New measurement tools in audio give marketers a better sense of their ROI
Contributor: Matthew Schwartz, director of editorial and content development, ANA
Video didn’t kill the radio advertising star. Neither did social media, online gaming, nor Netflix. The rise of digital platforms has been a veritable boon for audio advertising, which encompasses ads on streaming music services, podcasts, and traditional AM/FM and digital radio stations. Despite the dizzying number of media channels — or maybe because of them — radio continues to provide advertisers with effective reach at lower cost per thousand than linear or streaming programming.
Myriad audio channels capture a wide swath of consumers amid ever-thinning audiences. In the first quarter of 2025, AM/FM radio stations (including streaming audiences) accounted for 66 percent of time spent with ad-supported audio among people ages 25 to 54, according to Edison Research, compared to time spent with podcasts (18 percent), streaming audio (12 percent), and satellite radio channels (3 percent). Radio accounts for anywhere from 47 percent of daily ad-supported audio time (among people 18 to 34) to 73 percent (among people aged 35 and over).
Ad spending in podcasts, meanwhile, continues to surge, tripling to $6 billion in the first half of 2025 from the first half of 2024, according to a report from INCRMNTAL, as reported by Emarketer.
Both podcasts and traditional radio generate trust among consumers, which is taking on added currency these days. Asked what percentage of the ad claims made on media platforms and channels they believe, consumers ranked podcasts and AM/FM broadcast equally, tying for second at 48 percent, while Twitch ranked first at 49 percent, according to an online study by Sounds Profitable of 5,005 Americans ages 18 and older, released earlier this year.
The Sounds Profitable study also found that ad-supported podcasts ranked first among consumers when they were asked what percentage of ad claims they believe, outperforming social media channels by an average of 10 percent.
“What radio and podcasts both have in common is that they’re not algorithmically driven, and are very self-selected,” says Tom Webster, a partner at Sounds Profitable. “You choose exactly the content that you want to consume when you’re listening to a podcast [or] radio morning show — you have an affinity with a certain personality. There’s an awareness among users that what you are being fed on [platforms] like TikTok and Instagram is not self-selected.”
A Familiar Quality
Rooted in storytelling, character, and music, audio advertising plays into the theater of the mind and fosters a familiarity that consumers increasingly hunger for amid such a fragmented media environment. “We look for opportunities in any medium to say, ‘Can we put something out there that stands out?’” says Chris Graves, chief creative officer at ad agency Team One, an ANA member. “And I think radio needs a little jolt.”
When Gerard Bozoghlian, chef at Carlitos Gardel Argentine Steakhouse in Los Angeles, met with Team One in 2024 to discuss ideas for a branding campaign — the restaurant’s first since opening in 1996 — radio turned out to be a major ingredient.
Bozoghlian was eager to localize the message and give consumers a taste of the nuances of authentic Argentine cuisine. Team One created an outdoor ad campaign featuring cheeky messages promoting the restaurant. One ad reads, “Béarnaise sauce is made of egg yolks, butter, vinegar, tarragon, and weakness.” Graves added marketing sizzle, developing a fictional spokescharacter to give voice to the campaign. “We wondered what would happen if we let this guy loose in radio,” he says, referring to the character. The result was “The Unforgivable Sin,” an audio campaign with an amusing message delivered by the spokescharacter in a serious tone that suggests there’s a right way — and a wrong, even sinful way — to indulge in Argentine cuisine.
In one radio spot, for instance, the spokescharacter narrates a story: “Fernando cooked a steak well done. In Argentina, where steak is a religion, well done is not well done — it is the murder of rare. And, so, Fernando was shunned. His father took a DNA test. His wife left him for his brother — even though he had no brother.” The ad culminates with the kicker, “Carlitos Gardel, the authentic Argentine steakhouse,” followed by the restaurant’s tagline: “Carne es Todo” — meat is everything.
The campaign, which debuted in March 2025, ran during culinary-related programming on Sirius XM, as well as iHeart’s The Fork Report, a weekly radio show on KFI AM 640 in Los Angeles. The ad was also distributed on top-rated podcasts including Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, 99% Invisible, and The Mel Robbins Podcast.
