Should you buy radio ads or are they too old-fashioned?
The 20-Year Perspective
When marketers discuss audio, the conversation usually focuses exclusively on streaming and podcasts. There is a common assumption that radio is a relic of the past. However, the data shows that isn’t the case. Even now, brands should consider whether they should buy radio ads as part of their audio marketing strategy.
I started my career in radio over twenty years ago. I have seen the industry transition from old-style transistor radios to digital streaming and global podcast networks. But when I recommend including radio in a modern media mix, that’s based on data, not nostalgia. At ROI MEDIA 360, we view every channel through a clinical lens to ensure it justifies the capital allocated to it. Despite the rise of on-demand content, broadcast and streaming radio remain a powerhouse for reach.
Even though radio’s audiences are declining, recent industry reports prove unequivocally that radio is still the single biggest platform. During daytime hours, radio exceeds television in terms of total audience size. It is a highly resilient medium that continues to defy the constant predictions of its demise, partly thanks to high-profile presenters such as Sean Hannity and Colin Cowherd who bring in huge national audiences week after week.
For a Series B brand looking to scale, ignoring the largest reach vehicle in the country simply because it feels traditional or old-fashioned is a strategic error.
The Drive Time Fortress and Rural Reach
One of the most significant advantages of radio is the captive audience found during drive time. While streaming music and podcast services offer endless variety, many commuters still turn to the radio for local traffic, weather, and the familiarity of a morning show.
And, of course, when they’re in the car, they’re not watching video podcasts: no YouTube, and no Netflix. Drive time entertainment has to be audio, and it has to be easy.
This creates a level of forced attention that is difficult to replicate in other digital formats. You cannot easily skip a radio ad while navigating heavy traffic. It ensures your brand message is heard by a focused audience at a time when they are already in a lean-forward state of mind. They are not scrolling through a feed or looking for a “skip” button. They are a captive audience.
Radio also serves as a critical bridge in rural areas. In many parts of the country, high-speed internet and 5G signals are spotty at best. Streaming quality in these regions is often low or unreliable. Broadcast radio remains the primary, high-quality companion for these audiences.
If you want to scale a brand nationally, you probably cannot afford to ignore the millions of people who live outside of major urban fiber-optic hubs. These listeners are often more loyal to their local stations than urban listeners are to their streaming playlists. They represent a significant market segment that is often underserved by digital-only campaigns.
The SiriusXM Advantage: National Reach for High-Value Audiences
While many brands look at audio as a choice between local radio or niche podcasts, some of the most efficient growth for Series B brands is found in the “closed ecosystem” of SiriusXM. Unlike terrestrial radio, SiriusXM is a subscription-based platform with over 30 million subscribers, which fundamentally changes the audience profile. Because these listeners pay for their content, they represent a higher-income, higher-converting demographic that is intentionally leaning into the programming.
For a national campaign, SiriusXM offers a unique ability to secure high-authority endorsements at scale. We often use this platform to place our clients with national powerhouses—personalities such as Howard Stern who have spent decades building an unbreakable bond with their listeners. This environment allows for first-person endorsements that carry the weight of a national recommendation while maintaining the “friend-to-friend” feel of a localized read.
- A Higher-Income Demographic: Because it is a paid service, the SiriusXM listener typically has more disposable income than the average terrestrial radio listener, making it an ideal environment for D2C brands with a higher Average Order Value (AOV).
- National Authority: Securing a first-person endorsement on a national SiriusXM channel allows a brand to achieve massive geographic reach instantly without sacrificing the trust-transfer that makes audio so effective.
- The Power of the Closed Ecosystem: In a world of fragmented media, SiriusXM provides a concentrated environment where your message isn’t just background noise—it’s part of a premium experience that the audience has specifically invested in.
By incorporating SiriusXM into a multi-layered strategy, a brand can capture the prestige of a national endorsement while ensuring the message reaches a qualified, high-intent audience. It is an essential tool for those looking to move beyond “local testing” into a phase of aggressive, national scale.
