Radio & ROI: It's Payback Time

As a marketer, you are likely bombarded daily with overtures on how you should spend your marketing dollars. Undoubtedly, your inbox is flooded with emails from vendors proclaiming that their platform or technology is #1 in your vertical. When you get done with those, you read the trade blogs and hear about the latest fads ……Is it programmatic? Is it the latest social media platform? Is it Experiential?

Ultimately, the one thing that should matter to you is the return on your marketing investment. So out of all the options…which one is the best? Which one will not only actually help drive traffic and sales, but will do it at an efficient cost? The answer might surprise you.

In a Nielsen Catalina survey of ten brands last year, radio has been found to provide the greatest return on investment for marketing dollars.

Brands averaged a sales lift of more than $6 for every $1 spent on radio ads. An incredible ROI that is double that of even the best results from many recent studies of digital or television media. Retail was especially strong, with one brand delivering an amazing $23.21 sales lift for every $1 invested.

Does that surprise you? It shouldn’t. Thinking about it logically, shoppers listen to radio right before making a purchase. Whether driving to the supermarket or the mall, your message can be literally the last thing they hear before shopping. That’s an incredibly powerful time in the cluttered media space.

Additionally, the study showed that radio is also the most efficient medium at reaching specific audience segments with a particularly strong showing with African-American and Hispanic consumers.

The beauty of ROI via radio is also its success with smaller budgets. Whereas television requires large sums for both media and production, radio costs are much more manageable, and still provide a greater return on investment when comparing it to other, more expensive mediums.

The results are clear. If you want to drive results for your brand and see strong results, radio is the right play.