WWO Offers Media Planning Guide
The Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group unveils an audio planning guide based on data from Edison Research and Nielsen data. Saying that there are incorrect assumptions among strategists and media planners about which audio media have the most listeners, chief insights officer Pierre Bouvard underscores that AM/FM radio is still the dominant ad-supported audio platform with a 66% share. Podcasting is second with a 20% share and this is true across all demographics. For those who are all-in on digital audio only, Bouvard says they are missing 70% of the potential audience as ad-supported Spotify, Pandora and podcasts reach only 30% of the U.S. in a typical day. Further, Bouvard says the data suggests an optimal allocation of audio ad spend: “The ideal allocation for a 25-54 audio plan is 62% AM/FM radio, 24% podcasts, 12% music streaming (Pandora, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music), and 2% SiriusXM satellite radio.” See the complete blog post here.
“creative quality is the number one sales driver” and this is often a surprise to advertisers and media agencies who think media tactics (targeting, reach, etc.) drive the most sales. It’s for good reason that everyone wants high brand awareness. A major study from TikTok reveals the greater a brand’s awareness, the greater the purchase conversion. Brands with high aided awareness have 2.86x greater conversion rates compared to low awareness brands. But not all categories operate similarly, Podscribe says that purchase conversion varies widely by advertising category and advises that it’s important to understand the purchase conversion benchmarks for your product category. 
-home media company JCDecaux reveals creative best practices for billboard advertising that the AM/FM radio industry can utilize to improve visual ad impact. Some of the key findings include: 1) Quu visual AM/FM radio ads on auto dashboards increase purchase intent by +89%; 2) You’ve got two seconds so brand fast: Visual logos placed at top of the frame deliver 4X higher brand recognition; 3) Beware the cost of dull: Failure to engage emotionally is the cost of creative mediocrity; 4) Be consistent with a brand’s colors, logos, slogans, and fonts that appear in other advertising; 5) Keep it short: The fewer the words, the greater the brand recognition; and 6) Create happiness: Ads that create positive emotions with happiness, surprise, or humor generate much stronger memorability, brand association, store visits, and website visits. 
and companies seeking to hire, especially among passive job seekers who are less likely to use job sites: Nine out of 10 job seekers are reached by ad-supported audio. Over-the-air AM/FM radio reaches nearly 80% of active and passive job seekers. Six out of 10 active job seekers are reached by podcasts; 2) AM/FM radio streaming’s audience growth has surged among job seekers: Since 2021, AM/FM radio streaming has soared in usage among both active and passive job seekers. Six out 10 active job seekers are reached by AM/FM radio streaming; 3) Passive job seekers outnumber active job seekers by +50%. Active job seekers are growing: The optimal source for filling positions are passive job seekers who outnumber active job seekers by +50%. Active job seekers have surged from 15% in 2018 to 24% currently; and 4) Advertising works: There is a very linear relationship between ad spend, share of voice, ad recall, and market share. The greater the ad spend, the greater the ad recall and market share. 
last 11 years, the study has been reprised annually to track buy-side podcast advertising consideration and intention. The latest Advertiser Perceptions study, conducted in June 2025 with 302 marketers and media agencies, reveals advertiser/agency podcasting usage and interest has reached an 11-year high.” Some of the notable takeaways from this study include: 1) Nine out of 10 marketers and media agencies say they have discussed podcast advertising for potential investment; 2) Podcast advertising consideration surges to an eleven-year high: 74% of brands and agencies say they are likely to consider advertising in podcasts; 3) Podcast spending intention jumps to 69%, an eleven-year record; and 4) 78% of agencies and advertisers currently advertise in podcasts, a 5X increase since the first IAB podcast upfront in 2015. 
study of 303 media agencies and marketers conducted in August 2024 found the perceived combined audience share of Pandora/Spotify is 43%, much greater than the perceived share of AM/FM radio (27%). In reality, “According to the Q1 2025 Share of Ear, AM/FM radio’s persons 18+ share of ad-supported audio (68%) is 14 times larger than ad-supported Pandora (5%) and ad-supported Spotify (5%).” The data also reveals that podcasts take the second-place spot with a 20% share. Ad-supported Pandora (5%), ad-supported Spotify (5%), and ad-supported SiriusXM (3%) lag distantly. 