Local Influence
Much of the power of radio is rooted in the local community. A local host often carries a level of trust that a national podcaster cannot match. They are a part of the listener’s daily routine and their local identity. When a local host endorses a product, it feels like a recommendation from a neighbor.
This local connection extends even to produced spots. Because these ads air alongside local news and weather, they benefit from the “halo effect” of the station’s community standing. The listener associates your brand with the trusted local voice they hear every morning.
Format Strategy
We don’t usually recommend a radio-only plan, but we do believe in a strategic format mix. Talk radio is a natural environment where host-reads can fit more naturally. The audience is already tuned in for spoken-word content, making the transition to a host endorsement seamless. Music radio provides large-scale, cost-effective reach and is often the best environment for produced spots. It allows you to seed brand awareness across a wide demographic at a relatively low price point.
By combining these formats when you buy radio ads, we ensure your brand occupies multiple mental spaces in the listener’s day.
The Frequency Advantage: Reinforcement vs. One-Offs
One of the most overlooked benefits of broadcast radio is the frequency of the messaging. In the podcast world, a standard placement usually involves one 60-second slot per show. Since most podcasts are weekly, your brand only gets one “touch” with that listener every seven days.
Radio operates on a completely different timeline. Many shows, particularly drive-time shows, are daily, rather than weekly. Produced spots on the radio get repeated frequently throughout the day and the week. This repetition is an excellent way to reinforce your brand message and identity. It moves the listener from awareness to familiarity much faster than a weekly podcast ad can.
This high frequency is particularly effective for products with a shorter consideration cycle. When you buy radio ads, you’ll appear in the listener’s ear multiple times during their work week, so you stay top-of-mind. You aren’t just an occasional guest in their audio diet. You become a consistent presence.
This reinforcement also lowers the cost of entry for your creative. Because these are produced spots rather than host-reads, they are cheaper to create and easier to place at scale. You can achieve a level of branding that would be prohibitively expensive on other platforms.
Solving the Attribution Black Box
One historical criticism of radio has always been the lack of transparency. For decades, it was seen as a black box where you could see the reach but never be able to prove the direct impact on sales. There were no pixels to track and no links to click. That has changed with the recent arrival of advanced attribution tools.
We now use technology from industry partners to bring digital-grade transparency to terrestrial radio. Their specialist tools allow us to track site visits and purchases back to a specific radio spot with clinical confidence. We no longer have to guess if the radio is working. This technology allows us to see exactly which stations and which time slots are driving actual revenue. We can see if a morning drive-time spot on a rock station in Ohio is outperforming an afternoon spot on a talk station in Florida. This allows us to apply the same optimization to radio that we apply to podcasting.
By removing the guesswork, we treat radio as a performance channel rather than just a brand awareness play. We can justify the spend because we can see the ROI. This data-driven approach is what allows us to manage Series B capital with such precision.
The “Old School” Fallacy
There is a common desire among high-growth brands to feel “new and with it.” This often leads to a rejection of everything that feels old-school in favor of focusing 100% on new media. This is a strategic fallacy. Being a modern brand does not mean you have to ignore the most effective reach tools available.
Smart capital does not ignore the biggest reach vehicle in the country just because it is old-school. In fact, the most sophisticated brands understand that the “new” and the “old” should work in tandem.
When we craft a performance marketing or audio marketing strategy for you, we often recommend making use of the high-reach, high-frequency nature of radio to build a foundation, create awareness, and reach a wide audience at a highly efficient price point.
This foundation makes your new media efforts, like podcasting or YouTube sponsorships, much more effective. When a listener hears a host-read endorsement on their favorite podcast, they have already heard about you on the radio five times. The podcast endorsement no longer has to do the heavy lifting of introducing your brand. Instead, it builds on the awareness that the radio has already established. This multi-layered approach is the most efficient way to manage a marketing budget and deliver a measurable ROI.
The Human Element in a Digital Age
Several of our team members have worked in radio, and we understand the mechanics of the medium from the inside out. We know that although the technology has evolved, the core principles of human attention have not.
Radio still matters because, in the hands of experts, it is one of the most effective ways to drive growth and deliver ROAS. And that, for our clients, is the bottom line.