The radio ads “created a little universe sonically that really plays to the imagination,” says Bozoghlian, who is also CEO of the restaurant’s parent company, Gardel’s Culinary Group. A key measure of the campaign has been the number of diners who rib him about the ads. “People come into the restaurant and ask, ‘Am I a sinner?’” he says, chuckling, and adding that he expects to extend the campaign in 2026.
New Ad Measures
While it continues to hold its appeal with marketers, radio often suffers from a perception problem that hampers the industry’s ability to boost its share and capture more ad dollars. According to Nielsen’s “2025 Annual Marketing Report,” CMOs’ perception of AM/FM radio is last in effectiveness (46 percent). But Nielsen’s data finds radio delivers the second highest ROI ($2) after social media ($2.22), beating display ($1.52), search ($1.16), and connected TV (CTV) ($1.15).
“There’s a massive disconnect between advertiser perception and effectiveness reality,” says Pierre Bouvard, chief insights officer at Cumulus Media | Westwood One, which owns 9,500 affiliated radio stations nationwide. “Anything you can measure in any other media, whether it’s brand lift, sight and search attribution, sales effect, creative pretesting — we [as an industry] are willing to put measurement where our mouth is.”
According to Nielsen’s Media Impact planning data, Cumulus Westwood One is able to show marketers that if they shift 10 percent of their budget from TV, CTV, and digital venues to AM/FM radio — without increasing their total budget — their reach will spike by 20 percent.
“Radio makes everything work harder,” says Tammy Greenberg, SVP of business development at ANA member RAB, which introduced two separate resources this year targeting media buyers. “One Voice for Radio” includes information about radio’s audiences and their listening behavior, and “THIS! Is Radio” offers research, case studies, and curated information to help inform audio advertising strategies.
Brand advertisers got a boost for how to track their audio buys last August when Media Monitors announced two significant changes: growing market coverage for national campaigns to 250 markets, from 106, and committing to permanently store audio files of every radio ad it captures. Previously, the company tossed the files after two years.
“For too long, marketers have relied on planned gross rating points (GRPs) when supplying campaign data to marketing mix model (MMM) providers — an imprecise method that can distort results and undervalue radio’s true impact,” Media Monitors says in a release. “Actual as-run GRPs — what truly aired — are essential for accurate ROI analysis.”
The two changes from Media Monitors should provide advertisers with more details about their ad placements, such as geography, and strengthen their MMM strategies, say industry observers.
In another move designed to enhance the reach of audio ad buys, Nielsen recently shifted measurement in its Portable People Meter markets to a three-minute window — from a five-minute period — resulting in greater media impressions.
“We’re in a new era,” says John Fix, a radio industry consultant who was previously a senior media analyst at Procter & Gamble. “Brands that are making the investment into radio should have an expectation that the new radio data will read better in marketing mix modeling and will have a better chance to show the true ROI value.”
The Creative Muse
Leveraging improved ROI for audio advertising may still depend on developing the kind of ad creative that can tap into radio’s sense of ritual. For an overscheduled society, audio provides a kind of oasis that brand advertisers can populate.
“It’s morning, I’m getting ready for the commute, making breakfast for my children, and I literally feel like I’m talking to my best friends,” says Rahul Sabnis, president and chief creative officer at ANA member iHeartMedia, referring to the bond that many consumers have with on-air radio and audio personalities.
Sabnis — who oversees advertising creative at the largest audio company in the country, reaching 90 percent of Americans a month — points to a major grocer that distributes weekly “audio circulars” on iHeart’s TTWN network that meld with the brand’s promotional calendars and geographic targeting. “Audio taps into the inventory of ideas and images that are in a person’s brain and then formulates that in the context of their lives,” he says. “Advertisers are starting to appreciate that.”
Joe Fallon, SVP and group creative director at ANA member Arnold Worldwide, whose client work encompasses radio advertising — including for Progressive Insurance, which regularly ranks among the top national radio ad spenders — echoes Sabnis, describing producing radio ads as fun because it requires another level of imagination.
“With no visuals, the words, casting, music, and special effect must work overtime,” Fallon says. “Radio isn’t just about words. It’s about finding the right rhythm that brings an idea to life so that it connects with listeners.”
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