WWO: AM/FM Radio Ads Provide 14% Average Lift in Site Traffic
This week’s Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group blog looks at the results of 17 attribution studies the company commissioned from LeadsRX for AM/FM radio campaigns for various goods and services. Some of the conclusions drawn from these studies include: 1) On average, AM/FM radio campaigns generated a +14% lift in site traffic across the 17 campaigns. Campaigns are measured against LeadsRx benchmarks to determine the performance of attributed lift. The scale ranges from a
small attributed lift (0% to +3% lift) to excellent (+15% or more). Across the 17 campaigns analyzed, the average attributed lift was +14%. Three tax preparation service campaigns achieved “excellent” status ranging from a +30% to +48% attributed lift; 2) On average, the 17 AM/FM radio campaigns saw the highest percentage of impressions at the start of the week, peaking on Mondays and Tuesdays. Compared to the Nielsen impressions, the AM/FM radio campaigns outperformed on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Advertisers should increase their use of AM/FM radio on the weekends. AM/FM radio campaigns on weekends drive impact and results; and 3) On average, evenings have a greater share of attributed web sessions due to available devices and free time of consumers. Mornings historically underdeliver their share of impressions since consumers are busy getting ready for work and school. This expected pattern should not be a reason to move campaign weight out of morning drive. Morning drive exposure results in web sessions during later dayparts when consumers have the time and available devices to respond. Read the full blog post here.
AM/FM radio listeners are 39% more likely to pay $301+ to have their taxes prepared and show greater familiarity, interest, consideration, and usage of tax category brands; 2) AM/FM radio ads drive site traffic for tax preparation brands: In the LeadsRx attribution study of a tax preparation service’s multi-wave campaign, AM/FM radio generated between a 43% to 47% increase in website traffic; 3) Branding early and often in tax preparation service ads drives more site traffic: LeadsRx found the top three creative executions that drove site traffic for a tax preparation service had the marketer’s brand name within the first five seconds of the ad; and 4) compared to other radio formats, a 2023 tax prep campaign on news/talk and sports stations realized a higher percentage share of interactions than the percentage share of their Nielsen ad impressions. 
“while AM/FM radio represented only 16% of the media budgets, AM/FM radio generated 25% of site and search traffic.” Further, it discovered that “AM/FM radio delivered +58% greater site traffic than its share of spend. In contrast, TV delivered -11% less conversion lift than its share of the budget.” A Nielsen sales effect study of a campaign for a major retailer matched Portable People Meter panel data with credit card data to reveal how TV and AM/FM radio impacted sales. The AM/FM radio-only segment, those consumers only reached by the AM/FM radio campaign, had 3 times the sales lift of the consumers reached by the TV ads. Consumers only exposed to the TV ads generated a +4.6% sales increase. Those who saw both the TV ads and the AM/FM radio ads had a +4.8% sales lift. The segment only exposed to the AM/FM radio ads had an outsized +13.4% increase in sales.