Audacy Highlights Audio's Undervalued ROI Potential

RADIO ONLINE | Wednesday, July 16, 2025 | 1:18pm CT

Audacy

Despite delivering some of the highest returns on investment in media, Audio continues to be undervalued by many marketers due to persistent perception gaps and outdated measurement practices, according to Audacy SVP of Research & Insights Ray Borelli in a new industry insights article.

Citing recent data from Nielsen and TransUnion, Borelli outlines a growing body of evidence that supports Audio's ability to outperform many other media channels in ROI. Nielsen's 2024 analysis of more than 2,800 marketing campaigns found radio to be a top-tier performer, and a 2023 study from TransUnion (formerly Neustar) revealed national advertisers are missing out on an estimated $6 billion annually by under-investing in Audio.

"Audio's not ineffective -- it's quietly efficient," Borelli wrote, pointing to a disconnect between performance and perception that persists among CMOs. In Nielsen's 2025 CMO survey, AM/FM radio ranked last in perceived ROI. But in modeled results, it ranked second -- behind only social media.

The discrepancy, Audacy argues, isn't due to poor performance, but flawed data modeling. Marketing Mix Models (MMMs), heavily relied upon to guide ad spending, often lack the granularity needed to capture Audio's full impact -- particularly for smaller or locally targeted campaigns.

Audacy and industry partners, including the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) and Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), are now working to address these limitations through several key initiatives:

• Improving Data Granularity and Standardization: Collaborating across the Audio ecosystem to standardize inputs and provide more detailed campaign data.

• Replacing Media Plan Estimates with 'As-Run' Actuals: Feeding more variable, accurate data into models to better reflect radio's real-world performance.

• Adjusting for Localized Campaign Dynamics: Correcting for national-level assumptions that often obscure local Audio results.

• Pursuing an 'Always-On' Data Feed: Developing API solutions that deliver time-stamped, campaign-level radio and podcast data directly into modeling systems.

These efforts aim to ensure Audio's effectiveness is properly credited in an increasingly data-driven marketing environment. Borelli warned that failing to accurately measure high-trust, high-efficiency formats like Audio not only skews budget decisions -- it may limit brand growth altogether.

"In an era of tighter budgets and AI-driven chaos, misjudging media value doesn't just cost efficiency, it costs growth," he concluded.