Are Your Clients Investing in Audio?

BY Adam Ambro
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2022 is poised to be a big year when it comes to advertising. Marketers are feeling as optimistic as ever, and with an election year less than a calendar year away, media companies are about to experience a huge wave of new revenue. But where are your clients planning on investing? Sure, traditional options like TV and print will play a large role, but if you sell audio advertising services, you need to be asking how much your clients are planning on investing in audio in 2022. According to a three-​year study from Audacy, there is a large underinvestment occurring in the audio advertising space. While Audacy is a player in the audio space, their research is worth checking out.

How much are advertisers underinvesting in audio formats?

Audacy’s study has shown that auto advertisers may not be spending nearly as much as they should be.

"Audio is currently underinvested, and that underinvestment might be 15%," said Idil Cakim, Senior Vice President, Research and Insights, Audacy. "In some industries, it could be more than 50%. But it is currently underinvested, and that spells out a missed opportunity for a lot of marketers and advertisers. We found that an average of a 1.2% shift from other media to audio yields a lift in audio ROAS (return on ad spend) of up to 23%.”

Who can your clients target?

For starters, your clients who are not investing in audio formats should begin with appealing to streamers. With the pandemic shifting people’s listening habits, more people are listening to podcasts.

In 2021, audio advertising will likely grow 14.4%, to $18.06 billion, the fastest rate of growth in 40 years, according to PQ Media’s United States Audio Media Forecast 2021. Podcast advertising hit a 32% surge in 2021 and streaming audio advertising, including digital extensions of radio stations and audio subscription services, will continue to grow at double-​digit rates.

Consumer spending on audio media content and technology is expected to increase 8.3% to $26 billion in 2021, as end-​user spend on audio content and tech also continued to grow through pandemic-​struck 2020 and will continue to grow through 2022.

52.8% of Americans are Streaming Music Service Subscribers, according to AdMall’s AudienceSCAN profile, powered by SalesFuel. Not only that, last year, 51.5% of these listeners took action after hearing an ad on either digital or over-​the-​air radio in the past year. You can check out their audience profile for more information on demographics, purchase intent and marketing info to present to your streaming audio ad clients.

What to plan for in 2022

Whether people are listening to audio at home, at work, or in the car, it’s clear that the format is thriving from the consumer end. Clients need to be shown that the demand is there. Podcast advertising is one area they can focus on.

NCSolutions found more than 2/​3, 68%, of “power subscribers,” people who subscribe to six or more podcasts, have made a purchase compared to 42% of all podcast listeners.

Many podcast listeners are repeat buyers: 34% say they've purchased products two or more times after hearing an advertisement on a podcast, while 17% have bought products they've heard featured four or more times. In addition, 29% of all podcast listeners have used a promotional code they've heard during an audiocast.

"The podcast surge is something incredible that has sped up,” said Cakim. “I think we are only going upward and forward. The future of audio is that we see it earning its fair and proper share in the media mix and being leveraged more effectively and efficiently by marketers because it is growing in both over-​the-​air and digital channels."

Knowing that advertising dollars are only going to rise and consumers are devouring audio content more now than ever, it shouldn’t be too difficult to convince your clients that investing in audio will return a huge ROI moving forward.

Photo by George Pak from Pexels


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