A 2021 study by WARC found that consumers were spending 31% of their media time with different forms of audio, but advertisers were earmarking only 9% of their media budgets for audio investment.
Recently, the Interactive Advertising Bureau in the U.S. says that imbalance is even more pronounced as digital audio now accounts for one of every five minutes U.S. adults (18+) spend with digital media, but only accounted for 3.1% of digital ad revenue in 2023 based on IAB data.
“The number and the diversity of brands who are achieving incredible marketing outcomes in audio has really been growing at a very rapid clip, and those outcomes are becoming easier to measure,” says Matt Shapo, Director of the IAB Media Center. “Advertisers who aren’t maybe as leaned into audio as they could be, could be missing out on opportunities to reach, engage and grow their customer base.”
Rich Tunkel, Managing Director of Nielsen Audio, said it is “urban legend” audio doesn’t produce meaningful results. Nielsen has analyzed thousands of campaigns to determine the role audio has played in mixed media plans, and it shows AM/FM radio was among the top third of ROI media, followed by streaming audio.
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