ad-supported media campaign. Among the findings is that in order to ensure that digital audio buys are effective, marketers should commit news/talk and sports stations because they represent 28% of all 25-54 AM/FM radio streaming audiences. Among 25-54s, spoken-word formats have a massive 28% streaming share, 2.4 times larger than the overall spoken word share of 12%. The news/talk format has a 6.7% share of total AM/FM radio listening. The streaming share for news/talk is 15.4% — more than double its total share. The sports format has a 12.5 share of the streaming audience, 2.5 times bigger than its overall 5 share. Further, the data indicates that for the 18-34 demographic, sports and news/talk streaming is a combined 19.6% share. 
voracious consumers of movies in the theater and films on streaming services. They are first to see a movie in the theater on opening weekend and when films debut on streaming services; and 2) Versus linear TV viewers, audio listeners are far more likely to see movies in the theater and indicate a greater willingness to watch content. Looking at data about marketing moves and streaming video, the study finds that 1) Linear TV advertising spend for theatrical releases and video streaming brands is 30X audio. Despite this, TV viewers show low awareness of new films and low interest in upcoming films and streaming service subscriptions; and 2) Audio (AM/FM radio, streaming audio, and podcasts) should become a much greater allocation in the entertainment marketing media plan. Reallocating 20% of linear TV theatrical and streaming video media plans to AM/FM radio doubles campaign reach with no additional cost. 
ABX AM/FM radio creative study for RAB proves legendary marketing professor Mark Ritson was right; 2) Wear-out of AM/FM radio ads is virtually non-existent: Only two of 25,000 ads showed a decline in some creative effectiveness metrics. Two major creative effectiveness measures, branding and messaging, showed no wear-out; 3) The two ads showing differences were at the top end of cumulative spending and time in market: Two years in market and $8M+ of spend is where creativeness effectiveness might start to wane; 4) Repeat testing of 10 of the 12 longest running AM/FM radio ads reveals no statistically significant erosion; and 5) The giants of marketing effectiveness and creative testing conclude wear-out is non-existent: Take it from Les Binet/Sarah Carter, ABX, Kantar, System1, and Analytic Partners. 
Podcasting is no longer a niche platform lacking scale. Podcasts deserve a larger role in media plans as opposed to “test and learn” experimental buys. 158 million Americans, 55% of persons 12+, are reached monthly. Among persons 18-34, 18-49, and 25-54, monthly reach is now 65% to 73%; 2) It is feasible to consider shifting TV budgets to podcasting given that podcast 18-34 weekly reach (52%) is as big as TV’s (52%); 3) Brands targeting women should give podcasts a starring role in media plans: Podcast female audiences have hit record highs in habituation and reach; 4) Among male demographics, monthly reach is now in the low 70% range; and 5) Adopt agency media legend Arnie Semsky’s “5% solution” to podcasts: Allocate 5% of digital ad budgets to podcasts. 
is a mistake. Some of the findings include: 1) In a typical day, ad-supported digital audio reaches less than a third of America while AM/FM radio reaches two-thirds of America. Combined, ad-supported digital audio and AM/FM radio reach 74% of the U.S. daily; 2) Between ad-supported Spotify and AM/FM radio, most people only listen to AM/FM radio; 3) Between ad-supported Pandora and AM/FM radio, most people only listen to AM/FM radio; 4) The U.S. ad-supported audio clock: Podcasts and AM/FM radio represent nearly 90% of tuning minutes; 5) With a towering in-car share of 86%, AM/FM radio is the primary way to reach consumers on the path to purchase; The proportion of AM/FM radio in-car listening has surged, returning to pre-pandemic norms. 
were three or four minutes. Under the old five-minute listening qualifier rule, none of this tuning would have received listening credit. Effective with the January 2025 PPM survey, Nielsen is now crediting tuning occasions that are three minutes or greater. What are the results so far? First, drive times and weekends experience the greatest growth. Comparing January 2024 to January 2025 for persons 12+ and 25-54 reveals double-digit growth for all dayparts. Weekends and drives times have the greatest increases. Second, AM/FM radio’s listening profile now skews younger: Every major buying demographic has a higher composition of listening. Persons 65+ is the only demographic where AM/FM radio’s audience composition is reduced. Persons 25-54, AM/FM radio’s most popular buying demographic, experiences the largest increase in audience composition. Persons 18-49 have the next largest growth. And third, format shares remain stable. Versus October 2024, PPM January 2025 format shares are very consistent. An uptick in news/talk AQH composition is most likely more due to a heavier news cycle (major weather stories and a new president) than a PPM methodology enhancement. In local markets, there is more share variation. 
