Reallocating search and social budget into audio could add £1m to profit, Radiocentre research finds
Brands could generate an additional £1m in full-term profit by shifting a portion of their search or social advertising budgets into audio, without increasing overall media spend, according to the latest research from Radiocentre.
The research, Sound Profits, which was presented for the first time at Radiocentre’s Tuning In conference earlier today, uses modelling from WPP Media to examine the effect of reallocating existing Generic PPC and Paid Social budgets into audio.
The brands included in the research had an average annual media budget of £12.7m. The analysis found that moving 15% of Generic PPC spend into audio could generate an additional £1m in full-term profit, while a 20% shift from Paid Social into audio could produce the same £1m increase.
The modelling also found that reallocating 10% of Generic PPC spend into audio increased full-term profit ROI by 8%, while moving 20% increased it by 16%. For Paid Social, moving 10% of spend in audio increases full-term profit ROI by 11%, while moving 20% increases it by 21%.
The analysis is based on annual response curves from the Profit Ability 2 dataset, which covers £1.8bn in media spend across 141 brands and 14 sectors. Total budgets were held constant in each scenario, with investment shifted from either Generic PPC or Paid Social into audio while spending in other channels remained unchanged.
Radiocentre said the research was intended to examine where additional audio investment could come from, rather than assuming brands would increase their overall advertising budgets.
Donna Burns, head of insight at Radiocentre, said: “While the case for audio’s contribution to ROI is well established, a key question remains: where should the investment come from to deliver the greatest incremental impact?
“With search and social commanding 70% of UK ad spend, testing the effects of shifting a portion of those budgets into audio provided a compelling opportunity.”
The research also examined why audio could improve the performance of digital channels. Radiocentre and research agency Differentology surveyed 6,000 UK adults and found that consumers can be reluctant to click online advertising when they do not recognise or trust the brand.
Burns, who presented the findings at Tuning In, noted that 36% of respondents are unwilling to click paid-for links in search results, while 38% said the same about social ads, with the figure higher among older users.
According to the research, exposure to audio can help build familiarity, trust and credibility, potentially making consumers more confident about clicking on social ads or paid-for search links.
Radiocentre describes this as a “priming effect”, with audio acting as a catalyst for search and social activity rather than simply competing with those channels for budget.
The findings build on Radiocentre’s previous High Gain Audio research, which found that allocating 25% of campaign spend to audio could increase total campaign ROI by 9.1%. That study also compared audio’s impact on profit with pure-play digital channels, including search and social.
Burns added: “The findings from Sound Profits show that better results don’t necessarily require bigger budgets. By reallocating a small share of search and social spend to audio, brands can unlock significant profit growth at no extra cost.”
At Tuning In, Burns said Radiocentre would extend the analysis to smaller-spending brands, with the full findings due to be revealed in a webinar in November.
She concluded that these “relatively low-risk shifts to digital budgets” can really make a difference for brands.