Radio’s full effect ‘excluded’ by short-term attribution models

The majority of radio advertising’s effect on performance campaigns is missed in typical short-term attribution models, new research has found.

Radiocentre, the industry body for commercial radio, and research agency Colourtext applied regression modelling techniques to 1.6bn multimedia impacts on 30m web sessions from in-market campaigns to isolate radio’s effects within the performance media mix.

The study, Radio: The Performance Multiplier, found that only 8% of a radio spot’s “full effect” was delivered in the 20 minutes after transmission.

This meant 92% of radio’s effect was “excluded” by standard short-term attribution approaches, with econometric modelling revealing that it takes 19 hours for the full effects to be realised.

Another finding was that radio advertising boosted daily web sessions by 9% — this is twice as cost-efficient as other demand-generation media combined.

Furthermore, case studies showed that reallocating existing budgets to radio can “turbocharge” overall campaign performance and boost organic search, paid search and paid social at no extra cost.

Use radio to ‘punch through’

Presenting a preview of the research at The Future of Audio and Entertainment last month, Radiocentre planning director Mark Barber said it showed that measurement, not radio, was “underperforming”.

When radio’s full impact is “accurately captured”, he noted, it is proven to be a “highly effective” contribution to performance-based campaigns.

Barber added that the research would help brands understand the attribution challenge and realise “the true potential” of adding radio into performance campaigns.

He continued: “With the dreaded performance plateau becoming increasingly endemic in marketing these days, the findings also offer brands powerful advice on how they could be using radio to punch through the plateau and achieve sustainable growth.”