Contributor: Todd Kalman, CRO, Marketron
Depending on what you read and hear, you may think radio advertising revenues are destined for downturns. There’s more to the story than the misconceptions that nobody’s buying airtime ads, and that no one listens to broadcast radio. Both are false!
Regardless of perception, the reality of how valuable radio is hasn’t diminished. In fact, radio’s advertising value has become even greater, as broadcast radio is the leading mass media for reach. There’s more good news for radio with the 3-Minute Qualifier shift. Let’s examine the facts and why they are crucial for protecting this source of revenue.
Radio Still Dominates Ad-Supported Listening Time
Edison Research Share of Ear® offers a quarterly review of U.S. consumer listening trends. It’s a goldmine for understanding who’s listening and how they are listening. Once again, radio dominates ad-supported listening time in the Q1 2025 results. Of those 18 and older, they spend 66% of their time with radio. In the car, that number increases to nearly 90%.
Radio’s dominance remains unchanged, but advertisers often inflate other ad-supported platforms like Spotify, Pandora and satellite radio. Combined, they only capture 15% of listening time.
How can you use this data?
- Create an infographic and post it on your website on pages related to advertising.
- Ensure all teams have access to this data and can easily share it with customers.
- Share this type of information on your social media profiles as proof that radio has an expansive reach.
3-Minute Qualifier Increases Audience Across All Dayparts
The 3-Minute Qualifier change to the Nielsen Portable People Meter (PPM) has already delivered increases in listening across demographics and time periods. Drive times and weekends had the biggest boost for all listeners. For those people aged 25 to 54, there was an increase across all dayparts.
All this translates to higher ratings and more impressions, making radio advertising even more appealing. It also makes the case for more frequent spots to ensure maximum reach for advertisers who can connect with audiences in every age group. While this data is based on rated markets, the results apply to all markets – diary and nonrated. It proves that radio listening is occurring more often than realized – creating a “halo” effect for the diary and nonrated markets.
Combining the Share of Ear data with the improvements in PPM certainly makes the case for more spot ad investment. It could be a great opener for those businesses that aren’t currently buying airtime.
Positioning the ROI of Radio Advertising
Selling radio ads has evolved a lot in the last two decades. With so many media available, they’ve all been jostling for prominence. It’s easy for some to discount the power of radio. As we’ve just reviewed, gaps between perception and reality are growing, but these strong and verifiable data points tell the real story.
The last piece to the puzzle is ROI. To illustrate this, I want to use analysis from Westwood One. This research focused on the sales effect of radio advertising. Does it really deliver results?
When companies use radio, they experience:
- +13% greater mental availability, which is a measure of a brand’s propensity to be noticed and considered in buying decisions
- +28% larger market share
- +17% boost in pricing power
- +42% increased profits
- +23% greater return on ad spend
Those numbers are exceptionally impressive. It would be challenging to best these numbers with any other type of advertising. Also, radio is trusted, local and part of the community. People have a much different perspective toward it than TV or social media.
This information gives you another solid argument for the need for radio in any media plan. You certainly want to sell more than just radio, with a proposal for digital and O&O to amplify the message and achieve even greater performance.
One Last Thing: Forecasting Has a Bright Side
When looking at the forecast for radio OTA revenue, BIA Advisory Services only predicts a -0.41% change over 2024. This calculation is without political, so it’s more accurate since election years are a whole different scenario. For 2026, the forecast is +2.24%.
Those are pretty strong numbers. With continued advocacy and promotion of radio advertising as providing the best reach and delivering a solid return, broadcast radio could certainly beat these expectations. In short, don’t count radio out ever as being a strong and consistent way for businesses to reach local consumers. The value of radio advertising hasn’t decreased at all, and you’ve got all the insights to make that argument every day.