Audio advertising can increase engagement with your audience from start to finish in the marketing funnel.
By Tammy Greenberg, SVP Business Development, RAB
Nearly all marketers are under pressure. According to the CMSWire State of the CMO Report 2025, a whopping 95 percent of CMOs say their teams are under more pressure than ever to prove the value of their marketing. Equally concerning, the report, based on responses from 515 CMOs, found that 69 percent of marketers take the responsibility of achieving measurable ROI very seriously—up from 59 percent in 2023. Leveraging audio media platforms to strengthen brand positioning and drive results throughout the funnel could be the solution to alleviate this pressure.
An Overview of the Audio Landscape
Whether broadcast, streamed, or downloaded via digital channels, audio is the most ubiquitous, engaging, and captivating medium. Radio stations are also the largest providers of audio content, offering live, original and on-demand programming across radio, podcasts and streaming platforms.
Given this, it’s no surprise that, according to RAB, as estimated by Edison Research and WARC, audio accounts for almost a third (31 percent) of the time consumers spend with ad-supported media. Furthermore, 69 percent of this ad-supported audience listens to radio stations. Radio content not only reaches a broad audience, but also motivates listeners to take action. Radio is thus a complete funnel solution for brands, effectively driving brand awareness, purchase intent and sales.
According to a recent Oxford Road survey
64 percent of brand managers responsible for audio advertising use the medium to achieve bottom-of-funnel marketing objectives, while 21 and 15 percent of brands use audio for top-of-funnel and mid-funnel KPIs, respectively. Given the pressure to deliver measurable results and the instant gratification that performance-driven digital campaigns offer, brands are faced with a choice between branding and performance marketing. It’s not a zero-sum game, though.
“Branding is what gets noticed and what makes customers know you from the start,” wrote Paul Suchman, chief marketing officer at Chameleon Collective, in a LinkedIn post from late July. “It’s what people remember over long buying cycles. It builds trust before the search even begins and loyalty after the purchase.”
The magic of audio, especially radio, lies in its ability to enable brands to achieve both their brand and performance goals. Radio is the medium that brands can focus on to capture consumer attention, enhance the performance of other media in the marketing mix, and achieve measurable results.
Radio drives the entire marketing funnel.
In today’s environment, many advertisers are opting for quick fixes and performance-driven digital tactics to achieve short-term goals. By neglecting traditional, high-reach media like radio in their marketing mix to drive both brand loyalty and performance, marketers are missing out on significant opportunities. After all, they must generate both short-term revenue and long-term brand.
Nielsen’s annual global marketing survey
Shows that 46 percent of marketers believe that radio’s ROI is less effective compared to other media, such as search engines. Conversely, 65 percent of marketers believe that search engines are the most effective medium. According to the Nielsen Global Compass database, which compiles data from approximately 25,000 campaign ROIs across 100 categories and 50 countries, radio achieves the second-highest annual ROI ($2), behind social media ($2.22), but ahead of other media such as display advertising ($1.52), search advertising ($1.16) and connected television (CTV) ($1.15).
“We have consistently observed that incorporating an audio strategy into campaigns leads to increased customer traffic in our stores and on our website,” said Kristy Carruba, director of audio planning and strategy at Macy’s. “The data shows that audio plays a significant role in customer engagement. We have also seen very strong results when we combine audio and video. Based on our data and the success of past campaigns, we plan to further integrate audio into our campaigns to improve customer engagement.”
“We’ve consistently observed that implementing: An audio strategy into our campaigns leads to increased customer engagement.” Whether national or local, the impact of radio on marketers’ profitability is undeniable. In a recent webinar hosted by Audacy, Chris Santin, VP of Sales at Choice Cabinet, shared how, after ending his partnership with his agency, he took over marketing in-house with a focus on radio and social media.
“Within two weeks, multiple clients came into our showroom and said, ‘You’ve been here 17 years. We had no idea. We heard you on the radio,’” Santin said. He added that showroom sales had increased by more than 30 percent since implementing the new strategy.
The results speak for themselves.
Every dollar invested in media requires clear performance measurement, but not all methodologies are created equal. In the world of audio, there’s a measurement tool for every KPI, with the methodology varying by goal and/or platform. From brand positioning and attribution to sales impact studies, radio consistently delivers significant ROI to its advertising partners, both in combination with other media and on its own.
“Click” for More