number of retailers shopped, retailers shopped most often, brand perceptions, and advertising recall have recovered; 2) Brand equity and shopping patterns for the top two performers (AutoZone and O’Reilly Auto Parts) are stable to up. The second-tier players are slightly off; 3) AM/FM radio and podcasts are the ideal platforms to advertise auto aftermarket. TV underperforms with category usage and brand equity: Heavy AM/FM radio and podcast listeners visit more retailers in the category, make more shopping trips, and spend far more than the average. Two key consumer segments, do-it-yourselfers and ultra-heavy shoppers are more likely to be heavy AM/FM radio listeners. TV viewers are weak category users. 
media platform to tout home improvement e-commerce as heavy AM/FM radio and podcast listeners are more likely to shop online; 2) AM/FM radio generates significant incremental reach for home improvement TV campaigns: Recent TV campaigns for The Home Depot saw significant lift in reach with the addition of AM/FM radio, especially among younger demos; 3) AM/FM radio generates three times the sales lift of TV in a historic Nielsen TV and AM/FM radio sales effect study for a home improvement retailer; and 4) Home improvement media plans are overweight on linear TV and underweight on audio: The optimized plan should consist of 45% AM/FM radio, 30% linear TV, and 24% podcasts. 
reveal that AM/FM ads far outperform most social media ads. For example, the firm Adelaide found that for revery $1,000 spent on AM/FM ads it would require spending $2,635 on Facebook ads for the same amount of attentiveness. However, it also found that just $698 of YouTube ads would yield the same degree of attentiveness as $1,000 of AM/FM advertising. The blog post also addresses the myth that video ads are necessarily more effective than audio ads. 
ideal medium platforms for retailers and e-commerce brands: Heavy audio listeners are more likely to shop online. Heavy AM/FM radio and podcast listeners also spend more online than TV viewers. AM/FM radio listeners and heavy podcast listeners over-index on Amazon Prime membership and purchase intent; 2) AM/FM radio makes your TV better – “20 gets you 50”: Nielsen Media Impact optimizations reveal shifting more media weight to AM/FM radio generates significantly more reach, especially among younger demographics 18-49. AM/FM radio does an extraordinary job increasing campaign reach among light TV viewers, who are far less likely to see retailer TV ads. The rule of thumb is “20 gets you 50”: a 20% shift of a TV media budget to AM/FM Radio generates a 50% increase in reach; and 3) Audio holiday AM/FM radio campaigns work: Consumers exposed to an Amazon holiday AM/FM radio campaign have higher brand equity (awareness, ad recall, prior purchase and purchase intent). Nielsen sales effect studies reveal AM/FM radio campaigns for retailers generate significant return on advertising spend: $15 dollars of incremental sales for every dollar of AM/FM radio advertising. 
MARU/Matchbox was hired to conduct an in-depth study of 603 weekly podcast consumers from April 19-24 of this year. Takeaways include: 1) YouTube is used most among Podcast Newcomers, Podcast Pioneers, and heavy podcast consumers; 2) YouTube podcast audience profile: Male and younger than the Apple Podcasts audience; 3) As the world’s entertainment search engine, YouTube is the dominant podcast discovery platform where audiences are more likely to find podcasts; and 4) Those who discover a podcast on YouTube say they stick with the platform for video, comments, community, entertainment, recommendations, and platform features. This growth for YouTube comes at the expense of Apple Podcasts. In July of 2019, Apple Podcasts was the most-used platform for 29% of weekly podcast consumers with 15% for YouTube. Five years later the figures are nearly reversed with 31% of weekly podcast consumers preferring YouTube and just 12% reporting Apple Podcasts as their most-used platform. 
advertising. The five questions are: 1) Does audio work? 2) Can audio be planned and purchased at scale? 3) Are there creative best practices for getting audio right? 4) Can audio be measured? And 5) Is the brand properly set up for success? Fix says, “These five questions are important to advertisers, providers of audio, and the industry in general. Communication with advertisers is best when it is acknowledged as to the stage of the advertiser and the industry. Failure to identify and address each step in the 5-Question Framework will cause unnecessary delay.” 
Interestingly, marketers and media agencies massively underestimate the immense sales effect power of creative. NCSolutions says that creative drives half of sales, about two-and-a-half times what advertisers perceive. The Advertiser Perceptions February 2024 study reports brands and media agencies say creative only represents 19% of total sales effect. NCSolutions science reveals creative generates an eye-popping 49% of incremental sales. According to System1 chief customer officer Jon Evans, “Creative is the number one factor in explaining the performance of your advertising and yet most marketers still don’t realize it. That means that those who focus on getting the creative right have a huge competitive advantage. Firstly, marketers need to wake up to the importance of creative and secondly realize it isn’t some dark art but something you can measure and improve to give you an advantage over the competition who haven’t realized this yet.” 
