measure brand lift.

Upwave has conducted hundreds of brand effect studies and has produced norms and benchmarks based on industry and brand size.

Chris Kelly, CEO of Upwave, says, “Many brand advertisers still underestimate the value of audio and don’t realize the channel is a brand building powerhouse. Upwave data from thousands of campaigns backs this up. As the market comes to terms with this data, brand media investment in audio ad products will continue to accelerate.”

Chris Kelly CEO, Upwave, the leading brand lift measurement firm

Yes, your audio campaign can be measured! Here’s a handy roundup of major audio ROI studies along with current solutions to quantify the business outcomes generated by audio advertising

What is driving audio’s “difficulty measuring ROI” misperception?

It could be a lack of awareness of all the measurement firms, their myriad business outcomes solutions, and the raft of published studies on audio brand lift, sales effect and business outcome impact. To assist marketers and media agencies, here is a review of the available solutions and major published studies.

Major ABCS Insights study commissioned by iHeart reveals digital audio and AM/FM radio drive significant sales effect

This historic study examined the sales impact of a retailer’s digital audio campaign as well as the AM/FM radio schedule. ABCS Insights matched purchase data of those exposed and not exposed to the audio campaign. The study measured shopping occasions and spend.

ABCS Insights reported the digital audio campaign generated nearly two million dollars of incremental sales. The AM/FM radio portion of the campaign was responsible for $5.8 million dollars of incremental sales.

The ABCS study revealed the AM/FM radio campaign yielded 20% greater sales per person reached than digital audio. Dividing the incremental purchases by campaign reach establishes a “sales/reach power ratio.”

The average person reached by the AM/FM radio campaign generated $1.04 of sales versus 87 cents for digital audio. The “sales yield” of the AM/FM radio campaign was +20% greater than digital audio. AM/FM radio’s stronger purchase effect justifies a 20% CPM premium over digital audio.

Jerome Shimizu, CEO of ABCS Insights, concludes audio is no longer a ‘hard-to-measure’ media channel

Jerome Shimizu, CEO of ABCS Insights, says, “In the Outcomes Era, audio is no longer a ‘hard-to-measure’ channel. ABCS Insights directly measures sales lift from ad exposure, connecting impressions to real consumer purchases and proving impact across the funnel — from awareness all the way to incremental sales.”

Affinity Solutions: An audio streaming campaign across a wide array of digital audio publishers generates strong lift in shoppers, average shopper spend, and total sales for a major retailer

In another historic study, the Cumulus Media | Westwood One® Audio Active Group recently commissioned Affinity Solutions to match their massive trove of credit card and debit card data to the digital audio campaign exposure for a major retailer. The campaign measured the combined sales effect of a large number of digital audio publishers.

The digital audio campaign achieved:

• +5% increase in new customers
• +3.5% transaction lift
• +4% rise in shopper spend
• +4% total sales growth

Podscribe Podcast Performance Benchmark Report: A huge roll-up of podcast sales conversion norms and ROIs by industry and podcast genre

Each quarter, Podscribe, the leading podcast attribution firm, publishes an impressive review of all campaigns they have measured. Click here to download their latest report. 

Podscribe’s recent Q4 2025 ROI report studied 79,000 campaigns from 600+ advertisers generating 20 billion impressions. Podscribe reports site visitor rate and cost per visitor as well as sales conversion rate and cost per acquisition across a wide array of industries and podcast genres.

AM/FM radio Media Mix Modeling breakthrough: As-run actual GRP deliveries deemed superior data inputs versus prior submissions of planned media weight, according to John Fix ex-P&G analytics chief

Thanks to the leadership of ex-P&G analytics chief John Fix, modelers can now seek actual AM/FM radio deliveries. The ad occurrences for the entire AM/FM radio campaign are obtained from Media Monitors who recently expanded their footprint from 106 markets to 250.

John Fix, ex-P&G media analyst, concludes the data inputs for measuring radio with media mix modeling have dramatically improved with ad-run deliveries from Media Monitors

Media Monitors’ AM/FM radio ad occurrences are matched to Nielsen’s Nationwide AM/FM radio audience estimates via the Act1 software platform. To obtain as-run deliveries for data input for a Media Mix Modeling project, simply reach out to iHeart Media or Westwood One for the entire AM/FM radio campaign deliveries.

WPP Media: Audio ROI leads for both short-term and long-term ROI

For those who seek evidence on audio ROI, look no further than the massive new study published by WPP Media. The enormous study examined the ROI of 141 brands across 14 sectors who spent $2.46 billion in advertising across ten media channels.

The study revealed digital audio is tied for first in short term ROI. AM/FM radio comes in second. Surprisingly, audio trumps all other digital media and even linear television in short term ROI.

Across a long-term, two-year time horizon, audio also leads most media for profit return on advertising investment. Placing well above the all media average, digital audio and AM/FM radio rank third and fourth in long-term profit ROI.