Podcasting deserves a larger role in media plans as opposed to “test and learn” experimental buys. 135 million Americans, 47% of persons 12+, are reached monthly. Among demographics such as persons 18-34, 18-49, and 25-54, monthly reach is in the low 60% range; 2) It is feasible to consider shifting TV budgets to podcasting given that podcast 18-34 reach performance is as big as TV; 3) The ratio of monthly audiences who also listen weekly is an excellent measure of podcast habituation. At present, 71% of the monthly female podcast audience also listen weekly. This is the strongest female podcast habituation in the last decade; and 4) Currently, podcasts only represent 1% of total national ad spend, per Guideline’s Standard Media Index reporting. At the dawn of cable TV, legendary BBDO media chief Arnie Semsky created the “5% solution,” which stipulated that brands devote 5% of media budgets to cable. 5% is enough of allocation to generate meaningful impact. Semsky was prescient. His brands hugely benefited from taking an early, bold, and strong position in a growing new medium, a lesson for the marketers of today when it comes to podcasts. 
content, providing an accurate assessment of the audience’s attentiveness and engagement.” Some of the key findings include: 1) Despite lacking “sight, sound, and motion,” AM/FM radio programming was +13% more engaging than Mediaprobe’s norm for television in the U.S. For advertisers, this means the AM/FM radio context for their ads has greater engagement than the TV context; 2) Overall, AM/FM radio advertising’s Emotional Impact Score (EIS) outperformed TV advertising by +12%. These new findings validate the recently released Dentsu/Lumen study, which revealed audio ads outperform video for attention and brand recall; 3) AM/FM radio news was the most impactful genre, consistently measuring as a high-quality contextual environment for advertising (+14% greater than Mediaprobe TV News norms and +8% than total AM/FM radio); 4) Mediaprobe audio benchmarks reveal the sound contrast between AM/FM radio programming and the ads drives higher attention and brand recall. For example, ads with music and jingles perform very well in spoken word programming due to the contrast; and 5) Creative best practices: Use female voiceovers, jingles, and include five brand mentions. 
dramatically understate AM/FM radio’s shares; 2) AM/FM radio represents the dominant ad-supported audio platform with a 68% overall share and a massive 86% in-car share; 3) In a typical day in America, 95% of Americans never listen to ad-supported Spotify. 94% never listen to ad-supported Pandora; 4) Podcasts’ audience soars. At a 20% share of ad-supported audio, podcasts now represent one out of every five minutes of U.S. ad-supported audio; 5) Among registered voters, AM/FM radio leads in ad-supported audience share (68%) followed by podcasts (21%); 6) After a pandemic lull, the proportion of AM/FM radio listening occurring in-car roars back; and 7) Powered by podcasts, spoken word is on a tear: 40% of all time with ad-supported audio goes to spoken word, up from 27% pre-pandemic. 
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. 
back episodes published before they subscribed. Since many if not most of those were never listened to, the data about listening habits was inaccurate. As the blog notes, podcasts that publish frequently will be most affected. “This is a crucial reset for the podcast industry, a much-needed rightsizing of audience data. This is a defining moment advertisers and podcast creators should both welcome. As hosts look at their downloads and reach for the Advil, they should know Apple is putting the podcast industry on the road to more accurate data. Better audience data inspires more confidence among advertisers and agencies.” Another new feature in iOS 17 is that users who haven’t listened to five downloaded episodes over the past two weeks will stop getting automatically downloaded podcasts. 
more ads that communicate dry features/benefits. Additionally, research indicates that converting existing demand and creating future demand require different creative/copy approaches and different media strategies. Converting existing demand is most efficiently achieved by tightly targeting those “in the market” with rational messaging of product and price information that persuades them to choose the advertiser’s product over others. Creating future demand is most efficiently achieved by targeting very broad audiences of “all category buyers” with emotional messaging that is designed to stand out and be enjoyed by consumers, creating positive memories of the brand that will influence future purchase decisions. Finally, podcast consumers are invested in the success of their favorite shows. Half of weekly podcasts consumers said they wouldn’t mind a couple of extra ads per show so their favorite podcasts could continue. 
from the study include: 1) the proportion of AM/FM radio in-car listening rose 9% year-over-year and is on par with pre-pandemic levels of listening; 2) spoken-word content listening is at an eight-year high with 39% of ad-supported listening (including AM/FM, streaming and podcasts) devoted to news/talk, talk, and sports; and 3) looking at Persons 25-54, the share of ad-supported audio time spent with personalities/talk shows has increased the most – from 11% of ad-supported listening in Q4 2016 to 19.4% in Q3 of 2023.