Perception vs. reality: Circana CMO study finds audio ranks dead last in perceived ROI, while Circana Media Mix Modeling reveals AM/FM radio is #2 globally and #4 domestically in ROI

Circana recently surveyed global CMOs to determine their effectiveness perceptions of ten media platforms. Podcasts ranked eighth and AM/FM radio ranked dead last.

The reality reveals a stark difference. According to Circana’s Global Media Mix Modeling benchmarks, AM/FM radio is #2 in ROI, while podcasts rank fifth.

In the U.S., the effectiveness perception is also significantly different from ROI reality. U.S. CMOs place AM/FM radio dead last in perceived effectiveness. In the U.S., Circana MMM benchmarks place AM/FM radio as fourth in ROI generating $2.14 in profit ROI for every dollar spent. (Circana did not report podcasts in their U.S. norms and benchmarks.)

Peter Field, godfather of marketing effectiveness, reports AM/FM radio advertising generates significant sales and profit growth

Peter Field, along with his writing partner Les Binet, have been dubbed the “godfathers of marketing effectiveness” due to the widely read marketing studies and books the duo has published over the last 15 years.

Peter Field’s latest blockbuster study is called The Long and the Short of It – 10 Years On: Radio’s Enduring Role in Effectiveness. This consequential new study lays out hard evidence for how AM/FM radio drives significant lifts in market share, pricing power, sales, profits, and ROI. Field examined brands who use AM/FM radio and those who do not.

Field studied the IPA databank, the world’s largest trove of marketing case studies for their many publications. The IPA maintains a databank of over 1,200 case studies submitted to their Effectiveness Awards Competition. Covering a broad spectrum of marketing categories and budgets, they “represent the most rigorous proofs of the effectiveness of marketing communications in the world.”

Field compared brands that do not utilize AM/FM radio to those with AM/FM radio in their media plans. Marketers using AM/FM radio have:

• +13% greater mental availability, the propensity of a brand to be noticed and thought of in buying situations
• +28% larger market share
• +42% lift in the number of companies reporting large profits
• +23% increased return on marketing investment

Adelaide AU scores: Despite the lack of “sight and motion,” audio platforms generate nearly the same attentiveness as TV

Adelaide, an attentiveness measurement firm, uses their “Attention Unit,” or AU score, to compare advertising attention by media.

Recent findings from Adelaide decisively smash the myth that ads with “sight, sound, and motion” are significantly more effective than audio ads. This is the latest in a series of studies that reveal audio attention is much closer to video and visual ad formats than previously suspected.

“The strong performance of audio formats challenges long-held assumptions and offers marketers a compelling opportunity to maximize effectiveness,” said Marc Guldimann, CEO and Co-Founder at Adelaide.

• AM/FM radio has 85% of the attentiveness of linear TV at one-fourth the CPM
• Streaming audio has 86% the attentiveness of linear TV
• Podcasts have 94% of the attentiveness of linear TV

Lumen: Audio ads outperform video for attention and brand recall

A major study released by Lumen, an attentiveness measurement firm, was commissioned by Dentsu, one of the world’s largest media agencies. The Lumen study squashed the myth that video ads are exceptionally more effective than audio ads.

“Audio Ads Outperform Video for Attention and Brand Recall” was the head snapper of the headline in Ad Age. The Lumen study also revealed that audio ad formats were stunningly efficient on an attention CPM basis.

Key findings:

• Audio has entered a “golden age” of measurement while marketers still perceive it’s difficult to quantify audio ROI
• Advertisers indicate their primary audio strategy is focused on awareness, consideration, and brand favorability, which is measured by a bevy of brand lift measurement firms
• Marketers mistakenly believe their audio brand campaigns should be evaluated with lower funnel measurement, akin to testing a Spanish class with a calculus exam
• Major ABCS Insights study commissioned by iHeart reveals digital audio and AM/FM radio drive significant sales effect
• Affinity Solutions: A digital audio campaign across a wide array of publishers generates strong lift in shoppers, average shopper spend, and total sales for a major retailer
• AM/FM radio Media Mix Modeling breakthrough: As-run actual GRP deliveries deemed superior data inputs versus prior submissions of planned media weight, according to John Fix ex-P&G analytics chief
• Podscribe Podcast Performance Benchmark Report: A huge treasure trove of podcast sales conversion norms and ROIs by industry and podcast genre quantify measurable impact
• CMO survey reveals audio is dead last in perceived effectiveness while WPP Media and Circana Media Mix Modeling global studies reveal AM/FM radio and podcasts lead most media for return on advertising spend

Click here to view a 19-minute video of the key findings.

Pierre Bouvard is Chief Insights Officer of the Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group^®.

Contact the Insights team at CorpMarketing@westwoodone.com.